Having A Merry Christmas Depends On ....

While driving, I once again heard the familiar lyrics of a popular Christmas song.

I was familiar with the song. I liked it. It brought good memories and feelings. And normally, I'd just sit back, continue whatever I was doing, and just enjoying the song.

However, today was different. With the first two verses, I zeroed in on the what the words were saying. I sort of tuned out the rest of the song and just started thinking about the beginning sentences.

Here's the beginning of this Christmas Carol,

"Have yourself, a Merry Little Christmas;
Make the Yuletide gay ...."

I told you you'd recognize it.

Ok, read those words again.

Simple, right? Nothing complicated about the simple message, right?

Alright, let me ask you this - Who's going to make your Christmas merry and your yuletide gay?

Does it depend on the gifts you receive, the invitations to parties you get, the bonuses that come your way, or that your career turned out to be more successful than that of your friends and siblings?

It would be so easy to blame circumstances as reasons why your Christmas is not what it should be. But why go that route? Why make something worse than it seems? Anybody can do that!

Be different.

Focus on the good, not the bad!

I remember the story of a man who focused on the good even though something bad happened to him.

He was on his way home with groceries he bought from his take-home salary. Some bad guys mugged him and stole everything he had.

When he got home, he told the story to his family. Upset, his family started complaining and murmuring - something about life not being fair.

So the man said, "Hey, c'mon guys ... snap out of it. There's still somethings we can be grateful for!"

One of his kids said, "Yeah? Well, like what Dad?"

And he answered, "Well, though they got all I had, they didn't get my life. Even though they got our groceries and money, we can still replace them. Though they forced me to hand over those stuff, they didn't really hurt me. And the sooner we snap out of this gloomy cloud, the sooner we can go about replacing those things we lost"

He absolutely refused to let the negative circumstances to rob him of the joy of living.

And I believe we can learn something from him.

It's our choice whether Christmas will be merry for us or not.

We may not have much control over what circumstance comes our way, but we can choose how we will react to it.

We have a choice whether we will let things bother us or not.

Focus on the good - the things that will make this occasion merry - and go with it!

This is another foothold that will give us another favorable outcome.

Ok, with that thought in mind, let's belt it out once more, with feeling!

"Have yourself, a merry little Christmas;
Make the Yuletide gay ...."

Cheers everyone!
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