Friday, October 05, 2012

FiveMinuteFriday: Welcome

As I began participating in the 31days blog challenge with thenester (and good friends Elisa and Spring), I weighed my commitment to TopTenTuesdays and FiveMinuteFridays. I decided that it would be a fun challenge (and maybe a disaster that I could laugh about) to do both as part of the 31 day blog challenge. 
TopTenTuesday didn't concern me so much. Lists fit right into my topic of getting ready for Christmas. But what kind of word with Lisa-Jo Baker come up with and how would it work for my topic.... I had no control over that. But the thought of making it work gave me a kind of thrill. 

The #fiveminutefriday word this week wasn't nearly as impossible as I had thought it could be. (Thanks LJB.)

Here are my five minutes on "Welcome" and "Preparing for Christmas"

The door opens and the cold air gushes in along with people. People bringing food and gifts. Hours have been spent cleaning our house, decorating our house, and baking. The seasonal candle smells waft through and fireplace is on. A perfect holiday picture.

Unless you look at my heart. Which is tired. Overwhelmed. Still counting the things I need to do before the kids wake up tomorrow. Unless you have heard the arguments about family expectations between Marc and me.

But we clean up well. And say welcome. But not really. 
Insert a new plan. A 31day kind of plan. So that all those preparations and conversations won't happen in the heat of an already busy season. So that my heart will be the picture above – of openness, preparedness, and warmth.

I will say Welcome to Whomever comes to my door this year. I will have time to bask in welcoming Baby Jesus. And to hear Jesus say "Welcome" to me.
 

3 comments:

. . .all for the glory of God said...

Thank you for reminding me of the Christmas season. We had our Christmas a few weeks ago when our second granddaughter was born. And we are filled with the love, excitement and anticipation of welcoming her into our world. You remind me that in order to welcome her and our friends this Christmas we need to do lots of preparation. It makes me think of the Christmas story and all the preparations God had to make to welcome His Son into the world. Thank you for posting.

. . .all for the glory of God said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Brenda said...

I loved this. Living "opened and prepared"--what a beautiful way to describe welcome. Thanks for sharing.