1780 So Much To Do

BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women

It’s exactly one week until Christmas. Whew, how are you doing? Give yourself a point for each one that describes you today:

• You still have to wrap gifts.
• You still have to plan a big meal.
• You still have to buy a crap-ton of groceries.
• You still have to clean your messy house before company arrives.
• You still have to buy a few last minutes gifts.
• You still have to make Christmas cookies and treats.
• You still have to take family photos.
• You still have so many things on the Bucketlist you have to do: You have to drive around and look at Christmas lights, you have to take a photo with Santa, you have to drink hot chocolate, you have to sing Christmas carols, and oh crap you still have to do some sort of random act of kindness.

How many points did you rack up? How behind are you on all the things on all the lists?

I’m at a zero. None. And ya’ll it’s not because I’m super organized and ahead of schedule. It’s because I’ve screwed up enough Christmases with all the things, to now understand I actually don’t HAVE to do any of this, I GET TO.

Really, think about it ….

You still GET to go to a grocery store that has absolutely everything you need all at your fingertips without you having to kill it, pluck it, skin it, or harvest it? You just get to grab it off the shelves, buy it with money you’re walking around with, and take it home in your vehicle that runs?!! Oh my gosh, you’ve hit the jackpot sister!

You still GET to make cookies? You GET to prepare your home for company? You GET to wrap presents? You GET to go see Christmas lights and drink hot chocolate? Oh my gosh, best day ever!

Look at all the joy you have still ahead of you. Look at all you have been blessed to get to do.

Why do we make this a chore? Why do we commit ourselves to doing things, then show up with dread to do them?

Y’all it is 1 week until Christmas morning, and if you’re feeling stress and overwhelm over all you still have to do, you’re in desperate need of a perspective shift. I’m pretty dang sure Jesus doesn’t want you rushing around miserable and exhausted for the next week because of his birthday. That doesn’t honor him.

Girl, you may be getting all the things done, but are you nasty about it? You’re rushed, you’re uptight, you’re just pushing through. Pushing through what? The season of joy? The most wonderful time of the year? The gathering of precious souls you get to share life with? The celebration of the one who came to save you? You’re pushing through that?

How about we not?

How about we remember why we’re doing what we’re doing and the sheer blessing behind it all.

Let me tell you something, there’s not room for stress and overwhelm in a life of joy. Joy requires space. It expands and overflows the edges. It consumes hours and days. Joy takes over to-do lists and chores. Joy allows you to still get all the things done, but remain grounded in the blessing of why you do what you do.

It is time to evict stress and overwhelm from this celebration. Stress has no space in all this joy. Overwhelm is not welcome in these special moments we get to create.

We often trade what is so incredibly special for a sense of overwhelm. Why? Why would you allow that invasion of your most precious moments? Why would you let the enemy bring stress to your party? Why would you allow the sneaky exchange of all you are so ridiculously blessed to GET to do, for things you HAVE to do?

One of my key scriptures for 2025 is Psalm 90:12 “Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should.”

What if every day, we simply tried to spend that day as we should. Living as if this single ordinary day is actually quite extraordinary will totally change the experience.

One of my favorite movies is called “About Time”. I recommend it to each woman I get to mentor. You think it’s all cute and funny until the final 20 minutes and you realize the deep life lesson unfolding. At the very end of the movie, the main character says, “I just try to live every day as if I’ve deliberately come back to this one day, to enjoy it, as if it was the full final day of my extraordinary, ordinary life.”

That’s deep. Let me say it again. “I just try to live every day as if I’ve deliberately come back to this one day, to enjoy it…”

With that, my guess is this Christmas may not be perfect for you, but there is something or someone you have this year that you would one day give anything to have for one more time. So what if this Christmas, you didn’t rush through it all. You didn’t stress and show up as a lesser than version of who you really are. What if you pretended like you returned to this Christmas from some future time, to savor what and who you have now for one more time. Intentionally. On purpose.

It all hits so different.

This perspective will have you living different. I believe it will have you making days count instead of wasting them or wishing them away. I believe it will have you living ordinary days in extraordinary ways. And isn’t that what Psalm 90:12 means, “Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should.”

You honor Jesus with your joy, not with your overwhelm. You celebrate Jesus with your presence, not your presents. Your day doesn’t need more time, honey your day needs more LIFE.

Stress and overwhelm have no place in a life of joy. Look around, you have so much to do because you have been given so much.

Now, give yourself a point for all the glorious things you still GET to do because you’re so ridiculously blessed in final week before Christmas:

• You still GET to wrap gifts because you were able to buy things they will love.
• You still GET to plan a big meal because people want to sit at a table with you.
• You still GET to buy a crap-ton of groceries because healthy people like to eat.
• You still GET to clean your messy house before company arrives because life has been happening in your house.
• You still GET to buy a few last minutes gifts because you want to bless someone else.
• You still GET to make Christmas cookies and treats and create memories.
• You still GET to take family photos that will outlive you.
• You still have so many things on the Bucketlist you GET to savor and enjoy and be fully present for.

As you do all the things, may you be filled with grace and peace and choose joy a million times over.

There’s no space for stress and overwhelm.

This is God’s gift to you! And your gift to him … enjoy it!

Live this week as if you’ve come back to enjoy it all one more time with who you have and what you have now. There’s some truly extraordinary tucked away in your ordinary. Find it!

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