Merry Christmas!!

Whether you snuck into the bathroom to get 5 minutes away from the Christmas mayhem and decided to read this article or if you are reading this in the days that follow Christmas, thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

With so many things to do each day, I truly appreciate when you spend a few minutes with me as I share my thoughts and tips. This is especially true during this crazy time of year. It really brings me such joy knowing that I am impacting people’s lives.

That said, today I want to talk about the gift you can give yourself. The best part about it is that its free. So no, this is not subtle ploy to get you to buy one of my products. And it won’t put you into more debt after buying gifts for everyone else.

The gift I want you to give yourself is grace.

Grace is one of those things that is not often talked about. There’s a whole song about it, Amazing Grace, but when was the last time you actually paid attention to what the words were saying?

While grace has several meanings, the kind I want you to give yourself is courteous goodwill. That is giving yourself the benefit of the doubt, to remember that you are doing your best and that not everything will always be perfect.

The holidays are a time when we tend to really forget about giving ourself grace. We worry about doing all the outings, attending all the parties, baking the cookies, and making the season perfect for our kids.

I get it. Our kids are only young once and I too want to create the best experiences for them. I want them to make memories together and get the gifts and experiences they want.

But when we get too dead set on creating the perfect experience, we get agitated every time things don’t go just right. And with kids, things never go just right.

Then instead of remembering an amazing experience, the kids will remember you being angry or frustrated. When we overspend on gifts, we become stressed about money and bills. Our kids will remember more your being stressed than the gift you gave them.

This Christmas, give yourself the gift of grace. Remember that you are enough, this Christmas what you gave your kids is enough. It’s OK if everything didn’t go according to plan. The important thing is that you shared your joy with your family.

Take this grace with you throughout the coming year as well. Do your best. Make a commitment to you and your family to be the best human you can be. Then give yourself grace every time you fall short no matter how many times it happens.

Have a beautiful holiday!

Cheers,

Emily