Ever since Christmas 2021 when I realized that Christmas 2022 would be on a Sunday, I have been looking forward to it as a big milestone for myself. You see, it was in 2016 that Christmas was last on a Sunday. And that was the day I realized that there was hope for my life to be better. (If you want to learn all about that experience, you can read this post.) I had grown so much, learned so much, become so much stronger in the years between 2016 and 2021, and yet, last Christmas, and especially through January, I was in a very dark place again. After the two diagnoses of Type 1 Diabetes and the stress of around the clock shots, and dealing with Portia’s grief along with my own, I felt completely crushed by the stress of each day. I have always tried to look to the Savior for help and strength; but I needed Him more than ever this time.

One day when I was feeling particularly broken, I remembered a talk by Sharon Eubank. In her talk she mentioned that sometimes “life hurts so much we can’t breathe” but “Jesus comes along.” I felt like I really understood the idea of life hurting so much I couldn’t breathe. But I wondered how to get Jesus to “come along” right now. Sister Eubank gives the answer to that in her talk as well. She says “But what are the practical steps? What is the key to reconnecting to the power of Jesus Christ when we are flickering? President Russell M. Nelson said it very simply: ‘The key is to make and keep sacred covenants. … It is not a complicated way.’ Make Christ the center of your life.” So my covenants were the answer? But I thought “All these things I have kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?” (Matthew 19:20) But as I earnestly sought an answer to my overwhelm in my covenants, Heavenly Father showed me a way in which I could allow more room for Him in my tired heart and mind. As I made efforts to follow through on the prompting I received, I felt a change. A big one. It was hard to put a finger on exactly what the Savior had done for me; I just knew that I felt Him and His love and His strength.

And countless, tiny promptings that led to countless, incremental changes in my life and heart have given me so much more joy, hope, and determination than I had at the beginning of 2022.

Christmas of 2016 was unforgettable for me, and it was special for me to celebrate the past 6 years of the Savior working miracles in my life on Christmas 2022. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and His restored Gospel in my life! I am grateful that these years of difficulty and growth have strengthened my testimony that Christ’s power to heal is real! It is such a privilege, in this modern world of chaos, to have an anchor of hope. And I was blessed to remember that extra this year.

I feel like Christmas Sundays will forever be a special day for me to reflect on the ways the Savior of the world, whose birth we celebrate that day, has saved me. I feel like every day is a day I enjoy reflecting on that; but I also like having extra milestones. 🙂 I’m excited to see what Christ makes of me by 2033 when we get a Sunday Christmas again!