Loving My Actual Christmas: An Advent Devotional By Alexandra KuykendallSýnishorn

Advent Week Four: Peace

It’s usually the week before Christmas when I give in and decide I’m in survival mode. I’m going to need to blow the budget, to not sleep, and to eat cookies for dinner because I have to power through. 

But I’m determined to end this kind of thinking. To right-size my expectations, live in the circumstances in front of me, and fully embrace peace.

Peace is a sense of calm, harmony, and a freedom from war. When I’m up until midnight on Christmas Eve frantically wrapping gifts, I must remember that a sense of calm, harmony, and freedom from war is my aim. I can’t resign myself to be stressed and also live in peace. The two paths are mutually exclusive. 

There will always be more bows to tie, more cleaning and cooking and decorating that could be done. If I don’t add some intentionality here, the monster that is the Christmas to-do list will take over and I will buckle under its pressure. 

Scheduling, taking care of my (and my family’s) physical needs, and eliminating responsibilities that add to my stress are all practical ways I can add peace to this season. I also remember to be grateful for the literal peace in my community and home and to be mindful of those around me who are searching for internal and external peace. Then I can ask, How can I work to be more of a peacemaker in my immediate circle and the larger world?

I come to the 25th with an intensified thirst for the Prince of Peace to reign in my life. But nothing settles this frenzied Christmas heart like remembering the story. The setting, the characters, the plot and its twists. When I do, my own Christmas story, the one I’m living out in real time, has a different purpose. The written word, music, sight and sound, color and texture all come together to make this tale more alive and real. It’s when I’m placed in the middle of this scene that the world makes a little more sense. My soul recalibrates, and I’m able to face the current chaos that is my life, my heart, and my world—even as I know the Prince of Peace more deeply.

What adds to your stress the last week before Christmas? What’s one thing you could do to replace that stress with a greater sense of peace?