celebrating
In the world we live in today we have forgotten how to celebrate. Celebrating is an ART!! I’m not just talking about a little hip, hip hooray but celebrating WELL!! Celebrating someone’s sacrifices, celebrating their strengths, celebrating with someone and their journey of who they are becoming and the process.
How do you celebrate? What does celebration mean?
In our household I am a master celebrator – I love celebrating birthdays, I give them my all! For Hadassah’s birthday last year, I somehow thought that getting two big bags of confetti and spreading it throughout the house was a good idea, lining up the confetti to her presents from the bedroom to the kitchen. She was ecstatic, and I couldn’t stop finding confetti around my house for the next few weeks.
Anyone that knows me well knows that I love celebrating others, and not just birthdays. I love seeing people win at what they’re doing and if I can support them and be their cheerleader, then I’m happy. I truly believe there is no greater honour.
See God is the master celebrator. You know we see all throughout scripture, in fact 8642 times, the triumph of God’s purposes celebrated. The word celebrate is a verb, it’s a doing word. It means to take part, to actively do, to acknowledge. You and I want to feel accomplished do we not? We want to attain our goals and see our dreams become a reality?
So, here’s a question for you…
How do you feel when someone in your world succeeds BEFORE you do? Do you celebrate them?
It’s like strengthening the celebration muscle. The muscle grows stronger the more we use it. The more we seek out moments to celebrate and appreciate one another, the more we will live a life filled with abundance. Nobody wants to be around someone who just tolerates them, they want someone who will celebrate them, someone to cheer them on, even if they are doing better than them.
Even as parents we can have a tension point of celebrating and correcting, don’t we? And don’t get me wrong, I definitely think we need both. These days however, whether it be a habit we have learnt over time, it is easier to automatically respond with correction rather than celebration. If it’s always correction, correction, correction and never celebration, people lose their confidence – their confidence to perform to their full potential, perform to their true calling.
I want to share with you 3 keys to the ‘Art of Celebrating’ and celebrating WELL.
Celebrate the Small
Zechariah 4:10 says:
‘Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin’
God celebrates when He sees the work beginning.
So often, the mistake we make is waiting until the total victory, the total dream, or promise to take place before we begin celebrating. I encourage you to not overlook the beginnings, the laying of foundations, the digging of the well. It’s simple, definitely not sexy, but it is worth celebrating with others. Even though it is unseen and most of the time unimpressive, it’s the beginning, the start, the seed that counts.
I whole-heartedly believe that the key to seeing your dream, goal or promise (whatever it may be) come to complete fulfilment, is by first celebrating the small. We need to start celebrating others on where they’re at, their small and simple yet significant victories. (i need to re-edit this bit)
Not long along, we were celebrating the birth of Jesus. Funny thing is, He was not born performing miracles, saving people from their sin or even quoting scripture. His life started out very similar to you and me. It says in Isaiah 9:6 ‘For to us a Child shall be born, to us a Son shall be given; And His name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.’
But Here’s the thing it was a process.
I think all of us, if we are truly honest with ourselves, have struggled with this at one point or another. We struggle to celebrate others in our world and celebrating WELL. The reason for that is because we are human!
We often find ourselves great at comparing and focussing on what we lack, yet when we actively surrender – let’s call it for what it is – our own pride and selfishness – it’s easier to make a sincere choice to cheer for those around us, and genuinely want the best for them.
Three things I’ve learnt in Celebrating the Small
Notice small wins
The small victories in our lives often go unnoticed, but small wins give us the strength to reach further and try to accomplish more. They are essential in our process of growth. I want to encourage you to take the time, notice the small wins in your life and appreciate them.
Get excited!
I’ve learnt as a mother - children get very excited about the small things and as adults, it becomes difficult to get excited about things we don’t qualify as big and significant. Get excited about small things, let it show.
Communicate small wins
Human beings are such a social bunch, aren’t we? We communicate with each other, we live to share our ideas and moments. If we experience a small victory, we should tell our people, our tribe, so that they can celebrate with us. This is why it’s so important to find a connect group, to find people to share life with. We are truely better together!!
Doing these 3 things help you celebrate the small wins.
2. Celebrate without comparison and unhealthy competition
This is the second key I believe to celebrating well as comparison breeds competition. One of the biggest causes of stress and anxiety is our human tendency to compare and compete. Social media promotes exactly that – we scroll through the newsfeed (on average 32 minutes a day) and we see a friend doing what we are doing, but better. Maybe they’ve just started something, and it’s taken off. Instantly we may feel a sense of loss – like we’re somehow not as good as them. Feelings of inadequacy begin to overwhelm us.
It is almost impossible not to compare but the problem is that this comparison can lead to an unhealthy competition. Competition in itself breeds innovation, it pushes us to be our personal best and it doesn’t automatically mean success, but it speaks of an appreciation and support for one another's journey. However, comparison does not motivate and lead to success. Comparison always leads us to ask, "why isn't my life like this, what am I lacking, what is wrong with me?" without a doubt it find faults and I’ve come to realise that when we stop comparing with others but rather instead celebrate them for who they are, we find true freedom within ourselves.
John 10:10 says…
‘I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.’
We cannot have an abundant life if we don't already feel abundant with what we currently have. Comparing our situations to others is sometimes a natural response and often we don’t even realise it. When we deliberately choose to celebrate others, we are making the choice to rejoice and celebrate where we are and where others are around us. Let's stop comparing ourselves to each other and start cheering on one another from the sidelines.
3.Celebrate what was, what is, and what’s to come
When I was pregnant with Hadassah, I remember Mark & I were going to the antenatal classes and I was shown the app ‘baby milestones’.
The app explained each milestone, at each stage what you should expect, what you should be looking for and celebrating. For me, that app was a life-saver because Hadassah was no textbook baby. Most of all, the app taught me how to celebrate each stage, giving me strength for the next stage, the next season.
I love how God is our perfect example of this, He celebrated the progress, He celebrated in the stages. This is how God created the world.
In Genesis we see that God doesn’t just wait until the seventh day to celebrate what He’s created. Each and every day He creates, and we read in Scripture that God saw it was good, meaning He acknowledged and celebrated small steps. I think we ought to do the same, acknowledge and celebrate what was, what is and what is to come!
How we can do that is to celebrate… just because! Celebrate who God is, rather than just what He can do for us.
Why don’t you ask yourself today and ask God who you can celebrate today, this week, or this month… and I encourage you to celebrate what God is doing through someone else.
There is this incredible quote that says…
‘Sometimes finding the one who loves and celebrates the person you are, is enough to slowly turn you into the person you always had the potential to be.’
Loving and celebrating someone is to understand their history, accept their present and nudge them into their future.