Tip 2-Remember the waiting.

When I was growing up, I anticipated the Christmas holiday with butterflies in my belly. I couldn’t wait for school to be over, to be home, to sit in front of the Christmas tree on a magical night listening to Christmas music on the stereo. Wonderful. For the first forty-five minutes. Then there was the waiting. The time where nothing was happening for the kids, but the adults were buzzing around delivering fruit baskets, attending choir rehearsals, shopping, baking things we were not allowed to eat. It was the go-in-the-other-room and wait times that put a damper on the Christmas holiday.

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Remember, waiting is difficult for children. Children in survival mode feel more lost with sitting around waiting for some day in the future.

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Relieve the waiting with some simple activities. Make time to do some of the things you did before December took over.

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Biblical Application:

At the end of the old Testament, we close the book on the last prophet, Malachi. He ends by prophesying:

“And He shall turn and reconcile the hearts of  the [estranged] fathers to the [ungodly] children, and the hearts of the [rebellious] children to the piety of their Fathers [a reconciliation produced by repentance, lest I come and smite the land with a curse and a ban of utter destruction.”

- Malachi 4:5,6

This prophecy is followed by four hundred years of silence from heaven. Talk about a wait! No more prophets. No heralds shouting out the good news that is to come. A shift in power occurs, from the east to the west. God fulfills prophecies through various rulers, including Alexander the Great (see Daniel) and allows the Word of God to be distributed through the world. Finally, Pompey overthrew the city of Jerusalem and conquered it for Rome, making it part of the Roman Empire ruled by Caesar. And, yet…the Jews continue to celebrate life, to marry, have children, read the prophecies while they wait. Celebrate while you wait.