Navigating The Holidays

For many, the holidays are a joyful and exciting season, but they can also bring moments of stress and anxiety. If you find yourself feeling hesitant or overwhelmed, here are some tools and tips that may help.

1. Got Buttons? Learning to Respond, Not React

Someone can only “push your buttons”… if you have buttons to push.

Do you still have “buttons?” You know, those sensitive areas in your life where, if someone touches them (intentionally or not), you react without thinking.

It’s easy to believe your reaction is caused by another person or situation, but the truth is that your response reveals more about the condition of your heart than the actions of others.

Remember, you choose your response. You set your mental atmosphere by what you think and talk about. That mental atmosphere is the one thing you can control. So choose wisely. Choose life!

2. The Mysterious Lagoon: Choosing Your Response

The important thing isn’t what others say or do, but rather how we respond to their actions. Think of all the words, phrases, comments, actions, pleas, suggestions, and orders that come your way each day. Now think of how you tend to respond to them. You might respond out of love and respect, regardless of how you were treated. Or you might lash out in an angry tone, hoping to silence an accusing voice or get even with someone who wronged you…(click here to continue reading)

3. Struggling with Forgiveness?

The holidays often bring old wounds to the surface. If you’re having trouble forgiving someone, these articles may bring clarity and peace:

• This Year Take Your Adult Ally With You!
• Do You Need to Change Your Glasses?
• Forgiveness Comes in One Big Package
• Forgiveness: No Longer a Slave to the Past
• Forgiveness Isn’t Going Back to the Way Things Were
• Does Someone Have to Ask for Forgiveness Before I Forgive Them?

4. Family Dynamics: Responding with Grace

For practical suggestions on how to handle The Advice Giver, The Critic, The Rager, The Braggart, The Black Sheep, The Alcoholic, The Downer, and The Controller, click here.

This Thanksgiving, we have so much to be thankful for. Looking back over the last 25 years of ministry and the countless lives God has changed, we know we couldn’t have done it without you.

Blessings,

Jim Hobson & John Selman

Co-Executive Directors