The Christmas Edition: Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [12.21.19]

Happy, happy, happy weekend!  

Some real, down in the bones JOY to celebrate today! Links & stories this week 100% guaranteed to make you smile a mile wide & believe like crazy in a Good God redeeming everything — and that there’s love everywhere & for ((you))! 

Serving up only the Good Stuff for you & your people right here:

Meg Loeks 
Meg Loeks 
Meg Loeks 
Meg Loeks 
Meg Loeks 

long pause: take in all the breathtaking beauty and wonder of the season right here

a Christmas never to ever forget — when it’s shared with a friend

‘Anybody need a grandma for Christmas?’: Craigslist ad touches hearts

Jakub Perlikowski 
Jakub Perlikowski 
Jakub Perlikowski

can you even?!!? extraordinary ice caves in Iceland… these and more, must come see!

the story behind ‘It Is Well With My Soul’

kindness is contagious… let’s be kind

Want to preach Gospel to yourself?
Free Stress-Free Holiday Sticky Notes for Your Soul, right here: No Stress Holiday Manifesto

Print this set of 25 Note Cards, one for each day in December.

For mirrors and sinks and dashboards, for pockets and walls and office cubicles. For this Christmas.

Each card is an affirmation, a prayer, for each day this month.

They are quotes from The Greatest Gift and Unwrapping the Greatest Gift, rewritten to be words that you can pray every day,

to keep the focus…to celebrate Christ!

some really clever wrapping ideas – so who knew?!?

so we gathered ’round this one!

David Hemmings
David Hemmings
David Hemmings 

anyone else wanna squeeze in for a warm hug?

the very, very long wait: for those gifts you just can’t wait to give

every year right about now: The Thrill of Hope

because we all need to be found

THIS: anything really is possible

tears: 25 Reasons to Praise God This Christmas

because we all need someone to believe in us

never, ever give up

yes, yes, yes: Messiah

… to be honest — well, sometimes you just have to get really real about your marriage —

because maybe this is meant for somebody right now:

What Can Turn Around A Marriage

Light of the World: this one never, ever gets old

Our favorite family heirloom 

…yeah, it can end up being mighty hard some days to scrounge up much peace when you’re a liar, a thief, a cheat. When you’ve wrecked holy things of home and hearts, crushed your priceless people with expectations, been a hypocrite in more than a thousand wincing ways.

Ask me how I know.

But there’s a way for all of us who are burdened by brokenness to find peace this season:

The Key to Quit Anxiousness through the Holidays

Amen: The Reason for Christmas Day

Hard family stuff at Christmas? Yep, right there with you.

Kinda heartbroken over some unspoken broken? Yeah, that.

Where in the world is a bit of the real Christmas Spirit? Yep.

How a Charlie Brown Christmas like this is just for us:

Why a Little Charlie Brown Christmas is best (About Fears & Heartbreak & Hard Families At Christmas)

When Hope Came Down

Come experience a Christmas that restores your Hope again 

Jesus came down — and a bit of heaven can begin now, even here. With every step, we are walking into our forever now. Come let Jesus touch your wounds & heal your hurt with His tender Hope.
This Advent, Stay in the Story that the rest of your year, your family, will need.

3 Award-Winning books for the Whole Family

The Greatest Gift (adult edition): Best Devotional of the Year, ECPA, 2014

Unwrapping the Greatest Gift (Family Edition): Best Inspirational Book of the Year, CBA, 2016

 The Wonder of the Greatest Gift: Best Devotional & Gift Book of the Year, CBA, 2019

(pop-up edition with your own 14 inch tree, 25 days of readings, 25 day advent flap calendar, hiding all 25 Biblically inspired ornaments! For any age) 

When our holidays are about Staying in the Story, being with Him —
Hope finds us again — and we have ourselves The Greatest little Christmas yet!

again and again: His Name Shall Be

never a Christmas without this one… absolutely exquisite

[ Print’s FREE here: ]

So we’re just going to go ahead & say it out loud here right now, Lord — that it’s easy for our hearts to snag on things & to be torn & for us to lose our hope.

It’s easy for us to have a hole in our heart & all our hope leak right out….

So we think that our crazy family can’t change,

that there’s no hope left for our hard things,

that the person looking back in the mirror at us hasn’t got a hope in a dark night of changing.

And You hold our hearts today & whisper:

“Wait with hope. Hope now; hope always!” Ps.131:3

Christ is coming! Christmas is coming!

And if Christ is coming — can anything overcome Him?

Light is always stronger than darkness!

When you really believe in Christmas —

you believe there is really Hope for everyone, for everything —

for every moment, even us.

And our hearts kindle again into flame, Lord —

cupped in Your safely-carrying hands.

.

[excerpted from our little Facebook family … come join us each day?]

‪ Dare to fully live!

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.