This can be a really hard time if your are dealing with depression.

I can remember a particular Christmas season years ago when I thought I wouldn’t get through the season without a complete breakdown.

One night I was wrapping gifts for my daughter-in-law and everything just came crashing down. I felt defeated. The elephant on my chest was heavier than it had ever been.

I can remember crying out to God asking for help.

My husband wasn’t just out of town, he was out of the country. It would be in the wee hours of the morning were I to call him and even if it weren’t I couldn’t do that. It would be one thing if he could get home right away but seeing as he wouldn’t be able to, I just couldn’t burden him with it.

So I had to trust God. What choice did I have?

I got through the night. I called the doctor the next day to tell him the new medication he had recently prescribed was having a really adverse effect and I didn’t take it the day before and wasn’t going to take it ever again.

He agreed and said my experience was not all that uncommon.

I felt like hanging up on him!

This particular pill didn’t half much of a half-life so I was much better in just a day or two. I remember praying, “God, just get me through the next hour.”

The next hour, “God, one more hour”. And so on.

The point of all this is that sometime we just get through the day, hour by hour. We’d like to be better immediately. But depression has a way of getting such a grip on us, the total us, mind, body, and spirit, that getting better just takes time.

I know someone right now who is struggling with this and she has had to wait for the medication to kick in. It’s been five days and just tonight she let me know she was experiencing a little “bump” upwards in her mood.

And during this holiday season, it’s even harder. Everyone around us seems super busy and energized by the shopping, baking, decorating. But remember, what you see might not be at all what is really happening.

Remember, Christmas is about peace. Peace on earth means peace for everyone, including you. You don’t have to be caught up in the busyness and craziness of this season if you don’t want to. Accept the peace that God has promised you.

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I don’t know what peace means for you. For me, it’s keeping my focus. I’m not going to write about the true meaning of Christmas because that’s been done ad infinitum.

Only you know how peace looks for you. How peace “looks” on you.

For me, peace means I want to enjoy the baking, the decorating, the entertaining without any pressure. I want to do it all just because I want to.

If I can’t get it all done, I want to be OK with that as well.

I want Christ to be the centerfold of everything I do.

For me, that’s peace.

How about you?

What does peace look like to you? Can you define it?

I hope your day goes well.

God bless you.

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