A Holiday Frame of Mind

Ready or not, the holiday season has arrived. We’re headed into Thanksgiving week, but I must admit my mind has been on Christmas the past few days. Indulge me and let me explain before I leave you with some Thanksgiving thoughts.

Wondering what has put me in the Christmas frame of mind? You might guess Christmas shopping — and I did, in fact, do that one day earlier in the week, but that wasn’t the thing that gave me my first Christmasy feelings of the season. Those came as God gave me the words for my Christmas poem this year.

My Christmas poems are a tradition. This year will mark 26 years of including an original Christmas poem in my Christmas cards. You may be wondering how I can come up with a new idea for a Christmas poem each year — believe me, I wonder the same thing every November. I like to get the poem written before Thanksgiving so I was planning to write it this past Thursday and Friday. Many times I have a phrase or an idea that has come to me earlier, but by Wednesday night, I still had nothing. My prayer that night? “Lord, please help me with this. Please give me an idea.”

When time for writing came Thursday afternoon, I still had no ideas, not a clue as to how to start. So I did what all writers do — I did other things instead. Now they were things that really needed to be done, but I still felt guilty for not giving any of my time to writing that day. My prayer that night? “Father, pleeease help me. Please give me an idea…” In that moment as I finished out my sentence, a couple of words grabbed my attention. That was it. God had given me my idea through my prayer. Pretty cool, huh? The next afternoon after I scrapped a couple of my initial approaches, I cried out to Him again. He blessed with words that seemed to come out of nowhere — that’s certainly where I was on my own. But He didn’t leave me on my own. He came and wrote with me — and left me feeling very Christmasy :)

Sometimes I wonder when I will ever learn. Our God is faithful. I had nothing to offer in the way of words for a poem this year, but He had everything to give. Thank You, Lord!

I pray that you will have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Here’s a little something I wrote a few years ago that might help put you in the mood. Hope you enjoy! (By the way, I won’t be posting again until next weekend — gotta eat some turkey! Also, don’t forget to sign up for the November Giveaway — check the Nov. 1st post.)

Overflowing Heart

On this Thanksgiving Day
My heart is overflowing,
The blessings in my life, dear Lord,
Just seem to keep on growing.

How can I ever thank You,
Where can I begin,
To show my appreciation
For the forgiveness of my sin?

Apart from You I am nothing,
No glory is my own,
From Your hand comes all I have,
Your goodness I’ve always known.

My health, my home, my family,
You’ve given me by grace,
Help me Lord, to give them back
To serve You in life’s race.

Oh God of all the universe,
I will ever sing Your praise,
I will forever thank You,
I will honor You all of my days!

Comments

  1. Only 26 years?! Sounds like a long time, but considering when I think of you and poems, I know it goes back even farther.

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  3. p.s. I had to delete that last one because of a spelling error! Joanna is sitting here rushing me. Anyway, I was trying to say – p.s. And I look forward to each and every one of your poems!

  4. I’ve been going around all day doing my Bing Crosby “Counting Your Blessings (Bleeeeee-siiiiiings)” getting in the spirit. I’m looking forward to this holiday season! (Follow my post trail to the Nov. Giveaway entry)

  5. Janice, you’re right — the first Christmas poem I remember writing was when I was 11 or 12 so that was more like 40 years ago. Didn’t start the Christmas card tradition until 1982, though. Glad you enjoy the poems!

    Shawn, good to hear from you! And welcome aboard on the Giveaway. Can’t wait to see you and Kristin for Christmas!!

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