Managing Business in a Busy Season

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey there. You're listening to Rooted at Home with Christian Lloyd, kids pastor at Edmonds First Baptist Church, diving into real life topics that impact kids, parents and families today and discovering what God's word has to say about them. [00:00:14] Speaker B: Well, hey everyone and welcome back to Rooted Home, where we talk about faith, family and everything in between. And I'm excited for us to finally get back together again after a holiday a We just recently celebrated Thanksgiving. Hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving with your families and friends and enjoyed way too much food and turkey and all the other fun things. Although I will say I'm not a big fan of turkey. Turkey has never been one of my favorite things. Honestly, I don't know that if it's anybody's favorite thing. So if it is, you'll have to let me know sometime if you're listening and shoot me a text or something, let me know. But turkey and cranberry sauce are probably the grossest things you could have at Thanksgiving. This year I smoked ribs, which was pretty delicious. But and of course the best thing being deviled eggs. You got to have some deviled eggs. That's just, that's a classic. Well, we now that we're through Thanksgiving, we have another holiday that is coming upon us really quickly. If you don't know, it is December. I know the year has gone past super fast and we are looking forward to Christmas now. And so I'm excited to get to celebrate Christmas, of course, with my family and celebrate the true reason of the season, as we like to say that Jesus and his birth, without his birth, we would not have forgiveness of our sin. And so I'm very thankful that we were able to enjoy this time together as a family and as a church family to celebrate these things. So today I really wanted us to take a look at something that happens very easily and most other holidays, but especially around this time for some reason. And that would be busyness. We're going to look at how we can keep Jesus at the center of our life during this busy season, during the Christmas season, because it's so, so easy. I think you'll know what I'm talking about. Parents. It's so, so easy for us to just get in the hustle and bustle of man. We've got holiday parties which are really Christmas parties, but you know, you can't say that now at schools you got holiday parties and you've got other activities and you've got your kids final sports and activities and things and you've got your work Christmas party and your spouse's work Christmas party, and then you've got the kids Christmas parties and you've got friends and family. It just becomes a very busy, busy time. And I think it's important for us to always take a step back and remember and not just say, we remember. It's very easy for us to say, oh, Jesus is the reason for the season. Jesus is the whole reason we have Christmas. It's easy for us to say that. But do you really, really, truly in your heart of hearts know that? Do you really, really take the time to thank Christ for what he did for us being born and then ultimately dying on the cross for our sin? I know it's. It can be really easy for me to just kind of get lost in the busyness of things. And so we're going to talk about just a little, just a few things, and this episode should be relatively short. And then just so you know, we've got a few other great topics that we're going to look at. We're going to look at Santa. Yeah, that's right. We're going to. We're going to go there. We're going to look at Santa Claus and what that looks like as believers. And again, we're just going to have a chat. We're just going to talk about it and feel free to send me your opinions and things and thoughts whenever that episode is. And then we're also going to look at for 2026, making a family faith board. So I know we've done. I know some people do vision boards and things like that of what they'd like to have, but taking the time to make a family vision board. I saw this idea, um, and as soon as I saw it, I was intrigued by it. Cause I've. I've never done one before. And so I think this is an awesome idea that we can talk about that has. What. What do we want our families to look at, to look like for 2026? How do we want to grow in our faith from the youngest child to the oldest person in the house? How. How do we want our faith to grow? And so I think that's. That's just going to be awesome. Then we're also going to look at a final topic here that's going to be in the pipeline is scripture memory and some activities that we can do as a family to help memorize scripture. Because I know for me personally, at least, I have the memory of a goldfish. And so memorization is not a good thing for me. Uh, just, I. I forget what I have for breakfast sometimes on the same day. So these are just some activities and things that we can do as families to help not only our children, of course, cuz we're called to raise them up and the Word and how God's commanded us to, but also for ourselves. And so. But for today, let's take a look at these, take a look at this topic. You know, how can we keep Jesus the center of attention when it comes to Christmas time? So I've got a few points to look at. In Luke, chapter two, verse 19, Luke tells us, says that Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. Talking about Christmas, you know, Christmas, it's an opportunity for us to take a breath, to slow down and just reflect on Jesus being born. It's so easy for us to not just take a moment during the holidays to rest. And I don't mean necessarily resting by taking a nap, although that is definitely an option. You gotta have your naps, but I mean taking a moment just to rest and enjoy the gift that God has given us. Uh, just taking maybe during the week, taking some small moments. I know, I don't know how you guys do your quiet times. I don't know if you do it in the mornings or if you do it in the afternoons, evenings before bed, I don't know. Um, I would definitely encourage doing your quiet time in the morning, even if it's just a few minutes of getting in the Word or even just spending time in prayer, contemplating scripture and thanking the Lord and offering him, um, just thanks and gratitude for another day. The starting your day that way is a phenomenal practice. You can really tell the difference. Um, there's some apps out there, one that is a pretty good one, I will say. I don't do their praise music because their praise music on there, um, they use Hillsong for some of their songs and I don't really like that. But the. It's called First 15 and it's the first 15 minutes of your day. Um, an app that you can do and they do daily devotionals and it has five minutes of devotional time, five minutes of guided prayer time, and then normally five minutes of worship. Or you can do deeper reading, which is what I usually do, or just do my own worship in the car because I mean, you got a jam to something on the car and I am very much tired of hearing golden. And so I'm jamming in the car and worshiping is great. And so taking some small time, some quick quiet moments just to reflect on what God has done a great way to do that even as a family is to do the Advent start. It's not too late to start. In fact, my family hasn't started, but we're going to start. And so depending on when this is aired, I can tell you we are definitely going to start. It's December 3rd right now, but I'm looking like I'll hopefully get us started tomorrow and we'll catch up to where we're at. But taking some time as a family just to contemplate the Lord and do an Advent is just one easy way for you just to keep Jesus as the reason of the season. The kids are going to see Christmas trees, they're going to see decorations and lights and all these other great things, things that I think are awesome and great ways that you can have fun and fellowship together as a family. However, we need to remember that the reason the season isn't for the Christmas tea. You don't Christmas tree, you don't need a take time to pond ponder over the Christmas tree or you don't need to go take time to look at Christmas lights and be, oh, let me think exactly about these lights. That's not what you do. But Jesus, you do spend time and you should spend time thinking about him. Another great way, this one is hard, especially if you have younger kids, but it was an idea and that was to, to take time and to read God's word or reflect on him by candlelight. And I think that's an awesome idea. Um, if you don't have like a two year old running around your house. Because I tell you, the moment I light one of those candles, my two year old would be all over the thing. Uh, but it's kind of a neat idea, especially maybe if you wanted to do a family devotional time where you all got together and maybe read Advent and kind of turn the lights down and set the atmosphere, if you will. Um, there's something to be said about just kind of having dim light and um, really taking time to calm yourself a little bit and reflect on Christ. Um, and then of course, another great way too is to just. I know some of y' all may hate Christmas music, but there's some really good Christmas worship music that's out there. And so just take some time to slow down and worship the Lord as you're getting ready for work or worship the Lord as you're decorating your house for Christmas or as you're putting your Christmas tree up and those things. I know there's some awesome classics out There songs that you can listen to. But, uh, at least maybe throw in some Christmas Christmas music that's worshipful and honoring the Lord instead of just listening to Frosty the Snowman for the thousandth time. Um, so that's just one way you really have to make sure that you slow down and you remember the reason for the season and you notice and remember that Jesus is the reason that you're even celebrating Christmas. Um, another point, and this is a really big one, especially for parents that have a calendar. And that would be, is to be careful about using your calendar. That it's. It's a tool. Your calendar is a tool, but it's not your boss calendar's tool, but it's not your boss. And I think obviously your calendar helps keep track of things, but you got to. Sometimes you just got to understand that it's okay to say no. There's something to be said about someone that can just say no to things. I am not one of those people. I am very much a person that likes to say yes and wants to bend over backwards for people and try to help them out as best I can. And a lot of times I can overbook myself on things. And so it's okay to say no. It's okay to, hey, we've got this Christmas thing. We'd love for you to be there. And you just say, you know what? I would love to be there, but I can't. I really need to take some time just to spend time with my family and to rest this Christmas season. And know too that you, you don't have to go all out on this on Christmas things. You don't have to decorate your house to the nines and, you know, bake all these different things. And your house smell like you walked into, like a Christmas store all the time. Yes, those things are great. But you gotta remember too, that you're the reason for the season is Jesus. And you need to take some time to enjoy it and enjoy fellowshiping and worshiping him. One way that you could help, you know, make sure that you are still keeping Jesus, the center of Christmas would be, is that you could do one kind of family activity a week. I think this is a great idea to do one family activity a week where you spend some time, whether that be making decorating Christmas cookies and making Christmas cookies and talking about the Christmas story as you do, whether that be you spend some time together, wrapping a gift of some sort if you have to. Or maybe it's you guys, I don't know that or lot of people Christmas carol much anymore. But maybe it's you guys get together and you sing Christmas carols together and Christmas music together and worship the Lord through that way. Or there's tons of activities. If you go. If you go on Google and you look at Minute to win it games, I know there's a TV show called Minute to win it. I don't know how many years ago that was. I really enjoyed that TV show though. But if you go to Minute to win it and you look up Christmas ideas, there are so many games that you can do as a family that just to spend time together and have fun. There's take opportunities to do that because it's important to not let your calendar control you and to say, oh, well, I've got this on Monday, this on Tuesday, this on Thursday, this on Friday. The next thing you know, it's been a week or even more than a week and you haven't once sat down and just taken time to spend some time with your family during this holiday season. It's very important to do that ultimately so that we can worship and honor the Lord. And then again, making sure too that you leave leave days for rest. It's okay to not have your day completely full. And this is one point that speaks to me definitely a lot because I love going. I am not a sit and do nothing person. Uh, I want to be just going, going, going. Let's. If, if the day's empty, my first tendency is let's fill that thing up. I want to fill it up. Um, whether that's, hey, let's wake up and go to the science museum, let's go to the zoo, let's go look at Christmas lights. Let's. I'm horrible at it. But it's important for us to just take some times to have rest days. I mean, that's biblical. The world was. Everything was created in six days. And then what did Jesus do? He rested. It's biblical. And so take some time just to make sure you're resting and you're not overexerting yourself. That will help your holiday. One, just be less stressful on you. But two, that helps you as a family to be able to worship the Lord together and not just be high strung the whole time thinking about the next. I got to get to the next thing. I got to get to the next thing. So that's really important. Just to take some time off and use your calendar as a tool, not your boss. And then of course, one thing that's just easy. This is an easy thing to do is that turn these normal Christmas activities that you always do into gospel conversations. You don't have to add anything new. You don't have to necessarily come up with this whole devotion plan and this whole sermon and you know, the get the husband up there preaching to the family and you don't have to do that. Simple is easy. Do it simply. You can talk about as you wrap gifts with the family, which again, you have to be careful because you don't want certain family members to see what you're wrapping. But still, you could figure out some ways if you're wrapping gifts for family or friends or things like that. Talk about that. God's gift of salvation. We have gifts that we give others. Well, God gave us the best gift and the biggest gift of all, which is salvation through Christ on the cross. And so take this opportunity just to have small conversations about it. As you are looking at lights and either putting lights up your on your house or even going to different places to look at lights. Talk about how God is. God sent Jesus as the light of the world. Do you? Jesus is the light of the world. He's the one that saves everybody. He's the one that the whole reason we have Christmas and we celebrate is because of Jesus. And so use lights and just talk about how he's the light of the world. And of course an easy one that I don't know about you. It depends on what you have on your tree. Some people use tree toppers that are way off. I saw, they're way different these days. I saw one that was Darth Vader kind of on the top, which I thought was really cool because I'm a nerd and sounds awesome. Um, but if you put a star on the tree, which is fairly normal, that represents the star that led the wise men to Jesus. And so you can talk about that. And then right, boom, you're right into another gospel conversation. Gospel conversations, when you normalize them in your home and you make it where you're not having to reach too far to have those conversations and you're just constantly talking about it. Um, it makes it just easier in the long run for kids to understand and they're saturated by it. We know kids are just, they're just sponges waiting to be. Just soak up anything and everything. Um, I know my daughter, two year old, she is a huge sponge. And I'm in the car and I, I think I've said before the podcast, but driving in the car and is just frustrates me. I get so Frustrated with slow, slow people that are driving slow like 20 miles under the speed limit. And things are me constantly having to stop for people turning left or right or whatever it may be. Um, and sometimes I'll get frustrated and I'll be like, go people. Well, now JC my 2 year old likes to sit back in the car and as soon as we get to a stop by, I mean just as soon as we stop, she's like, go people. And she wants them to go. So she's a sponge and has clearly heard me say that. Uh, in the same way, if we're talking about the gospel and we are truly, truly taking conversation, having conversations consistently and just normalizing talk of the gospel, which we should do anyways, then our kids will soak that up like a sponge. And you'd be surprised the growth that they can have over a short amount of time just by normalizing gospel conversations. And again, eventually as you normalize them, it just happens. Of course we have the Holy Spirit in us and so the Holy Spirit helps guide these conversations. But these things just become natural and it just happens. You look at movies and things. I love looking at movies or watching things and being able to just rattle off some sort of Christian theme or gospel conversation from a movie that you've seen or a TV show or something that has come up. It's. I enjoy it. And so normalizing these gospel conversations just helps you to do that. Another great thing that can help remind us of how God sent Jesus and he came to serve us by dying on the cross is that you can also serve as a family together and not just getting things or not even just giving things. Yes, Christmas time is full of giving presents. That's a part of Christmas time. You wrap presents and you give it to people. But another way you can do that too is uh, maybe bless your neighbor with homemade cookies and add a little Bible verse encouragement or an Advent calendar or something to it and give it to him and talk about the reason for the season. I know that it can be leery sometimes to get food from neighbors, but if you trust your neighbors, then I would encourage you to either go ahead and cook something for him and give it to him and help continue to foster that relationship. If as a family, it would be awesome too that to know that there are a lot of families now that are spending and it may be you that have relatives and, and family members that have passed and so, or the family members that are can't, are older and can't make it to Christmas for whatever reason or things like that or family that is just for one or another can't be there. It'd be great as a family if you wanted to write cards and things like that to family members that can't be there and send them encouragement more. Right. Cards and things to nursing homes. And there's a lot of people that are lonely on Christmas that don't have an opportunity to fellowship and worship the Lord and celebrate Christmas because they are alone. And this is a good opportunity for us as families to serve them and to help encourage them throughout this Christmas season. Of course, then you can donate toys and things together. You see those tiny tot boxes that you can donate things to at Walmart and other places. But donating is a great way. Here at our church we do, we have opportunities where people can buy gift cards for families or even adopt a family. And I know my connection group, which is our groups for Sunday mornings, they are, they've adopted a family and we've just all gone in and said, hey, we'll buy this, we'll buy this, we'll buy that. And we've got the family almost completely taken care of and they're going to get to have an awesome Christmas because we are able to serve another family. And so we got to remember too that we can serve others and help other people to enjoy Christmas. But also know that yes, as we bless other families with gifts and toys, they need to be blessed and pulled with the greatest thing of all, which is Christ and why he was, why he was born, why he came, lived a perfect life, died on the cross and rose from the grave three days later. We can't, you can't be. All these activities I'm not going to say would be pointless because they won't be because they're loving others as Christ has told us to, but not taking the opportunity to then share the gospel or to encourage them in some way, if they are a believer already through God's word, is would be completely remiss if you didn't take that opportunity. It's such an easy opportunity. It's a low, low hanging fruit as we call it. And so those are just some, just some things, just some things that can make Christmas a little more focused on Jesus. I know, like I said, my family, we're going to try to do our Advent and we're going to really try to spend some time together and enjoy this Christmas time without it turning into a complete mess of schedule and busy, just to take some time, slow down and honor the Lord. Just some things that I think that you could think on three different things that I think would be a lot of fun as a family. And so I'm going to ask you guys, and then if you have an opportunity, shoot me a text or post on Facebook or something and let me know if you've done any of these three things that I'm about to tell you because I would love to hear from you. I know we have some people that listen regularly because I get a couple text messages from them, but I'd love to hear from you personally. I've got some recommendations from other people that have said send in some things for me. That way I can potentially talk on those. And so I think that if you do some of these activities, these are, if you answer these questions for me, that would be awesome. So let's see here. One of the first questions I have is what is one thing that you can not add but remove from your schedule? What is something that you can just take away, get rid of it. You don't have to do it. That maybe is a fun thing. Yes, it maybe is this or that. Maybe it's. I feel like it's an obligation or it's one of those. Oh, but we go every year. But do you really have to? So if you can, what's one thing you can remove from your schedule so that you and your family can have time together focusing on the Lord and focusing on the gift that he's given us through Jesus and spending time together as a family? Another one is what's one small habit or activity or thing that you can do that focuses on Jesus? Maybe you don't have any holiday traditions. Maybe you don't have anything like that. Maybe you don't, you just don't do that. Well, now's the time to start. You can start whenever. And so what is one activity or habit or something that you can do regularly that then helps you as a family to remember Jesus as the reason for the season and allows you to fellowship together? And then finally, one thing that I think is something we should really think on, not just even weekly, but almost daily, is who can you bless? Who can you bless this week? Who can you bless this week or next week or on Christmas? Who is it you can bless? Is there someone that you know that's a neighbor that's a shut in that really doesn't get out much, that maybe you can bless with a gift or cookies and hot chocolate or something like that, and then ultimately share the gospel or even give them small encouraging scriptures or things? Is there a way you can bless a nursing home. Is there a way you can bless another family member? Maybe it's. Maybe now's the time to reach out to that family member that you know, like, oh, man, is this person gonna be here this year? Oh, man, I really hope they're not. I know. I know. We have all had those thoughts even saying this. I know that I have a person in mind, but maybe it's the time to shoot a text message or a call and maybe not necessarily invite them to whatever activity you're having, but maybe just shoot them, text or a call and say, hey, want you to know I'm thinking of you. Merry Christmas. And maybe that's an opportunity for you to potentially continue to share the gospel and love on that individual or person. So how can you bless somebody? Just think on that. How can you bless people? So we know that Jesus is absolutely the greatest gift, the greatest gift that we have ever received, ever. Period. There's no other gift that's better than that. And so I really just take the time, Take some time this Christmas season to slow down, to focus on Christ and enjoy spending time as a family together. Now, I got a joke for you, because obviously we gotta. We gotta end with a ghost. Really? I got a couple that I'd like to do. There's two. I can't decide between these two. All right. Because I really. I really like this. But the first joke is this right here. What's every elf's favorite type of music? What's every elf's favorite type of music? Wrap. You get it because, like, wrapping paper. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And the next one. And I really don't know, this may be. This may be my actual favorite one. What did one cranberry say to the. Say to the other cranberry at Christmas? Tis the season to be jelly. Does it seem, you know, jelly instead of jolly? Because cranberry jelly. Yeah. Anyways, those are terrible, but I enjoyed them, so I hope you had an enjoyful. Enjoyful. That's not a word. Hope you had a joyful time listening with me today and having a chat about this. And again, feel free to reach out and let me know what you thought and your Think your thoughts on this and what activities you may be doing or how you're blessing somebody else for Christmas. And we will catch you next time on Rooted at Home. Thanks for joining us. [00:25:58] Speaker A: Thanks for listening to Rooted at Home, where faith and family take root together. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to, like, share and subscribe so you never miss a conversation that helps kids, parents and families grow in God's word.