START HERE: Preparing for the Holidays
When I considered the most helpful way to encourage you as we head into the holiday season, the same idea came to mind over and over again. It's been nearly 3 or 4 months now.
So today, it's time to share.
Many of you who support Grace & Cherish may have come for the interior design but I've often heard you say that you stayed because the conversation is a bit bigger than solely interior design. We're about hospitality. We're about being formed in the way of Jesus. We're about loving others, creating beauty and seeing how God may reveal His glory and goodness in it all. Imperfectly as we may be on this journey, we are still moving onward in hope.
And as people of hope, I feel this specific idea is perfect, because it requires faith that rests not on our own understanding but solely in the hope of Christ our Savior. Below is a document I created to encourage us all in prayer these next 7 weeks, with this week as week 1 and the week of Thanksgiving being week 7. To be people of hospitality, we must be people of prayer. The commercialization of the holiday season and the frantic pace of our society (evident throughout all 365 days of the year) keeps us distracted. Year after year, the rich relational opportunities, with God, ourselves and others available throughout this unique time of year, is oftentimes lost because of the hurried and distracted pace at which we move.
So what if, as we prepare to travel or host, to purchase or make gifts, to see loved ones or mourn those lost, to serve during special holiday services or participate in the school and work holiday parties, what if we pray into this season, seeking the Holy Spirit to guide us in our interactions?
Here is the Preparation Prayer guide, or Prayer Preparation, that probably sounds better. Whatever you want to call it, here it is. The goal is simple: Encourage and equip you in the practice of praying for not simply the holiday season but everything that surrounds it. The people you will encounter, whether family, friends, neighbors and/or strangers. For the interactions themselves to be Spirit-led. For opportunities to share and show the Gospel to those around you. For eyes to be opened to how God may be inviting you to partner with Him to bring His Kingdom all the more near to someone He specifically places before you. I pray we be filled with love and service, with joy and generosity. I pray that we are people who embody hospitality, in our homes and outside of them.
Whether you follow the document I created doesn't really matter to me. It's merely a guide to help you, but my main goal is to invite you to pray thoughtfully and intentionally as we enter into this season.
The reality is the holidays can be incredibly joyous and also deeply painful. Not to mention, it's election season, which means there may be even more divided families sitting - or not - at tables together. When I consider all the relational struggles, the distractedness, the anxieties, the addictions, infighting, and so many other issues that hinder our coming together both in the Christian world and not, I begin to feel despair. But that is why I feel such an urge to pray. Lament the woes. Confess our own sins and ways we too may have contributed. And then let's turn our attention to the only One with the power to make right what is broken - because He already has through the Cross. My hope is to enter this season remembering the Banquet Table that all who call upon Jesus as Lord will one day feast at. May our presence at our various tables over these next few months reflect in some part the presence we'll one day have when we feast with our King. Oh how glorious.
Onward in hope,
Alexa
P.S. For more on this, each week I'll share a blog post going a little deeper on each prayer point.
