Let yourself smile, be crazy inspired, laugh, love & really live the gift of this life
just a little bit more this weekend…
Serving up only the Good Stuff for you & your people right here:
< this winter glory is a feast for the eyes! >
– encouragement for your heart this weekend –
feeling distracted by all the tinsel?
might you this season embrace the stillness and quietness before the Lord.
well isn’t this just the sweetest thing you’ve seen all week?! < heart swell >
if you’re having trouble counting gifts this season – read this!
community is out there–don’t be afraid to be brave and find it
“We who walk in darkness deep
Now see the light of morning
The Mighty God, the Prince of Peace
A child to us is born“
Post Of The Week From Around These Parts
Okay, honestly — there are days at the beginning of Advent that I dare ask:
Is the Light really coming when we’re all living with busted relationships, when time’s ticking loud & parts of our hearts have soundlessly detonated, when lament is the dialect of every honest Advent?
If parts of your life are waiting for the Light, is parts of your Advent feel like a lament, you aren’t alone & my heart literally leaps with hope over this:
The Laments of Advent:
When It Doesn’t Feel Like the Light’s Coming Fast Enough
< this might just be the sweetest thing to come from an accidental text message >
oh what contagious joy! all smiles over here!
oh what this boy to love, to serve? sheer delight!
#BeTheGift
the holidays can be so festive and conversations can be so hard.
How about some encouragement for those hard conversations?
this podcast is *well* worth a listen – on trees, space, community, and experiencing the presence of Christ—
a conversation with Andrew Peterson
Unlock The Door To The Happiest Holiday Season Today
Kristen Welch and I are sorta, kinda, soul sisters? As I’ve served on the board of directors of the ministry Kristen founded, Mercy House Global, and we daily serve together to dream up for you the best #FAIRTRADE beauty of The Grace Flame and The Grace Case that 100% supports the Kenyan maternity homes of Mercy House — so I get to see it first hand again and again, what we can all do together to change the world for women, if we say our brave yes.
Mercy House Global has provided a second chance home to more than 70 teen pregnant teens in their work to empower vulnerable families in Jesus’ name with hope and opportunity.
This month alone, five new girls between the ages of 14 and 15 have been welcomed.
Would you give your best gift today to help Mercy House Global meet urgent needs?
how these ones go over and above to include this amazing girl… simply inspiring! #BeTheGift
okay! how fun are these?!
just for fun–the prettiest salt dough ornaments to make this season
how to write a Christmas card! yes!
For when the ink dries up and we can’t find the right words to write to those we love.
You know it — how the most wonderful time of year can be a really tender time of year for a whole lot of weary folks.
The unlikely, but unbelievably powerful key, to truly destressing the holidays — starts here.
Read this at the beginning of December — and change the rest of the month:
The Powerful Backstory of Your Christmas Tree-& Your Christmas-Can Truly Destress You
Want to Hush all the Hurry &
Destress Your Soul This Holiday?
Tap play on the video below & come join us on the farm, as we light a candle & take a moment to hush the hurry, and intimately encounter the very real & enfolding presence of Jesus with us here, right here:
Every day, beginning today and right up to Christmas Day, we’re inviting you to the farm to light a candle with us through a small and simple video like this one. Delivered right to your inbox, so that you don’t have to try catch it in the middle of all the noise of the internet, we’ll send it right to your quiet everyday.
To get this visual experience and join us on the farm every day, simply be sure you are subscribed to our email family, so you don’t miss out on any of the daily videos, along with all the beautiful and completely FREE gifts we’ve created for you this Christmas.
And when you join…you get exclusive access to our “Spacious, Non-Anxious Christmas” page, full of free gifts and daily de-stress videos:
printable art prints, greeting cards, gift tags, lock screens, and more!
AND get all 25 of our “Holiday Sticky Notes for Your Soul” as a free printable, available for you to download as part of our bundle of free gifts, with our deepest thanks for being a part of our email family.
With a 2-sided option this year, you can hang these sticky notes up as your own adult Advent calendar, quietly counting the days to Christmas, and giving you the greatest Gift of all:
Spaciousness,
Non-anxiousness,
&
More of His presence,
the Prince of Peace Himself!
This year, let His wonder awaken you again, captivate you, capture your heart!
More Of Jesus Only — and have a STRESS-FREE, WONDER-FULL Christmas.
Read the whole Christmas Love Story, Tracing Our holy Family Tree, from Creation to Creche, with all 3 of our Advent Books:
Unwrapping the Greatest Gift
(family edition)
Best Inspirational Book
of the Year, CBA, 2016,
NYTimes Best Seller
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift:
Best Devotional &
Gift Book of the Year, Christian Book Association, 2019
(pop-up edition 14 in. tree, 25 days of readings & advent flap calendar, hiding all 25 Biblically inspired ornaments! For any age!)
So you don’t miss out on Jesus this year & the The Greatest Christmas.
More Resources for the Greatest Christmas
Find even more FREE printables & resources at www.thegreatestchristmas.com
Here’s a few that we think you’ll enjoy:
Jesse Tree Ornaments
to Coordinate with The Greatest Gift
(use code from your book)
Jesse Tree Ornaments
to Coordinate with Unwrapping the Greatest Gift
Coloring Pages
Coloring Ornaments
This Advent, the tried and true traditions will hold us and the new ones will ignite us and this is the truest story I know:
When our holidays are about Staying in the Story, being with Him — Peace leads us — and we can have ourselves The Greatest little Christmas yet!
this might just be the soul exhale you need this weekend – grab a warm cup and sit and enjoy the beauty and stillness of God’s creation
“There’s only One strong enough to save
There’s only One who overcame the grave
There’s only One whose worthy of all praise
His name is Jesus…
His name is Wonderful Counselor,
Almighty God”
[from our Facebook community–join us?]
Advent is the last, darkest hour of the year,
and this is the season not to merely get ready for Christmas,
but to get ready for the coming of Christ.
Advent doesn’t deny the dark within us,
Advent isn’t afraid of the dark around us,
Advent doesn’t rush through the dark ahead of us,
Advent sits in the dark and yearns for the Light
of the only One who went to the Tree of Calvary,
to shatter the dark for all of us.
Advent is waiting for the One true Light —
otherwise, what we proclaim is light is actually dark,
and that is a weight no soul can bear.
Advent says the fault is not in our stars–
the fault is in how we walk in the dark and call it light.
In all these days of uncertainty,
Advent is trusting in His certain coming, and coming again:
Christ comes uninvited to the woman who feels all wrong
and He whispers that He makes all things right,
Christ comes uninvited to the prodigal running hard
and fast and He binds His heart fast to theirs,
Christ comes uninvited into the hopelessness
of our darkest places and turns on the light —
because He turns our hearts to Him.
Because the Light, it can’t be stopped, and it won’t be stopped —
and in through the broken-hearted cracks of the world,
in through all our shards —
even now, on the first Sunday of Advent,
the light comes in like a benediction.
The Light always surely coming through His rescuing Tree.
That’s all for this weekend, friends.
Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth.
Give Thanks. Love well. Re – joy, re- joy, ‘re- joys’ again
Share Whatever Is Good.
