An Excitingly Exhausting Nutcracker Week

~By Sharon Czerwien

My family just finished up an exciting Nutcracker week! My daughter was a lovely Party Girl and Cotton Candy.

Let me cut to the chase, though. Even though Nutcracker week is exciting (and worth it), it is also EXHAUSTING! A week or so before gearing up for dress rehearsals and four shows, I was bracing for impact.

Two of Our Fears

My daughter expressed worry about getting sick and missing performances. Honestly, I was worried about what Nutcracker week would physically do to my body because of my POTS health condition. I knew I would be working in my daughter’s dressing room for three of four shows, plus a whole heap of late nights. I especially could not imagine what Saturday would do to me physically.

Long story short, I knew I needed to guard my heart (no matter how inevitably “painful” and true the fears could wind up being) because worrying about things was not the way to go. Plus, I did not want to be a hypocrite by telling my daughter she should not spend time worrying about things completely out of her control (and then me “worrying away” on my end!).

So, I decided to make a plan. When my mind started to dwell on/worry about my physical strength for Nutcracker weekend, I would begin to tell myself, God’s got this! He is good no matter what happens.

I also aimed to pray the main lyric in the song, Good God Almighty (by David Crowder).

"Good God, Almighty, I hope you’ll find me praising Your name no matter what comes…"

There is so much more I would love to share about fear, but I will save that for another post in the new year!

For now, I just wanted to post a quick encouragement that God’s got this!

~Merry Christmas,

Sharon