Disclaimer: Opinion…there’s no such thing

Oh I have posted the “perfect picture” of holiday meals, families and idyllic scenes on social media. You know, the one in which you had to take at least twelve times to get a decent one out of the bunch; all the while enduring the complaints of every male in the picture? At least in my world this is the case.

My expectations of that “perfect holiday” have run rampant for years. I have always been a romantic and imagined how holidays could be just like those holiday cards. And they have never been bad, I just have set my expectations too high.

But what about that wife whose husband will not be there for the first time to carve the turkey because of an untimely death? How about the kiddos who will have to split their time between parents as each parent rails the other one to the kids?

What about the parent whose child has just been diagnosed with a horrible disease and will be eating in the hospital with the family rather than the huge meal that was planned? 

Who can forget the cousins or siblings that don’t see each other except on the holidays and have nothing in common but their bloodline? And what about the young parents who have two little boys with the stomach bug?

Then there are the grown kids that are not coming home for one reason or another. Some people feel more alone on holidays than they do any other day of the year. 

And turkeys. I mean really? Setting an alarm to put a very large bird in an oven for 4-6 hours? Yes, the baking bag helps….but it is a chore. If it wasn’t we would cook them more than once or twice a year!

So….I after some 50+ years I have decided….NO EXPECTATIONS=NO DISAPPOINTMENTS.

But the one thing I know for sure…without fail…no questions asked….ever…..is…

JESUS.

He is with you…every single moment….of every single day…and on every single holiday too.

When a child has been diagnosed with a horrible disease, when the husband has died and missing for the first holiday, when adult children are not present, when the person feels alone….Even when getting up early to put the bird in the oven!

 He will never leave nor forsake you.

HE is the perfect one.

~Be Encouraged Today~