With Advent upon us and the start of the new liturgical year, we tend to get lost in making the Christmas season perfect. We look for that perfect gift. We look to make sure none of our family members will start World War III by talking politics during the holidays. Then, there's the bringing up of the family feud from twenty years ago. Not to mention the crankiness from the children for Santa not bringing them what they want.

As Christmas approaches, it always amazes me how cranky people really can be. Advent is sometimes called the "little Lent”.  Many Christians fast and give up things for Advent. Other people give things up to prepare for their New Years resolutions. It is a way for us to prepare for Christmas.

Since I like to overthink everything, why can’t humans give up crankiness for Advent? It became clear to me that I need to give up crankiness this Advent. If I can stop complaining and being cranky, then maybe I will see the true joy of the holiday season.

Advent means preparing our hearts for Jesus. It is easy to prepare my house for Christmas. It is easy to put up decorations. It is easy to send Christmas cards. It is easy to prepare dinners for people who have no one. It is easy to make cookies. It is easy to buy presents. However, it is also very easy to be cranky. It is easy to lose our temper because the woman in front of us takes forever paying at the register. It is easy to cut off someone driving because we are late due to travel. It is easy to not say please and thank you. It is easy to say, "Someone else will do it."

This Advent, as I am preparing my environment for Christmas, why not prepare my heart for the birth of Jesus? In preparing my heart for Jesus, maybe if I lose my crankiness, then I will see the season in a better light. Just maybe my heart will be able to see Jesus in everyone else during the season. Maybe I will have more patience to sit in traffic. Maybe I will have more patience for the person who is taking forever to pay. If I decide not to be cranky, then maybe my non-crankiness will wear off on someone else. My patience may just be what another person needs. By allowing others to see Christ in me, I just may be showing others that Christ is still alive in the secular world.

I pray that we all prepare our own hearts for Advent. I pray that we all see the excitement of Advent in the same love of a child. I pray that we all have more patience to see Christ in each person that we meet as we prepare our hearts for this wonderful Christmas season.