december 10th

In the Advent Calendar Today:

"Read the Advent Devotion and then look for an opportunity to show kindness or appreciation for someone throughout your day."

We had a packed morning beginning with a swim meet and everyone was moving in different directions the rest of the day. Today's advent mission had to be something the kids could do on their own.

I read the devotion on my iphone during some of the down time at the meet.

"Peace. One definition of peace is “normal.” It is the state that is without war and without violence. I am not sure I would claim it as normal. I look around and what I normally see is stress, anxiety, worry, and chaos. People running from one activity to the next, working on a paper and project, and studying for a test — this seems to be normal...

Can we decide that our new normal is PEACE?"

~Michelle Thomas-Bush

All I had to do was look around the giant middle school event and see the stress, anxiety, worry and chaos that surrounded me. As well as courage, excitement and the thrill of the competition. We watched friends and family cheer on the winners and celebrate the last guy to complete his laps. In the midst of all that chaos there was a sweet sweet spirit.

As my son climbed out of the water of his last race, he found out that he had been disqualified for not touching the side with both hands. We said we were really proud of him anyway. Even though he was bummed, he was also relieved to be warm and to be done, so we quickly walked out to the car to move on with our full day.

When we were driving I started thinking about the Advent Mission: to show someone kindness. I asked B if he had a chance to do that at the meet. He said he cheered on his friends but he didn't say or do anything thinking about who needed kindness.

I asked him what he would think about offering himself kindness for being disqualified.

He thought that was a great idea.

Our own anxious hearts are desperate for kindness.

Today, let us see our anxiety, worry, chaos, and stress as exhausted, confused, and overwhelmed parts of us.

Give yourselves the same kindness and aprecitation that you would give to someone else who was working so hard on your behalf. Especially during the Holidays!