Hope for the Hard Holidays

Guest Post for Deeply Rooted Magazine 

 By Kara Ranck
PC: Unsplash

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year! There'll be much mistltoeing, and hearts will be glowing when loved ones are near… ” proclaims the famous Christmas song by Andy Williams. But are those words true of your holiday?

Stop for a minute and picture your favorite Christmas memory from childhood. For many of us, our childhood memories of Christmas appear magical. This was back before we understood that carols might be drowning out intense adult conversations, or that twinkling lights blinded us to the angry looks passed between relatives. Back before we knew the realities of life in a fallen world with fallen people—even during “the most wonderful time of the year.”

We desperately long to go back to those magical memories, because we know now holidays can be hard. Many of us try to replicate those past enchanted celebrations for our own family and children, but end up feeling like we fail simply because our image of the perfect holiday has already been shattered...

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Kara Ranck lives with her husband, two preschoolers, and cows on their family dairy farm in Pennsylvania. Kara curates The Rock + a Hard Place, a collective site of essays giving testimonies of how God (the Rock) meets people in their hard places. 

 You can follow on Instagram @therock.and.ahardplace or the blog at https://www.therockandahardplace.com 
This site is a collection of real stories by real people about The Rock in their hard places. It is curated and edited by Kara Ranck, who is a wife and mother of two children living in Pennsylvania. Kara herself has traveled some hard places in life and knows there is hope and power when we tell our personal stories about The Rock, which brings us through. Thank you for joining us here!

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