A Focused Break

I remember the way that I thought while I was in college as Christmas break approached. The stress still lingering from finals, I was ready for a much-needed and much-deserved (at least I thought it was a much-deserved) break from it all!

Once I turned in my last final, my brain said, "I am done! No more. It's over!" My body followed as did (even with the greatest of intentions to avoid it) my spiritual walk! Break in and break out I resolved to read through a book of the Bible, write in my journal every day, meditate on my life in silence, pray for longer periods of time, or some other kind of "super spiritual" thing!

What ended up happening, more often, was sitting on the couch at home, wasting time on the computer, watching TV and movies, hanging out with friends, doing the Christmas thing, and whatever "worthy" thing came along. Basically, I had no plan except to take whatever came.

Well, I still fight those tendencies (see this blog post from 2006 before Thanksgiving) even though there is now much less Christmas break for me. It is mainly filled with traveling here, there, and yonder. While it is still awesome to see family and catch up a little bit, we are on the go with an agenda determined by others. We have this party, that party, another gathering, and more travel between two families.

What can I do to stay focused?

I'm glad you asked because I want to help myself and others who struggle with breaks like I do. Each day, beginning tomorrow, I will be posting a brief, little biblical thought for the day to keep us focused on Jesus. Most likely, these posts will be nothing earth-shattering, mind-blowing, and hair-reducing. They will be simple, straightforward posts designed to help us stay focused on the way of Christ in the midst of the craziness that follows Christmas!

If you want to go on this journey with me, you can subscribe to these posts via email or just check back each day. You could bookmark the tag, Christmas Break Exercise, to see all of these posts at once too!

I pray that this is a blessing to you.