Living Your Best Life

No one is perfect, but we can thrive

The poinsettias at my house are getting scraggly, but I must say that I've done a much better job of keeping them alive this year than in previous years. I don't know if it's because I've watered them more, or watered them less, or provided better drainage for them, or the right amount of light, or perhaps the temperature in the house is more conducive to them thriving, but here it is the middle of January and they aren't completely crispy.

I must admit that my New Year's resolutions haven't fared as well. I'm doing pretty good on the one to get more exercise, but I haven't attended to my Bible reading in the way that I'd promised myself I would: I was going to get up early every day to read Scripture and pray before exercising, and that's certainly not happening. In fact I'm sleeping in more. Neither am I eating as healthily as I had vowed. Much of the Christmas candy has been consumed, and continues to be until it is completely gone. Then I'll be safe and can perhaps better keep the resolution to cut down on sugar.

The Christmas decorations have been down for weeks, so the poinsettias are the only physical reminder of the season -- that and the bills that are coming in. Christmas is the season of thinking of others, celebrating the joy of being with friends and family, and focusing on faith. During December church attendance goes up, as does philanthropic giving -- although it could be argued that giving at the end of the year goes up to get tax deductions for that year. According to fundraising experts nearly a third of philanthropic annual giving occurs in December. I believe that the spirit of love and giving, and greater attendance at church, is associated with God's gift of the Christ child.

As the poinsettia leaves drop off of last Christmas's plants, giving drops off. As New Year's resolutions are set aside so are the good intentions of being that person that we want to be. There have been so many books written about "keeping Christmas" year round that it is obvious that people of faith wish that we could be as thoughtful, as generous and as selfless throughout the year as we are at Christmas time. What keeps us from being the faith-centered people we want to be?

It's kind of like the poinsettias at my house. I don't live in a greenhouse. The environment at my house isn't conducive to them thriving. I've done a better job this year, but I still fall short. We live in a world of sin, and we all fall short of the glory of God. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't strive to follow Christ in our daily lives, but it does mean that we can never be the people who God wants us to be, and created us to be, because we are constantly bombarded by sin.

Just as I can give my poinsettias the right amount of light, the right amount of water, of plant food, and work to keep the humidity in my house in the right range for their species, we can nurture our spiritual lives by attending church, through a disciplined spiritual life of prayer and scriptural reading, and by practicing serving and giving of ourselves and our resources. My home can never be a greenhouse, but I can take actions which make it a better environment for plants. Neither can I live a sinless life, but I can choose to live in an environment which nurtures me in my desire to follow Jesus Christ.

New Year's resolutions are one thing, but living the life that God created us to live is something else. Thinking of others during the Christmas season certainly helps philanthropic organizations, as well as the spirits of the children on our Christmas lists. But for us to live throughout the year with a giving spirit, full of love and hope through God's love, we need to live in an environment that is conducive for God's Holy Spirit to strengthen us and fill us with Christ's peace. We can find those places, and we can create those places with God's help. Churches, supportive friends and family, and a commitment to prayer and serving are pieces of such an environment. And when we do live life in an environment of love and peace year-round, we will thrive.

The Rev. Leslie Belden is a minister of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), currently serving as the temporary stated clerk of the Presbytery of Arkansas. Contact her at LeslieBeld@aol.com.

NAN Religion on 01/19/2019

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