“Do it a‘gin, Daddy!” & the Elusive Power of “re-do’s"

This time of year, I’m reminded, actually flooded, with memories of my growing-up-years-Christmases. Daddy would always set up the mammoth-sized video camera (one big enough to hold an entire VHS tape inside of it) upon its rightful place on a tripod in the corner of the living room, turn it on to record mode, and just let that thing take in whatever came across its path. 

Oh, the stories that thing could tell. 

Oh, the America’s funniest home videos competitions those VHS tapes could win.

Oh, the embarrassing-etched-forever-in-time-moments that thing has recorded. (Will, am I right? “Getty up, getty up, getty up, let’s gooooo.”)

While Dad was setting up the video camera, Mom was always busy baking the southern staples of Christmas “breakfast,” aka cinnamon rolls and probably pigs-in-a-blanket. Somehow, in the midst of all that, one of my parents corralled all five of us kids and convinced us to eat breakfast and watch a parade on tv or something before all the present-opening-madness commenced. Oh, and we readied ourselves to call the last kid who woke up for the day “lazy” for the day’s entirety. I can hear it now, "Oh hey Lazy!" "So-and-so is so lazy today!" "Hey, why are you so Lazy?"

Even before all of this occurred on Christmas morning, one of my long-time memories (brought to my mind by watching and re-watching one of those handy leftover VHS tapes of yester-year) that will forever stay in my mind is the time when I was a toddleresque little thing and was bent “helping” my parents and at the time 2 older brothers decorate the Christmas tree. To my recollection, “we” did a mighty fine job of decorating that tree. We did such a good job of decorating it that as soon as all of the ornaments were hung, I begged my Daddy to “Do it a’gin!!!” Daddy calmly replies, “No, Rosemary, we’re not going to do it again.” But I think I remember myself being pretty insistent on the whole thing. ha. Oh, to have that toddler energy today. That passion for such little things, too. Looking back, it was probably just the perfectionistic tendencies already welling up inside my little personality that made me so bent on redoing the Christmas decorations once they were clearly already done being decorated.

As I’m approaching 32 years in this upcoming year and the Christmas season is already heavily upon us, I somehow find myself still inwardly chanting “Do it a’gin!” about some things in life. A lot of things, actually. Things I’ve done well and enjoyed. Things I haven’t done so well and regretted. Things I haven’t done at all and felt guilty about it. And though some things can be and are worth repeating, most things in life simply aren’t up for redo’s. And for the ones that are, ask yourself, once you get a chance to “redo” those things, are they going to be good enough that time around, or will it take a round 3 and 4 and…? You get the idea. 

Redo’s aren’t fix-alls. It’s something that my wise ole Daddy knew way back in circa 1989 that my little mind couldn’t possibly conceive. 

And it’s something our Heavenly Father knows about each of us even today. 

If we’re honest, we all have things in life we’d like to re-do. Things we’ve done well. Things we’ve done poorly. Things we’ve neglected altogether. But this Christmas season, instead of focusing on all the redo’s that we surely could pile on our plates and we could allow to weigh heavily on our minds, let’s focus on the things we can do well in the present. Let the past be the past. Let the future take care of itself. But let today, most of all, be a gift worth giving by being present, being there, caring, loving, serving, and doing for those God has so strategically placed in our families and in our lives.

{Oh, and whether you decorated your Christmas tree to Pier-One-style-perfection this year, or let your sweet-little-bundles-of-toddlerhood-joy “help” with it, it matters not. Don’t try to perfectionize the memory out of it. Find a way to seal its memory in your mind. Scrap it into a book somewhere, if that’s your thing. Take a picture (or a VHS?). Learn to enjoy what is, instead of what could be. Free yourself up from the elusive power of “re-do.” Most of all, take time to thank your Daddy, both earthly and Heavenly, that He has the wisdom to let you not get stuck in the re-do but to keep you moving forward to the next big thing He has planned for you and your life.}