Christmastime is about forgiveness

“Bear with each other and forgive one another.”

— Colossians 3:13 (NIV)

Sometimes our Christmas doesn’t turn out as planned. I can still recall one year I felt that way.

On Christmas Eve, I couldn’t wait to get the kids all snug in their beds so I could wrap the presents my husband and I had stashed away for months.

Once the kids were sound asleep, I pulled out my rolls of festive paper and cellophane tape and got ready to wrap the mountain of gifts I had spread out across my bed.

As I wrapped the gifts, I enjoyed looking at the celebratory paper with its snowmen, silver bells, jolly Santas and colorful candy canes as I pulled some off each roll. Wanting my three sons to enjoy the paper too, I made sure to cover each child’s gifts with an assortment of various designs and colors.

After hours of wrapping, I carefully placed each child’s gifts in a neat pile. Since they were too young to read name tags, I figured I could at least direct them to their personal stack of presents. After placing each stack around the bottom of the tree, I turned off the lights and went to sleep.

I was awakened at the crack of dawn by the sound of the tearing and ripping coming from the living room.

I thought, “Oh no! The boys started without us.”

I quickly jumped out of bed to stop them!

When I rounded the corner to the living room, I felt that sinking feeling in my stomach as I witnessed my middle son playing with a pile of gifts he had opened. The thing was, he opened all the gifts.

As I was reeling with disappointment, his older brother whizzed past me and headed toward some gifts. He didn’t seem to care that his brother opened them. He simply dove right in and enjoyed the fun.

At that moment I reminded myself Christmas was about forgiveness, and I needed to be forgiving. Besides, the kids were having a great time. So I brushed my disappointment aside and joined in.

If you’re dealing with some hurts and disappointments this Christmas, a little forgiveness goes a long way.

• Annettee Budzban is a Christian author of the book “Letters To A Friend,” speaker, life and writing coach and nurse. She can be contacted at annetteebudzban@aol.com.