Gearing up for the holiday overeating season? Here are some tips on dealing with the busyness of an “over-seasoned” season.

Top Ten Signs Your Holiday Overeating is Out of Control

• You hunt for a turkey that’s bigger than a Volkswagen.
• You decide that the only gravy boat that goes with a VW-sized turkey is your husband’s twelve-foot bass boat.
• Your doctor decides you’d better get a cholesterol screening, but the finger prick yields cranberry sauce.
• You realize the red stripe on your belly is actually steering wheel burn.
• Your family invites Jenny Craig over—for your intervention.
• Jenny asks you to be her poster child.
• You’re inducted into The Little Smokie Hall of Fame.
• Your husband gives you an extra long strand of pearls for Christmas, but you can’t swallow when you wear them.
• You drop a turkey leg on your belly while having a snack—and you never find it.
• You notice you’re being orbited by a small moon.

Personally, I try to get a handle on overeating sometime before I notice the moon. That gravitational pull does such a number on my holiday hairdo.

Isn’t it amazing how our schedules can get “over-seasoned” too?

How Do You Spell Relief? K-I-N-G-D-O-M T-H-I-N-K-I-N-G

Activity-indigestion resulting from an overly spicy Christmas season can be relieved as we make sure we’re committed to genuinely worthy activities. Busyness isn’t condemned. It’s actually encouraged—even commanded.

We find perspective when we trade empty busyness for Kingdom busyness. We need to make sure the things we’re in a flurry over are the things that count in the Kingdom—the things that count eternally. 2 Timothy 2:1-7 says, “So, my son, throw yourself into this work for Christ. Pass on what you heard from me—the whole congregation saying Amen!—to reliable leaders who are competent to teach others. When the going gets rough, take it on the chin with the rest of us, the way Jesus did. A soldier on duty doesn’t get caught up in making deals at the marketplace. He concentrates on carrying out orders. An athlete who refuses to play by the rules will never get anywhere. It’s the diligent farmer who gets the produce. Think it over. God will make it all plain.” (MSG)

Will there still be little, nitty-gritty, seemingly unimportant activities crowding the Christmas to-do list? I’m afraid so. But as we sift our busyness through Kingdom thinking, we’re able to immediately spot more of the activities that are wholly in the non-Kingdom category. We can trim some of that holiday fat and focus on the true reason for the season: Jesus. As we cut some of the busyness, we find more time for serving him and sharing his love with those around us.

So when that indigestion starts to set in and we’re over-stuffed with fruitless holiday worries, let’s not let them crowd out our work for Christ. More Kingdom work—fewer sausages.

Excerpted from I’m Dreaming of Some White Chocolate: Christmas Reflections with a Little Holly and a Lot of Jolly by Rhonda Rhea (Fleming H. Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, MI, 2006), pp. 23-25.