His Grace, His Gift

Have you ever had one of those days where you wish you could just start over? Well, that's how my morning was going today. They were just little things, but the little things added up, and when my sweet girl went down for her nap I seriously contemplated napping too, in hopes to wake up and start over.

My cup literally runneth over ... pun intended! I spilled coffee everywhere ... my dogs tracked dirt through the house ... I tried to do laundry without realizing we are out of detergent (and when I do laundry, I start the water, throw everything in, and then pour in detergent - so needless to say everything was soaked before I realized we were out). Little things, I know, but to top it off our plans to get our Christmas tree this morning were halted by the rain. Which really meant that the dirt the dogs tracked in was mud! We had a great time visiting family in VA for Thanksgiving, so this was the first chance to get our tree and I was really looking forward to it. I just LOVE decorating for Christmas and we usually start with the tree so I was really disappointed when our plans to get it today fell through.

I decided to not take that nap but to go to God's word in hopes to improve my attitude and my spirits. I spent some time reading and praying (specific prayers for some of you) and came across this verse. "For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace" (John 1:26). It made me realize that we have many opportunities to start over with the Lord ... that He gives us grace upon grace, he lets us start over and over and over again. He forgives our spills, when we track mud all over His house, and he cleans us time after time. I then realized that my focus was on the wrong Christmas decorations. We have this amazing grace because of the birth of God's son, because of the gift of Jesus. So, the tree can wait. I decided to pull out my favorite decoration - my Willow Tree nativity - and I thanked God for His son. I'm thankful for this morning, for all of the little things that happened, because without it my focus would be in the wrong place. I've decided that from now on, this nativity will always be the first decoration we put out at our house. Because it's really not a decoration at all - it's the "reason for the season". Of course I will still love every second of picking out and decorating our tree with my family, but  I'm going to do my best to keep the nativity as the focal point in our house, instead of the tree, so that our focus will stay on Jesus.

Here is a pic ... I'm obsessed with burlap these days (and mason jars) so I'm going to try to incorporate them into my decorating. We are doing Christmas on a tight budget this year, so instead of buying any new decorations  I'm attempting to re-purpose and reuse all that we already have.

And for the little one ... we have the "Fisher Price Little People Nativity". It sure does warm my heart to see my precious baby playing with His baby!

Thanks for reading friends ... May Your Cup Runneth Over! (And I don't mean your coffee cup :)