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Even my Christmas Chicken is Sideways
Sometimes life feels sideways. Recently, my husband and I parted ways to attend various Christmas activities at our respective places of work. He was fortunate enough to take our three children with him to his event while I sat through a quiet adult evening. When my husband came home, he informed me that the front door to our house had been left wide open for the duration of his two hour trip. I am happy to report that we did not acquire any new neighborhood cats during that time. I came home from my event later in the evening to find our decorative Christmas chicken lying on its side in…
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Approaching Advent
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Plan Ahead for Meaningful Holidays: Make This The Year You Get It Right
A ceramic pumpkin centerpiece still decorates my table. And we have yet to plan the Thanksgiving menu. Maybe instead of turkey we’ll have breakfast for dinner like we did last year—complete with Eggs Benedict slathered in Hollandaise sauce. For some of us it feels a bit early to plan now for the Christmas season. But the first Sunday in Advent falls on November 27 this year. And we want to experience a sane, wise holiday season, right? We want to eschew the insanity that often comes with the celebration. And that requires some planning. And so I give you my annual list of seven suggestions. Here’s the 2022 offering. Select…
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Returning God’s Love
The story of the Christ Child begins with Christmas, with the wonder of God giving His only Son to come as a baby and live among us. There is an important lesson for us to remember that goes beyond Christmas. The Gospel message isn’t just for salvation it is for living our everyday lives by the power of God’s Spirit which we receive at salvation. Christ in us!
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Surprised by Christmas
Wide-eyed wonder. Snow-covered trees. Bow-draped packages. It’s the quintessential picture of Christmas portrayed in commercials and on cards. But as adults we know the season is seldom so simplistic. The first Christmas certainly wasn’t. It was marked by surprises—but not necessarily the kind most of us would choose on our own. Mary’s life was interrupted by an angelic visitor, proclaiming news that would forever change the course of her life and her position in history. Joseph found out his fiancé was expecting a child that wasn’t his own, only to be visited by an angel in a dream who explained everything and told him to move forward with their marriage.…
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Christmas SHINY!
I love shiny. I love sparkly, glittery, light-filled, dazzling anything. My motto is, “If it don’t shine, it ain’t mine.” And I’m not alone. When women visit Dallas, one of the most popular places for friends to take them is to a huge store that sells thousands of pieces of costume jewelry with more bling than you can imagine. Why do so many of us like shiny? I think it’s because we are hard-wired for worship and we long for heaven where even the streets gleam with gold, and beautiful jewels and pearls abound. Heaven is a shiny, glorious place that radiates the beauty of a shiny, glorious Savior. But…
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Choosing Insignificance with Elizabeth and Joseph
“I want to write a book, but I don’t want anyone to read it.” This declaration to my husband describes my angst with writing, platforms, and my significance. Almost every time I open the Bible, I see a lesson or an application I want to share. My mind is filled with devotions, questions, and ideas. But in order for my messages to be read, they must be communicated somehow. So, I’ve tentatively put my words into public spaces, gradually increasing my boldness. I’ve added a few hashtags along the way and expanded to more platforms. Yet even as I’m growing more comfortable with this, I’m reticent. After all, why would…
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No Room in the Inn
The angel affirmed, “Nothing is impossible with God!” Yet Mary gave birth to God incarnate in a barn because there was no room for them in the inn. God chose not to make room for Joseph, Mary, and Jesus in comfort. Why…
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God sees your fear; Facing fear through the Christmas story
Fight or flight. This little quip has been used over the years to describe our natural response to fear. Fear is a complicated thing. Fighting through fear can be a long process, one that isn’t contained in one simple movement of choosing to fight. In the same way, if we choose to run from our fears, it is possible for our fears to follow us, no matter where we go. The birth of Jesus was a time of both majesty and fear. For the shepherds, the evening of Jesus’ birth might have been described as traumatic for those who were present. In the darkness of the night, in what was…
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The Shadow Over Christmas is the Cross
Christmas, for many, is colored with twinkling lights, the sound of singing, bright colored packages topped with elegant bows, cookies, candy, parties and laughter. But for others, Christmas is colored with the stark reality of roaring fires that ravage neighborhoods, hospital rooms, funeral homes, broken relationships, drunken relatives, or memories of those whose faces are missing from their lives. As we teach our children about Jesus, God’s greatest gift to the world, we must not forget to teach them that the manger was shadowed by a cross. The Messiah in the manger was destined to be a man of sorrows acquainted with all our grief, bearing all our sin and…