3 Issues a Single Mother Can Rejoice at Christmas

Christmas is one among my favourite occasions of the yr. I really like sizzling cocoa, Christmas decorations, Christmas music, snuggling below a blanket watching Christmas motion pictures, eggnog, events, and all of the traditions that Christmas brings. I really like seeing household and buddies that I have not seen shortly. I really like the reminder of childhood reminiscences with aunts and cousins baking pies within the kitchen. 

However, let’s be trustworthy. Christmas might be probably the most troublesome occasions of the yr for a lot of, and particularly for single mother and father. 

My first Christmas as a single mother is one among my saddest reminiscences. My toddler son and I spent the day alone. I used to be a model new mother, and I struggled to seek out my method. May I even be an excellent mother? I typically questioned. I stared at my child many of the day, as I laid in mattress and cried. The telephone didn’t ring. Nobody knocked at my door. I couldn’t bear to prepare dinner a Christmas meal for simply the 2 of us. Depressed doesn’t even appear to be an sufficient phrase to explain how unhappy I used to be that day. I virtually yearned to go to work to work together with one other grownup. 

I might like to let you know that,  that was my solely Christmas alone or Thanksgiving or Easter, or Valentine’s. I spent many holidays as a single mother. Frankly, a lot of them have been unhappy. I wish to encourage all you single mothers on the market to not make the identical mistake I did. These holidays have been typically spent with me, dwelling on the issues I didn’t have. I used to be satisfied everybody had a greater life than I did, and I used to be offended. I questioned why my kids needed to undergo by way of not having two mother and father of their residence. I used to be unhappy that I had little cash to offer Christmas toys. I decidedly huddled below my covers and prayed the times away. 

Listed here are the issues I want I might have performed all these years in the past: 

1. Select to deal with what God has given you. Perhaps issues didn’t end up as you deliberate. Whose life ever does? God has blessed you past measure. Begin with the cross. If God by no means does anything for us, wouldn’t that be sufficient? However He doesn’t cease there. He offers us our lovely, superb kids, our jobs, residence, buddies, well being, household, church household, and a single mother sisterhood by way of The Lifetime of a Single Mother Ministries. God is nice, trustworthy, and provisional. Reward Him this season! 

2. Select to rejoice in the actual motive for the season. Concentrate on Christ’s start. Learn the Christmas story to your youngsters, no matter their ages. Create traditions with them, comparable to baking cookies, make ornaments for a nursing residence, serve at a soup kitchen. Resolve to deal with the actual that means of the season by way of service to others and household traditions. It makes the vacations a much more particular time. 

3. Select to deal with the liberty Christ has given you. Could I be completely trustworthy with you? Christ paid for my freedom, oh so a few years in the past, however I refused to stroll in it. You see, it was my option to be bitter, unforgiving, and offended. It was my option to play the sufferer and marvel why I had endured a lot. It was solely after I stopped talking horrible issues over my life, and after I selected to maneuver past my previous, that I embraced Christ’s freedom for my life. I selected life. I selected freedom. That is after I really discovered to have a good time every vacation season and every day. My perspective in life shifted. Pleasure was then mine. It may be yours today.

Jennifer Maggio is a mother to 3, spouse to Jeff, and founding father of the nationwide nonprofit, The Lifetime of a Single Mother Ministries. She is creator to 4 books, together with The Church and the Single Mother. She was named one of many High 10 Most Influential Folks in America by Dr. John Maxwell in 2017 and 2015 and has appeared in lots of of media venues, together with The New York Occasions, Household Discuss Radio with Dr. James Dobson, Joni and Pals, and lots of others.