Today I'd like to show you what I've already accomplished with decorating for Christmas.
That's what I would like to show you. The problem is, I haven't really accomplished anything yet.
It's not that I'm not excited about decorating for Christmas. And it's not that I haven't started. It's just that I am disorganized and messy. So here's the truth about Christmas decorating at my house:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtQVUgWk9ffLpvIufWnPA0G72I850YpmT6xgEEQKSTflILpmdErjLrpzDft27_bTj9NvCfQF8Wja3160_-6I9Pz0rJgiokqAYnsvDlz3SmQ7YwDuJRCQvjYtO3CFQZ_RmmwcA0qUqzoWo/s280/Christmas+mess.jpg)
That's my guest room. Here's what it looked like last week before our Thanksgiving guests arrived:
Well, it looked almost like that. Actually, I had to take out the beautiful rug because the dog peed on it, so things weren't quite this pretty even when we had company.
It can be so tempting to try to present only magazine-worthy loveliness on my blog. And I do love to make things pretty and to share ideas. But a little thing happened last week that really got me to thinking.
I was talking to a good friend who told me that there had been a mix-up with her utility bill and that her gas had been shut off. This was not an emergency--she lives in a comfortable home and was able to pay her bill; there had just been an organizational issue that hadn't been resolved in a timely way.
I sympathized with her having to deal with this inconvenience, but secretly I wanted to hug her. I wanted to kiss her feet. I wanted to jump up and down and say, "Thank God! I'm not the only one!"
Maybe you don't have any organizational issues. Maybe you're a person who is naturally tidy and put-together. If so, I admire you greatly. The truth is that I wish I were like you.
But here's another truth, one that I need to learn more fully:
God doesn't wish I were like you. He doesn't wish that I were like anyone but me--messy, disorganized me. He loves me just the way I am. He'll take me just like this--piles of stuff and dirty rugs and all. He wants to transform my heart so that I'm more and more like Jesus--but He still wants me to be me. The real me. And that's how He feels about you, too!
So here's to real life. The beautiful and the messy. The organized and the disorganized.
I hope that by next week I will have some beautiful Christmas decor to share with you. For now, I'll just share a beautiful thought:
Tell me--are you the organized type? Or do you struggle like I do? Do you have "real life" scenes that aren't so pretty? I'd love to know!
I'm joining Vanessa and Heather At the Picket Fence for Inspiration Friday and
Amanda at Serenity Now for her Weekend Bloggy Reading party
Amanda at Serenity Now for her Weekend Bloggy Reading party