For some, Christmas is the hardest time of year. For some, Christmas is a reminder of loss as they try to get through the holiday season without their loved ones. For some, Christmas is a gigantic pressure to make sure they can still make ends meet while making sure they've gotten gifts for everyone on their list. Bank accounts and pockets just dollars away from despair. People wondering how they will pay their heating bill and still give their kids the best Christmas possible.
For many, Christmas time is a reminder of the blessings received throughout the year and the ones promised in the next year to come. For others, it is wondering where their next meal is coming from while trying to find the warmest spot in the park to spend a below freezing night.
It is hard to remain as holly jolly as the carols tell us we are supposed to be. It is hard to not feel guilty when you are leaving the mall with bags in hand and you see a ragged man on the side of the freeway with tattered clothes, torn gloves and a damp cardboard sign with all of his belongings in a backpack asking for anything you can spare. It is hard to feel like you deserve your blessings when you hear on the news of the drunk driver that kills a child's parents just days before Christmas. It is hard to feel that joy when there are kids who won't be getting anything for Christmas, anything for dinner or even living to see the new year.
We all work and earn the blessings we receive, but it is hard to feel like we are worthy of them when we see those that aren't as fortunate. It's hard when your desire to help them is so strong, but you yourself are working hard and living pay check to pay check to provide for yourself or your family or both.
Christmas is hard, but Christmas is also so happy. It is hard for the families that aren't able to spend Christmas together. For the ones over seas, the ones with angels watching over them, the ones with broken families. It is hard to feel jolly when deep down below the egg nog and gingerbread cookies, you feel lost and dark and like you don't deserve what you have. Though, it is so happy when you realize how blessed you are to live to see another Christmas. To have a warm house to come home to, a Christmas ham on the table and presents under the tree. It is hard to feel the guilt of having so much when some people have so little.
For those dealing with depression and anxiety during this holiday season, the pressure to feel jolly can almost feel unbearable. It can be hard to have the motivation to get out of bed and put on a smiling face. To head to your job where stressed out people are trying to make ends meet for another holiday season and let it rub off on you. It is hard to imagine what trials and tribulations another year might bring you.
For those showered in blessings this holiday season, take the time to think about what other's who aren't as blessed might feel. As you leave the grocery store with bags full of staples for your Christmas feast, share some with the man on the side of the freeway. As you pass around gifts to all your family members, take a moment to pray for those who don't get to be with their family. As you smile and laugh through the ice skating, sledding and caroling, think of those you struggle to be as happy as you.
It can be easy to get wrapped up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, but please remember those out there who are not as fortunate as you are this Christmas. Keep those in your mind, you thoughts and your prayers who don't find Christmas as jolly as you do. Don't think of all the presents you will unwrap come Christmas morning, think about the gift that you have a winter coat, a bed to sleep in and a happy heart. That is what Christmas is all about.
I hope everyone has a merry and blessed Christmas and that 2017 is full of more blessings than you know. Everyone deserves blessings. Even if Christmas isn't so jolly for you this year, happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if one simply remembers to turn the light on.
-XO Sydney Lauren
No comments:
Post a Comment