Focus on What Matters Most

A Christmas-season reflection on endings, beginnings, and steadying our eyes on Jesus.

Every now and then, God uses something small to whisper something big.

A few years ago, when I attended a photography business conference, I came home with the usual stack of promotional items — pens, pamphlets, sample prints, and one soft t-shirt that read: “Focus on what matters most.”
At the time, it was just clever photography language. Choose your focal point. Highlight the subject. Tell the story sharply. 
I kept the shirt because it was comfortable and cute… but I didn’t know it would become a phrase God would weave into my daily life. Suddenly, I was whispering it to myself while cleaning the house, writing grocery lists, reminding boys to pick up their socks, and choosing how to respond in tense conversations.

Focus on what matters most.

Somewhere along the way, the phrase stopped being a photography motto and became my quiet mantra — my steadying inner voice of sanity. Not just in my home, not just in my business, but in ministry, in motherhood, in marriage, in every small moment where I had a choice in how to respond.
The shirt eventually became too big and turned into a sleep shirt — praise God for lost weight — but the phrase never shrank. It grew deeper.

Here’s what I realized: There is only one thing that matters most.

It’s Jesus. 

It’s the daily decision to love Him, follow Him, share Him, and let His voice be louder than the noise in my head. As we step into this season — the last weeks of the year, the beginning of Advent, the Christmas rush, the quiet reflections between December and January — this truth feels even more important.

Christmas is a season of beginnings:
A Savior born in a manger.
A Light entering the darkness.
Hope wrapped in swaddling cloths.

But it’s also a season of endings: 
The closing of another year. 
The letting go of things that weighed us down. 
The settling of dust on months that stretched us, broke us, or blessed us.

And in all that shifting — endings, beginnings, transitions, emotions, celebrations — it is so easy to get distracted.
But Scripture calls me back:

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith…”
— Hebrews 12:2
“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…”
— Matthew 6:33
“In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
— Proverbs 3:6

When our focus is on Jesus, everything else falls into its right place.
Not perfect. Not magically easy. But aligned. Clear. Steady.
Jesus modeled this Himself. In His ministry, He focused on relationships. He invested in people. He taught intentionally. He walked slowly enough to notice the hurting, the unseen, the overlooked. He was never rushed, never frantic, never distracted from His purpose.
And as I step into the swirl of December — the planning, traditions, gatherings, expenses, transitions — I can feel that same whisper returning:

“Focus on what matters most.”

Not the perfect tree. Not the perfect house. Not the perfect plans. Not the perfectly behaved children or perfectly coordinated family calendar.
Just Jesus. Just His presence. Just the love He came to give and the love we get to share.
As this year ends and a new one waits around the corner, I don’t know all my next steps. I don’t feel confident in every decision.

But I do know this:
If my eyes are on Him, my path will be straight. If I focus on what matters most, everything else will follow. And if I choose daily to reflect His love — in small ways, in quiet ways, in imperfect ways — then I am living the season as He intended. Christmas is busy. Life is busy. But the Savior who came in stillness invites us to refocus in stillness, too.

What might shift in your heart, your home, or your holidays if you intentionally focused on Jesus above everything else this season?

Lord, in this season of endings and beginnings, help me fix my eyes on You.
Quiet my heart, steady my mind, and remind me to set my focus on what matters most.
Teach me to lay distractions aside and follow Your leading with trust and gratitude.
May this Christmas be centered on Your presence, Your peace, and Your purpose for my life. Amen.

Until next time, keep following the Plott, and I will be praying for us all. 💛

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