Author: Amanda Viviers

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Christmas Devotional: Noel

Today begins the long treacherous road of the school holidays for my gang and me. I’m lathering myself in essential oils, breathing deep and hoping for patience for Christmas.

I had no idea that motherhood would turn me into Ebenezer Scrooge! I sat at my son’s end of year concert today hoping that the carols would stop and as I flopped on the couch this afternoon the thought of writing a devotional was furthermost from my mind.

My kids have pulled their mattresses out into the loungeroom and I can hear the soundtrack of “The Polar Express” whispering them into calm.

One of the main reasons why Christmas comes with so much stress and sadness is each and every person we meet is fighting a battle we never see.

The word Noel translates into the Christmas Season and in its rawest form means birth. We could take license and say that “Noel” indicates the birth of the Christmas Season.

Now there is much debate about the history of Christmas, the who, what, where and how. No matter what you believe about the beginnings of the traditions we now call Christmas, I am sure that falling into a place of disappointment, isolation and regret is far from ideal at this time of year.

“No space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused”
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Dickens describes it perfectly when he unravels the heart of his character Ebenezer Scrooge.

This Christmas (and school holidays) I am going to do my best to live in the midst of the season and celebrate the messy moments in my today.

Galatians 5:22

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.

Fruit grows in the midst of adversity when we humble ourselves and lean into the new.

The first Christmas, when Noel was birthed was far from perfect. I know Joseph would have been fuming that every hotel was full to overflowing. I can’t imagine that Mary would have been smiling with peace and adoration when a donkey rode her into a back shed, with cattle lowing. The carols make it sound so serene, but have you stayed in a farmyard shed recently? Net alone put your newborn in one of their feeding troughs?

Expectations not met.

Moments of opportunity for growth.

“Bah Humbug” or “Oh, well!”

This Christmas, in the midst of dance concerts, holiday madness, hens nights and kitchen teas, I am trying to learn about patience and peace. Slowing down my Christmas and expectations.

This year we are doing no presents for adults, as three days after Christmas, it is my sister’s wedding. I am also buying take away on Christmas Eve because it has been a long year and I am going to revel in the spontaneity of it all.

And each moment when I struggle to maintain my peace, with children screaming and toys flying, I will remember the moment when I said that this Christmas I will walk slowly.

May your Christmas be full of moments that teach you the beauty of rest. When someone asks you to rally into a high pitched fervour, that we would learn to step back and breathe deep. I ask that wisdom would prevail and we celebrate the beauty of mess. Lowering our expectations to remind our hearts of the simplicity of it all.

In the name of

Jesus

Amen

New Days, a vision workbook has just been released for download here. A tool to help you reflect, journal and envision at this time of year.

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Christmas Devotional: Joy To The World

My day today began with kisses and cuddles. He ran into my bedroom before the sun was rising as his Dad was closing the front door. Sneaking around the side of my bed he whispered, “Only two more days of school left Mum” and with that, my sleep was broken.

I have never experienced Christmas through nearly six-year-olds eyes and I am learning it just gets better and better. He exudes joy and I remember quickly when I stop to see things from his perspective that is the essence of the season.

My Nanna’s middle name was Joy. She was all of five feet tall and she used to sit on her grandchildren’s laps with a can of beer at Christmas. I remember running into her house, down the corridor and straight to her Christmas cookie jar. She passed away over twenty years ago, but I often smile as I drive past her house, wishing my kids could meet her.

My Grandmother’s name is Joyce and every year even though she is now ninety-four, she bakes her famous Christmas cookies and cakes for all. Just recently I happened to walk in on her Christmas baking day and you could tell it was the highlight of her year.

I have realised each year as I see Christmas through the eyes of others that the young and very old understand the brilliance of celebration. Even in the midst of sadness, we can find Joy waiting, as it is an internal disposition.

Recently someone on the internet messaged me and typed.

I saw you driving yesterday.

You made me smile.

As I drove past, a random stranger you were beaming out of your car

and it really changed my day.

I wasn’t intentionally smiling, maybe I was laughing at my raucous three-year-old but I know that feeling. When a stranger says hello or engages with me for no other reason than to just make me smile, it is the hidden beauty of Christmas.

Just this week we were in the shops, picking up last minute errands and my Mr Six was over it. The shop assistant noticed the meltdown in full flight and she pulled out a Freddo frog from behind her counter.

What if we waged war this Christmas bringing joy to the shopping centres full of chaos?

What if we made it our mission to spread joy to our neighbours even when they drive us a little crazy?

This is the beauty of Christmas and our world needs joy more than ever before.

I pray this Christmas that we find joy in unlikely places. That friends and family, strangers and enemies feel the impact of celebration lasting longer than the season. Help us to be instruments of peace. Where there is hatred let me sow love. May our words be few and our hands outstretched to those who feel stressed. May we find joy in the most unlikely places and peace its ever faithful companion.

In the name of Jesus

Amen

Day seven: Joy To The World.

New Days, a vision workbook has just been released for download here. A tool to help you reflect, journal and envision at this time of year.

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Christmas Devotional: Peace Upon The Earth

The word peace in its rawest form means a world free of disturbance and tranquillity. The application of this word upon our earth means an age free of war. The human race has a thread throughout the beginning of time where we long for peace.

The quiet moment where we see communities working together for the “better good” of the whole rather than the advancement of the individual.

This Christmas more than ever I think we all long for good news. I don’t know about you and your house, but each and every time I turn on the news as my family settles in for the evening I regret it. The overwhelming needs found in our communities sometimes disable me.

Just recently I was sitting out to lunch with a new friend, who is a business owner in my local town. She said to me “I’d like to give back this Christmas”. I have stock that I often sell and all my stock runs low at this time of the year, but this year I want to give it away to those who don’t have much”. Over social media, we chatted about options and then we came together again to hatch a plan. Last week I went to go and pick up what I thought would be a couple of boxes of beautiful handmade products, to walk away with hundreds, upon hundreds of little gifts for people in our community.

I called our local refuge, who opens their doors three days a week for those who are needing shelter and safety, to see whether they would like to give them out to their guests. Then I also found a house of hope, that takes in young pregnant women and we gave boxes to them. Then we bought hundreds of them to a campaign that is supporting families in our community who are victims of domestic violence and are at risk.

One small conversation, that has flowed into the hearts and lives of many different families in our community. Peace is no longer decreed by the Kings of our land and leaders in far off places. Peace is waged by everyday people in the community reaching out their hands and giving from what is within it.

Proverbs 31: 20 says it this way

She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.

I know the war of peace is waged in the hands of the unseen, when we reach out and hold hands with a stranger, letting them know that we see their unrest.

I know the strategy of victory is employed when everyday housewives and check out operators smile, with a word of encouragement.

I know that greatness is found in the most humble of places and when we acknowledge the difficulty of those in dark seasons we surge forward the plight of peace upon our earth.

Christmas awakens the heart of generosity in humankind. When we celebrate one another, sharing homemade biscuits with our neighbours and extend our hearts to those in need, the battle is taken just one step towards a greater tomorrow.

My prayer this Christmas is that we would magnify the simple acts of generosity across our society more than the consumerism that seeps into our hearts. That we together would see kindness and the little moments to encourage another as the purest gold of our generation. Together may we thread our societies with the fabric of solidarity and unity. Together may we make a difference like no other generation. To be known as a people of generosity, acceptance and love. Together may we wage war against indifference and apathy. Together may we wage peace.

In the name of Jesus

Amen

Day 6: Peace Upon The Earth

New Days, a vision workbook has just been released for download here. A tool to help you reflect, journal and envision at this time of year.

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Christmas Devotional: Prince of Heaven

Social media shocks me most days. The amount of time we give to platform building and no one is exempt. There is a weak thread in our hearts where we seek belonging and worthiness.

I struggle, we all struggle to find our voice and the place we hold in the world. One of the greatest shifts in our society currently is the evolution of where we gain our authority and surety from.

In the past, we would respect the laws of our nation and leadership was a simple question of the position of authority and mostly we would respect the title. However, we now exist in a questioning culture. Leadership is often questioned before it is trusted and we are more isolated than ever before.

The more social media we have, the more we think we’re connecting, yet we are really disconnecting from each other. JR

The idea of royalty and leadership is fraught with distrust and broken promises. Then enters the archaic notion of respect, lineage and simply obeying.

We have become a disconnected society that mistrusts people above all else. No wonder we are hurting and our hearts are longing for direction.

Enter this song.

An ode to the princely nature and the coming of a lowly leader. I can see why leadership has become so unpopular, because how can we serve a group of people who are labouring in silent hope.

We long for the promise to be fulfilled. We want order and comfort. We are desperate for an anthem of hope, which is a rallying cry to the beauty of healing and justice.

Isaiah 41: 10 says to us clearly…

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

The power of this season lies not in the presents, the food or the twinkling lights, it is bathed in the beauty of the promise. The promise that we greet a young leader who is destined to bring light and life to all who listen to his teachings.

King of Glory

We gladly greet

Born in wonder and majesty

There is a layer of the nativity dialogue that is often overlooked. You see Kings, Leaders of the land, travelled miles upon miles, to lay very expensive gifts at the feet of a baby, who was wrapped in rags and laid in an eating trough of farm animals. The irony of this picture is often too much for my heart to take in.

Our world creates platforms and places value on Instagram influencers and rock musicians who waltz stages of glory. However, one of the greatest men to ever walk the earth, his teachings that have changed the entire course of history laid in dirty clothes in the most humble of places.

This year I pray for those humble places. For those who feel isolated, overlooked and ignored. I pray for the sleep deprived and those with chronic illness and also those who are self-consumed with their own agendas and fame. May leadership and values come back into the core of our community so that together we can build a community for our children to thrive in, where they understand the scaffold of what it means to live a life beyond ourselves. God bring peace more than ever this Christmas, we are groaning in our own self-perpetuating cycles.

In the Name of Jesus

Amen.

Day 5: Prince of Heaven.

New Days, a vision workbook has just been released for download here. A tool to help you reflect, journal and envision at this time of year.

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We need to learn to date ourselves before we expect others to date us.

Learning to love myself just as I love and respect others has been one of the greatest lessons that this year has given. I had no idea that Motherhood was relentless.

Everyone promised me that when the kids went to school that things would get easier. They promised me when they slept through the night, exhaustion would fade and the sun would peak through the dark clouds on the horizon. We talked for five years about what we would do when he went skipping off down the school path.

But they lied.

They all offered me an expectation that was unachievable and I grieved the nomad lifestyle I had when my babies were small. I had no idea that school hours would become so restrictive and the goal posts grew smaller with fundraisers, discos, jog-a-thons, crazy hair days, collections for the Vincent de Paul, homework folders, swimming lessons and the list grew daily.

This year I had to learn to block out time for myself, to find the depth of resource that was hidden in my soul, to once again grow.

Growth is painful. It is like a stretching of our courage to believe that we can once again do more. Growth increases our capacity, to juggle and bend. It makes us more flexible and this is an undervalued quality in a person, that no one tells us is required.

Above all of this, however, I am learning that if I do not find ways to look after myself, to refill my tank and to take the time to date myself, no one else will want to hang around with me.

Do you fill your days with tasks for others?

Do you then feel ripped off when no one reciprocates for you?

It is easy to forget that we need to prioritise our own needs above that of those who are around us. That is why when travelling on an aeroplane, we are told over and over to put on our own mask, before trying to fit someone else’s. If we are unable to breathe how can we help someone else?

Every Christmas season I find myself depleted at the end of a season of growth. Adulting is stretching and to just stay sane, takes a lot of deep breaths and patience. That is why for the last fourteen years I have planned little dates with myself to recalibrate and recover.

This year I have created a workbook, pro forma to help you retreat away from the crazy and find your voice again.

It is called New Days.

If we keep doing the same thing over and over we cannot surrender to the new.

It is a journalling pro forma.

An opportunity for you to get it messy, to draw, to explore, to refine and to recover.

Set a date for yourself today.

Download your copy here.

Or order your printed version here.

Enjoy dating yourself this Christmas and let’s together continue to grow in the way we are kind to yourself.

Also, my friend Rebecca Ray has released an amazing tool to help you be kinder to yourself, you can sign up for it here.

Amanda