Have You Prepared Your Heart for Christmas? | Part Three

Have You Prepared Your Heart for Christmas? | Part Three

Alone time.

What comes to mind when you think about alone time?

Do you like the idea of alone time or dread it?

How do you spend your time alone?

Do you focus on hobbies or self-care activities?

Are your activities active or sedentary?

I realize some people reading this feel they never have time alone, while others may feel they are always alone.

But whether other humans surround us or we are by ourselves, we can trust that God is fully aware of everything about us.

And he can communicate with us while we’re going about our work or when we are resting.

How do I know this?

Consider the following passage when Mary, a young lady, experiences this incredible reality with an angelic visitor announcing she will bear the Christ child.

Continue reading “Have You Prepared Your Heart for Christmas? | Part Three”

Have You Prepared Your Heart for Christmas? | Part Two

Silence.

Do you like silence or avoid it?

Typically, beginning music students struggle the most in observing the silent parts in their pieces. As a former music instructor, I’ve witnessed this many times over the years.  

Our natural tendency is to fill any silence.

Yet, when I was working full time in music, I seldom turned music on in my car or at home. I craved silence back then because I was seldom in silence.

Now that I’m no longer working as a musician, I frequently find it harder to concentrate at work on quieter days than when there’s a great deal of activity around me. Mainly because I hear every single sound around me and want to know what it is.

Why does silence make many of us so uncomfortable?

What does this discussion of experiencing silence have to do with preparing our hearts for Christmas?

Continue reading “Have You Prepared Your Heart for Christmas? | Part Two”