Advent is here. A time of preparation for our hearts and minds. A time of rest for our souls as we prepare to celebrate the birth of a savior-God’s greatest gift to humanity. As my family and I continue to put up Christmas decorations, preparing our home for Christmas, I have a word that keeps coming back to me, a word that I hope to honor and exemplify this season. Simple.

I would like a simple Christmas season. Simple-like Jesus being born in a barn kind of simple. Nothing flashy and eccentric. No over the top gifts. No huge clean up. No clutter. No gift buying to just make numbers equal. Just simple.

As adults we have such a tendency to complicate things. I overthink or rethink all the time. We make plans and change plans. We complicate relationships with baggage, words communicated wrong or badly, we hurt one another’s feelings because we are in a rush, have wrong expectations of others etc. We get selfish, self-centered, self-focused, thinking that everything needs to fit into a perfect little mold of what the world would have something look like.

Sometimes I forget that I don’t want to live like the world because the world is so in my face all of the time. I need to remember that and stay strong. Christmas seems like an excellent time for me and my family to start.

So this week, I am starting with simple. I am choosing time well spent over time wasted. I am choosing kind words, a gentle tone, and relationships. I am working on an uncluttered home in order to get some time back to the more important and simple things of life-faith, family, and friends.

Here are the lyrics to one of my favorite Jim Brickman songs… Simple Things

Hey, time won’t wait
Life goes by
Every day’s a brand new sky
Every tear
Comes to dry
All that really matters in this crazy world
Is you and I together, baby
Just rememberThe first leaves off the tree
The way you look at me
A thousand chiming church bells ring
The simple things are free
The sun, the moon, the stars
The beating of two hearts
How I love the simple things
The simple things just areSo here we go
Let’s just dance
Teach my soul to take this chance
Put my heart
In your hands
Out of all the moments that we leave behind
Turn around and tell me baby
We’ll rememberThe thunder and the rain
The way you say my name
After all the clouds go by
The simple things remain
The sun, the moon, the stars
The beating of two hearts
How I love the simple things
The simple things just areOh, the ocean and the sky
The way we feel tonight
I know that it’s the love that brings
The simple things to lifeThe sun, the moon, the stars
The beating of two hearts
I love the way the simple things
The simple things just areI love the way the simple things
The simple things just are
The simple things just are
The simple things
Just are

Advertisement