I had a friend who was hosting his family for Christmas, and it was a packed house. So packed that the best place for their 4–5-year-old son to sleep would be in a sleeping bag on the floor at the foot of Mom and Dad’s bed. Thankfully, he was at the age where anything presented as an adventure felt like something cool to do. Other than the normal stress of a very full house, things were going pretty well.
On the third or fourth night my friend is lying on the floor putting his son to bed, and trying to keep the experience of the floor fun says, “you got a real sweet setup down here. Are you having fun?” His son responds, “Yes! I like my sleeping bag. Teddy Bear can sit right here. And over there is where I can wipe my boogers.” As he happily points to the horror show on the bottom of the bed. It’s amazing what a kid can do after a couple nights of digging for gold.
Under the stress of accommodating houseguests, holiday plans, and now another mess to clean up this was not what he needed before bed. But in what he’s described as “God’s intervening wisdom” he decided to let this one pass. He just said, “that’s pretty gross, bud. Let’s not do that anymore,” and everyone went to sleep.
This time of year, you’re going to be around people you might only see a few times a year; people are going to run out of things to talk about, so they delve into opinions; and we all know that one person who is always looking for a fight. Don’t give in. Paul says, that is not what you learned from Jesus!
It’s okay to not engage, it’s okay to not take the bait, it’s okay to let minor things go uncorrected. Paul ends Ephesians 4 by saying, “31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
We can be kind because it’s Christmas.