Drop Some Weight Before Christmas

It’s coming you know?! That day when we reflect on where we’ve been and consider where we’re going, and then begin to make resolutions in hopes that next year will be different.


New Years Day is just a couple weeks away and a blink beyond Christmas our hearts and minds commence to contemplate dreams, visions and goals for the next year. But before the clock strikes 12 on 2012, we still have Christmas parties, dinners and desserts to consume at record pace.


These are the times we enjoy the invention of elastic waistbands and loose fitting shirts. But packing it in means putting it on. Putting on the weight, that is.


That might explain why the number one New Years resolution is to lose weight.


As women, we know what it’s like to live on a diet. Dropping the pounds is a constant desire in most of our lives. Yet, while we are desperate for a Bo Derek body (yes, I just really aged myself, didn’t I), we sometimes put on spiritual weight that might not seem so obvious, but is much worse than tight pants and a scale that makes us frown.

As we approach the most wonderful time of the year, we have the opportunity to consider Christ and all He has done for us. We remember the cradle meant a cross and the King’s crown would be laced with thorns. All for you – and all for me.


Christmas causes us to contemplate just how much we really live for the Son of God and Son of Man. And while we long to live completely abandoned to Christ, we often get caught up in our circumstances and weighed down with what we deem justified or valuable.

We try to walk by faith, but we get tangled up by life. We desire what we should not, our attitudes display the depths of our own need and our behavior exposes our hearts. 

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, sweet friends. A time to bask in the beauty of His love and reflect on the great grace of our God. But it’s also a time to start cutting loose some excess baggage.


The Bible tells us in Hebrews 12:1-2… 

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” 

Just on the heels of the Roll Call of Faith, we’re told to live untangled and intentionally in light of what Christ has done for us and remembering those who have believed before us. 


So, here’s a little list to help you lighten the load of your heart and help you move unhindered into next year. So, what do you say? Ready to deal with some stuff? Let’s do this thing! Let’s see what we can lay aside before we enter the next year:

Pride     Selfishness     Anger     Lust     Bitternes     Hurt Feelings     A Discontent Heart    

Depression     Impatience     A Hard Heart     Unbelief     Fear     Confusion     Toying With

Sin     Wayward thoughts     A Discontent Heart     Unthankfulness    

Demanding     Arrogance     Unyielding     Gossip     Jealousy     Envy     Lying    

Grumbling      Complaining     Argumentative     Pessimistic     Headstrong    

Undisciplined     Unfocused     Focused on the Wrong Things     Overbooked    

Unbalanced     Unfaithful     Legalistic     Haughty     Self-centered

So…that was quite a list, wasn’t it? And like Hebrews 12:1-2, the list includes weights as well as sins. So, how’d you do? Any issues pop up that you need to deal with so you can walk into 2012 unencumbered?


We may all need to lose a little weight as we enter the new year, but let’s get busy and try to lose some spiritual baggage before Christmas! It’s for our own spiritual health that we chose to lose some weight before Christmas…or at least before we begin the new year.


So let’s be like Nike’ and just do it, sweet friends! We’ve got a world to reach and a cloud of witnesses cheering us on!


Did I miss anything on my list? What advice would you offer to move into 2012 unencumbered by those weights that so easily beset us?