First, this Christmas, I think we should all be encouraging (not nagging--i.e., discouraging) our men to lead our family (meaning our children and us) in a time of thankfulness to the Father for His great gift on Christmas.  This can be whatever your husband feels it needs to be (please let go of your visions and let him lead).  If he'd like it to be a time of prayer, or song, or story, or some other creative time, encourage him to follow the Lord's leading.  Our society is so wrapped up in commercialism and consumerism this time of year and unfortunately many of our families (and especially our young children) are being drawn into this way of thinking.  Don't say "Happy Holidays", emphasize "Merry CHRISTmas."  We are celebrating Christ, let's remember that.

My second thought is this--this time of year, we women can turn into little Martha's, running around making sure that everything is perfect.  If you are blessed with an awesome husband like I am, he will always (or at least often) be ready to help with whatever needs to get done.  This is great--team work.  Actually, I have two thoughts on this....First, let us pray together, women, that when our husbands are so loving to help us, we will not be picking at their work and letting them know everything they did wrong.  We don't want to be a dripping faucet, do we?  We don't want our men to prefer living on the rooftop rather than with us, do we? (Proverbs 21:9)  Let us praise our men for the work that they accomplish, knowing full well that the Maker of the universe created them differently on purpose.  They have different ideas, visions, thoughts, and different things they notice.  Forget the perfect image this Christmas (perfect clothes, food, house, things, etc.) and work, instead, on a marriage with perfect oneness.  My second thought about this issue is this--there are things that need to get done for the holidays, yes, but do we find ourselves in an unbiblical role reversal when we are running the show?  In other words, is our husband becoming our "helper" in our ministry, instead of us becoming HIS helper as God originally intended?  Eve wasn't created with her own ministry, she was created as Adam's helper.  I'm not saying it's wrong for women to be ministering in any way (this website, or any women's ministry program for that matter, wouldn't be happing if that were the case--and think of how many women are growing and coming to know Christ through such ministries!).  I'm just saying that our ministries (even ministering to family members through beautifully wrapped gifts or delicious cookies) should never precede those that the Lord is leading our husband to.  We were created second, we were created to be his helper.  Let's remember our role this CHRISTmas season, ok ladies?