An Intentional Christmas

I want every aspect of our day to be intentional.

I want every aspect of our home to be intentional. And I want every aspect of our lives to be intentional.

Do you ever think about how God feels in Heaven? How He feels when we are worshipping and the hurt He experiences when we hurt?

I imagine it’s ten times greater than what we feel when our children hurt or our spouses hurt or our friends hurt–or when each of those feel joy.

I just pray that when you come here, you see that what we do holds meaning.

Because more often than not, this little blonde head has moved everything to make a race track….or to make room for wrestling…

I didn’t spend a lot of money this Christmas on decor  but I did spend a lot of time. But it was time treasured. Kuy loved it. I loved it. This was fun to me. And while it was a tiny bit stressful (because I knew it would be my first home tour) because I was intentional about it, I loved it. I was exhausted but a good kind of exhausted, know what I mean?

How we decorated this year truly represents who we are. Simplicity. Colors of the sea. Colors of our home. The style of our lives.

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I didn’t make a decision because I had to. Instead, if a spot was left blank and I didn’t have something, I used something from around the house. Or moved a picture. Or added magnolia leaves from the yard. (In my kitchen reveal, I even used weeds!)

I just want to be intentional as we bring this year to a close. When I learned about my true style, I became intentional with my décor.

As we work to add a few touches to the boys’ playroom, I needed texture. Instead I got canvas bins because I talked myself out of the baskets. Now, because I knew I needed texture, I look at those canvas bins and know I need texture. Is this ridiculous? YES! But $5 more a basket seemed huge to me because I needed FOUR!

Russ even chided me for this. He reminded me how finishing our dining room and kitchen, we loved it because it’s us. It’s our home where we will raise our family. Thrifted, blues, greens, whites….comfort. Geez Louise, I even painted my entire house white! My contractor told me it would look like an insane asylym but after reading The Nester’s post on how refreshing white walls are, I was changed–because I change my mind so much.

White walls allow freedom.

They allow me to use blues and greens everywhere with the white because I don’t have to worry about it matching perfectly.

And it doesn’t matter if no one else likes it. It’s how we bring beauty into our lives because God is glorified in recognizing His beauty. Among the mundane moments, among the stuffing of pine branches into a vase, if my heart is focused on Him, I have the right intention.

This home is what I dreamed of. And in my letter to the realtor when I thought we were going to lose it, the main point was that I envisioned Christmas here.

And Christmas here is what God granted me.

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But more importantly, this Christmas–as much as I dreamed of beautiful decor–I dreamed of rest with my family even more.

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I dreamed of a true celebration for Jesus’ birthday like Kuy keeps reminding me. (Did we need matching pajamas to celebrate this day? Probably not, but it’s been a tradition in our family since I was little and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Those little traditions are what make it so special.)

I want more than anything else to be intentional with my time–with my husband, with my boys, and to soak up these memories of our Christmas brunch and to memorize Kuy’s face when he sees the only thing he’s asked for–a football helmet. And Cray when he sees his (yard sale) cardboard bricks. (We even do Christmas simple.)

God gave us His Son so that we, TOO, may find JOY in giving. In picking out or in making that perfect gift. So that we can teach it to our boys as they walk through this life. Because when I gave Kuy his money from my grandmother, he immediately wanted to buy a blanket for his friend. I have so much to learn.

Knowing a football helmet is the only thing Kuy wants this year does my heart good because he will be so thrilled.

Because God knew the one thing we needed that we didn’t even realize we wanted.

PURE joy that God felt when He GAVE us his Son and the deep hurt when He GAVE Him to us because are sinners.

God is so big. Bigger than I can even wrap my mind around.

“Jesus is so beautiful. Sometimes, when you look into His eyes, in your mind, you feel like you could look for hours. He’s so safe and so full of life and so loving. God made Jesus’ beauty to be almost overwhelming. Ask Him for yourself. Ask God to show you what Jesus looks like. I’ll bet you’ll see His beauty.” –Sara Hagerty, Every Bitter Thing is Sweet

I just want to be intentional in a way that brings glory to Him every step of the way so that His beauty…so that His beauty is what shines through no matter how I may make a mess of it along the way.