Have you been feeling the holiday blues?

When your family is struggling to put food on the table, let alone trying to buy Christmas gifts, it’s hard to feel the Christmas spirit.  When your family has experienced the loss of a loved one, a recent divorce, or a disagreement dividing the family, celebrating the holidays can be devastating.

The holidays are supposed to be a magical, happy time of year celebrating the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ.

If you are battling the blues, here are a few tips to help you experience more joy:

• Remember what the season is all about.  It’s not gifts, about a big dinner, or even getting together with loved ones.  It’s Jesus.
• Have you prepared your heart for the holidays?  Diving into scripture can help turn your sadness or unhappiness into pure joy.
• Ask for help.  I know this is super hard!  Whether it’s providing toys for your children or a Christmas meal, there are organizations to help.
• Be realistic.  If you are experiencing the first Christmas after a loved one has passed away, it’s ok to be sad.  What can you do to honor that special person?
• If your family has experienced a divorce and you are having your first Christmas without your kids because they are at your ex’s, remember that you can celebrate ANY day.  (Trust me, this hits me hard every other year when my older kids go to their biological dad’s).  Make the best of the situation and celebrate like a rock star when they get home!  While they are gone, what can you do to serve other families, keep busy, and rejoice Christ’s birth?

How do you handle the holiday blues? 

Welcome to Women With Intention Wednesdays!

Welcome to another week of Women With Intention Wednesdays! This is the 50th week! Thank you all for joining in! I love this community!

This week I’m featuring Keri at Living In This Season with her practical post Tips To Avoid Christmas Burnout.  (#3 is my favorite!)

Here is what you will find at Women With Intention Wednesdays:

• This is a link up party where you come to encourage one another, have fun, and share your best posts to help women live their best life!
• In other words, any post that you have written about Christian living, homemaking, relationships, healthy living, living a frugal life or that helps another woman can be included in this link up! Please just them family friendly (I reserve the right to remove anything that I feel isn’t appropriate).
• This link up is beneficial for every woman! Whether you are a blogger or a reader, this is one you won’t want to miss! I’m very excited to offer this link up as a place to not only build new relationships between bloggers but also by providing an awesome resource of information for my readers!

Here are the rules of this link up:

1. You must link directly to your post (no homepages, please).
2. Please link up no more than 2 posts each week and please do not link up the same post week after week.

3. For every link you add, please visit the link before you and one other of your choice. If your links are consecutive visit the blogger before you and your choice for the 2nd link. It’s impossible to build relationships when no one communicates! Please don’t link and run!

4. By linking up you give me permission to share your posts and photos on this blog and social media. Each week I will choose a featured post. I will only feature and pin your post if you have followed the rules. All features will be linked back to the original source.
5. You also give me permission to email you a quick reminder that the party is live. You may opt out anytime. I don’t spam my readers with emails.
6. Answer the community building question below so we all get to know each other! That’s the purpose of being here! 🙂

In order to help grow this community with great posts and relationships, I would love it if you would add the party button to your sidebar, your blog directory page, or a text link at the bottom of your post. This isn’t required to participate in the link-up but I would really appreciate it!