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ARTICLE
UNCLENCHING CHRISTMAS - DECEMBER 2025
It’s Christmas week. This is the week when everything in us wants to speed up, not slow down. There is definitely more rushing and more doing. But I want to challenge you in this final countdown to Christmas to try, at least for a few minutes a day, to slow down, to breathe deeply, to sit and listen and allow Jesus to speak to you and to let His peace guard your hearts and minds.
I recently received an article about the Advent season that spoke of this very thing. Now I have never observed the Advent season specifically nor do I go to a church that does. But the article spoke directly to my spirit as I was allowing myself to get a little stressed, actually more than a little stressed, over my growing “to do” list of things that needed to be accomplished before our celebration with our large family would begin. And this year seems to be more stressful than usual.
We have been displaced from our home for 2 ½ months while repairs were being done from a tree that fell on our roof in September of last year. After much back-and-forth deliberation between the adjuster and the insurance company, reconstruction finally began in October of this year. Yep, you read that right – more than a year later. The repairs forced us out of our home and now, just days before Christmas, we are hoping to move back in. So much to be put back into place as the entire back of our house had to be moved out or into the front rooms of our house. And now, no gifts wrapped, no decorations up, none of our traditional foods prepared and kids hoping to come as usual to our small house, they call home, for our usual time together. None of these things do I HAVE to do, but are all things I enjoy doing and look forward to each Christmas.
Knowing the detrimental effects stress can have on the health of your body, physically, mentally and of course spiritually, I was determined to not let it get the best of me and just try to take things one day at a time.
I am not even sure how I came across this article or post as I do not follow the author but I know that it was the Holy Spirit that caused me to pause to read it.
It was titled "12 Questions to Ask These Last 12 Days" by Kerstin-Linquist. A nationally known, Emmy award winning Journalist. Again I am not sure how it came across my path as I do not follow her or subscribe to her newsletter – at least not until now.
The article was about advent, but described everything I was feeling during the last few days before Christmas.
The need to speed up, not slow down. To rush to do what needed to be done.
But Advent she explained is about more. Its about waiting, watching, and welcoming the Presence of God with a still and surrendered heart. It’s about the darkest days of the year and allowing that darkness to push us to those parts of our life where we might have been hiding from the Lord. To allow this darkness to be filled with the LIGHT and that light being Jesus.
So she invited her readers as I want to invite you today, instead of adding to your to do list, to slow down, to breathe, to listen and to just sit with Jesus.
She then listed 12 questions and how to use them over the next 12 days. I realize we do not have 12 days left before Christmas but the questions and her invitation are too good not to share. And in reality, are perfect to contemplate any time of the year.
To get the questions and to read the full article by Kerstin Linquist you can follow the link below or you can listen as I share on Sue’s Healthy Minutes podcast, episode 201, Unclenching Christmas.
https://www.kerstin-lindquist.com/post/the-last-12-days
As I prepared this article and podcast episode, I could not help but think of the story of Mary and Martha from Luke chapter 10. Mary chose to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen while Martha hustled around being overly concerned about serving. Luke 10:40 states that Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. Does this sound a little too familiar with our feelings at the moment? For me – yes.
But Jesus doesn’t rebuke Martha’s desire to serve. He simply says, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things but few things are needed or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away.”
So today, if you are like me, you may be feeling a bit more like Martha, but the invitation to chose like Mary, to sit and listen at the feet of Jesus at least for a few quiet moments is what is better and cannot be taken away.
So today I choose like Mary – to be still and listen, if only for a few minutes, before I put my Martha shoes on.
Remember you can hear this complete message on Sue’s Healthy Minutes podcast, episode 201, "Unclenching Christmas".
May you and your family enjoy the peace and love of our Savior Jesus Christ as we celebrate the Light of the World.
Merry Christmas from Sue and all of us here at Bread Beckers.
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