“Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice. Become mature, be encouraged, be of the same mind, be at peace, and the God of love and peace be with you.” 1 Corinthians 13:11

When I was growing up, we didn’t really have any Christmas traditions. No annual cookie bakes, no sing-a-longs. There was the same schedule of family visits and copious amounts of decorations which fostered my deep love of the holiday, but nothing that would make its way into a Hallmark movie or grocery store commercial. 

As I got older and started my own family, I wanted to make those traditions. In my now-adult understanding, though, I knew those traditions were harder to create than my eight-year-old self had realized. 

It wasn’t just the time and effort involved, but the fact that four-year-olds become fourteen-year-olds and they don’t find the same things enjoyable. I struggled through those first few years trying to find something that I and my children could both look forward to as part of the annual Christmas season.

The Elf on the Shelf was growing in popularity as my little family formed and I enjoyed the idea of my children being excited about morning leading up to Christmas instead of just Christmas morning itself. However, the concept of Santa’s little spy didn’t really work for me, and I found the doll itself just a little creepy, so we went a different route. 

We brought two foot-and-a-half tall plush elves into our home named Holly and Jolly. They were Christmas spirit elves. Every morning the children would find them somewhere in the house and with them would be a note telling them how they could celebrate and/or spread Christmas cheer that day. 

Unexpected wisdom

I had no idea how smart I was being at the time, but my children are all teenagers now and the elves still show up on December 1 every year and each morning, my family still stumbles out of bed and look for Holly and Jolly first thing. 

The elves have changed over the years. They’ve added an elf dog – Jingle – who goes with us when we travel, and they’ve altered what they say. When the children were little they were told to act out the Christmas story or plant sprinkles in sugar so cookies could grow overnight. Now the elves remind them to show God’s kindness to their classmates or speak of how volunteering in the Christmas concert at church shares the Good News. 

What started as a fun way to spread Christmas out for my children has turned into a tool for the whole family. It makes us slow down, think, and remember that it isn’t just another holiday. It’s still fun and there are days when it’s silly, but the elves are far more mature than they were the first year they blew into our home. 

Our elves have returned to the north pole for the year and the decorations have all come down. Once again we’ve stepped from the season of celebration and back to real life. 

This transition as well as the turning of the calendar always prompts people – myself included – to make new commitments. Instead of seasonal traditions, we try to create life-changing habits. We make big, lofty goals that we hope will quickly catapult us into a better stage than the one we’re at now. 

The process of becoming

The problem is, we don’t make habits that can change and adapt. We want mature habits without realizing that attaining maturity is a process. We don’t wake up one day and declare ourselves a healthy eater, an avid runner, or a precise financial budgeter. Well, we may declare that, but unless we realize life requires us to go through a process and become those things, our declaration will never be true. 

It’s important as we look at how we want to grow in this new year that we create habits that can grow with us. 

Perhaps instead of determining to eat fifteen servings of vegetables and drink three gallons of water a day, you create the habit of meal planning. Those first meals may be hamburgers and spaghetti, but that habit will adapt and help you become a more mature eater. 

Instead of trying to run a marathon, set a time to walk around the block. As you get faster you can add in weights or create a circuit training schedule. Since you’ve built your daily routine around that block of time, your workout will grow. 

Maybe you want to read your Bible more or pray. You don’t have to start with a seminary level dissection of the merits of James to have an effective time with God. Making space for an easy to read and understand devotion will allow you to become a scholar down the road. 

This year, instead of trying to be something important, let’s focus on becoming someone who is mature in their faith, their decisions, and their life. If we do that, then come next New Year, we’ll discover there isn’t a need to change much at all. We just need to keep becoming more. 

Meet Kristi Ann…