I love decorating for Christmas and I am somewhat anal about how my tree(s) look. I am a little ashamed to say that I am one of those mom’s that won’t let my kids put the ornaments on the tree because they won’t be symmetrical. :0 Don’t judge me! I did remedy this by getting them their own tree last year and they may decorate it however they like! Last year when Christmas was over, I hit the 75% off sales and went a little crazy! This year, in addition to our usual live tree and the kids tree, I got them each an individual tree for their rooms as well as another big artificial tree for the living room.
We typically buy our live tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Even though we had just returned from vacation that day, we went out to carry on the tradition. After we brought it home, I also set up all the other artificial trees and we got them all decorated. Then I got so busy that ten days later I realized that my real tree still did not contain one ornament, light or anything. and I hadn’t finished decorating my house.
I had been really stressed out with several different things I had been working on, but one night around 10:30 I decided I better get that last tree decorated. I was completely exhausted, but still painstakingly arranged every bit of garland, the strands of lights and each ornament just so. An hour and a half later, I went into the kitchen to get a glass of water and heard the worst sound possible. A crash followed by the tinkle of broken glass. I went back in the other room, and you guessed it- my perfect tree was lying on the floor, broken ornaments everywhere. (I tried to find an old blog I had written where the exact same thing happened several years ago, but alas could not).
At that moment, all the stress of the past few weeks, the pressure I had needlessly put on myself, the frustration of having just wasted a good hour and a half of valuable time, as well as the giant mess, culminated and there was only one thing left to do. Sit on the step and cry like a baby! Which I did. My husband heard me sobbing hysterically and ran downstairs thinking something was horribly wrong. Thankfully, he helped me clean up the broken glass, and millions of dislodged pine needles and if he was laughing at me he didn’t even let me see it!
Here is my pitiful tree after we set it back up-
Pretty huh?
The next day I went out and bought a few new things, opened up some ornaments that I hadn’t used and decorated the tree all over again. And I like it better than I did the first time!
What’s kind of funny to me is that I have decorated my tree almost exactly the same for the past few years, but the little mishap forced me to do something a little different and gave me an even better result.
So, here’s the moral of the story-
Not really. Here’s the real moral of the story. In four parts.
1) I realized that my little mini breakdown was less about a tree and more about how I try so hard to keep everything in my life exactly where it needs to be, but sometimes, in spite of my best effort , the whole thing comes crashing down, breaking things and causing a big mess. And usually that happens when I am tired, stressed, and have a exhausted myself in the process.
2) It’s okay to sit on the step and cry for a minute. As long as you get back up, clean up the mess and then fix whatever got messed up.
3) Sometimes someone has to come along beside you because they heard you crying and help you until you are alright enough to finish the job yourself. And it’s ok to ask for help if you need it. You don’t have to be superwoman and do everything by yourself.
4) When mishaps happen, instead of being upset about them, use them as an opportunity to do something a little different than the way you were doing it before. You might be surprised at what you find!
Whenever you face a tough time, or a setback the most important thing to remember though is what the Lord tells us in Isaiah 41:10- Don’t panic. I’m with you.There’s no need to fear for I’m your God. I’ll give you strength. I’ll help you. I’ll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you
He’s got you!
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