Grinched - part 2 - Head Wasn’t Screwed on Just Right

Do you have holiday traditions? The things that you and your family do every year for Christmas or Thanksgiving. Maybe it’s the day after Thanksgiving and everyone in your family gets together and puts up the Christmas tree and other decorations. Maybe it’s going around the table at Thanksgiving dinner and express what you are thankful for. Maybe it’s opening up a special Christmas Eve present. Maybe it’s going to church for a Christmas Eve service with the family.

But there is something that looms in the shadows of those traditions and that is envy. We can now see what other people do for their traditions at our fingertips. We can compare our tree with their tree. We can see when they do something and how they do it and we feel like we didn’t do it right.

The Grinch was envious. He was envious of the Whos and their celebration of Christmas. He didn’t like the noise or food or them. The Grinch, I think, most of didn’t like the Whos JOY. He overall was mad that they were happy. He was mad that once a year on Christmas the Whos were filled with joy. I say that he was envious because deep down he wanted to be happy, but he was full of pride and didn’t want to face why he was mad at the Whos .

This is depicted in the most recent version of the Grinch story that has recently released. The Grinch had bottled up resentment for the Christmas holiday because of his past experiences on Christmas Day. He then realized, with the help of the Whos, that his bitterness wasn’t toward them or Christmas. It was toward the past that he hadn’t worked out for himself. He envied their joy, but he had it all along inside him.

I know with me sometimes my head isn’t screwed on just right and I can let envy steal my joy. I can get lost in what other people are doing with their family and their traditions. This causes me to lose sight of what is going on in my family and the traditions and things that we do that bring us joy.

Don’t let Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest steal your joy of the holidays.

Don’t allow your joy to get Grinched.

___________________

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