Holidays Archives - Holley Gerth

I’m Celebrating You Today

It’s Mother’s Day and there’s a myth that says there’s only one way to be a Mama. But Eve is called “the mother of all living” and I’m declaring all women are mamas because all women bring life to the world in some way.

So here’s to you–the ones who bring life into this world with your words and your hearts, your hands and your minds, who encourage and create, who help us be better and stronger and braver.

If you have a physical child, we celebrate you. If you don’t, we celebrate you. Let’s never allow our hearts to believe anything other than this: We all matter. We all make a difference. We all have much that’s good and beautiful to bring into this world. Happy Mother’s Day to all of us.

XOXO,
Holley

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Christmas Hope

by Holley 63 Comments

{my graphics are free goodies for you}

I pull the nativity set from the box, releasing it from its blanket of bubble wrap. The pieces are ceramic. Pure white. The donkey is missing half an ear. It belonged to my grandmother and every year I think of her when I set it on my shelf.

She had polio at age twenty-eight and spent most of her years in a wheelchair. I loved the patterns her wheels left in the carpet, like a trail to somewhere secret and magical.

A pastor came to visit her in the hospital. He said, “Frances, this can make you bitter or better.” She would always say, with a twinkle in her eyes, “I chose better.” I run my fingers across the baby in the manger as I tell myself this story again. The Jesus in this nativity will always mean hope to me because of it.

It seems every nativity set comes with a story. Maybe it’s an heirloom full of memories, a special purchase on an outing that brings back a cocoa-scented moment, a relic from childhood with beloved dust in the cracks, a gift from a friend that came in a package with a red bow on top.

What I love about all these nativities is that Jesus is unique in each one. In my nativity He is hope and to someone else He might be a reminder of peace and to you He could be comfort and joy. Oh, who He is doesn’t change. But how His love reveals itself in our lives is different in each of our hearts, each of our homes. This is beautiful to me. A kind of Christmas mystery that I will never fully understand on this spinning, broken earth.

When you think of Jesus, what’s a word that comes to mind like “hope” does for me? I’d love for you to share your word by leaving a comment on this post. (Subscribers, to leave a comment please click here to visit the blog post.) This Christmas Jesus is my…(hope, peace, joy, help, Savior, etc.).

I arrange the pieces of the nativity. I step back and smile. Then I set Jesus at the center, exactly where He should be.

Merry Christmas to you and those you love. I’m so grateful for you.

XOXO

Holley Gerth

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Right now, we’re doing a special link-up series to celebrate Fiercehearted: Live Fully, Love Bravely. You’re a fiercehearted woman so I’m asking you to pour out a little love and courage with your words every Wednesday {the link-up goes live at 5:30am CST}. Simply write an encouraging blog post, especially if it’s about living fully and loving bravely, and then share it here. Don’t have a blog? You can still write an encouraging comment. If you’re reading this by email, go to holleygerth.com to see all the fun and join in too.

When you link up your post, take a moment to leave an encouraging comment on the one that’s linked up just before yours. Thanks, friends!

I’m having Coffee For Your Heart with my friend Holley Gerth!

{click to tweet that you’re joining me here today}

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What Gift Can You Give Yourself this Christmas?

by Holley 31 Comments

{my graphics are free goodies for you}

Gift-giving is not my strong suit. I stand in the aisles of stores slack-jawed with my eyes glazed over. I don’t know how to choose between the Cranberry Cinnamon Scone candle or the Christmas Cookie one. I just get hungry and go home empty-handed. Or if I dare to pick one it turns out to actually smell like the poor old pumpkin that has been on the porch since Halloween.

I’m not only like this with gifts for other people; I’m the same way with myself. I need quiet and instead I say “yes” to one more event on the calendar. I desperately want peace and instead make a to-do list so long it rivals Santa’s. I long for joy and yet I tell myself the holidays need to be perfect until I’m gritting my teeth and stress-eating candy canes leftover from last year. Ever been there?

So I, quite audaciously, decided to pause and intentionally ask this question: “What gift am I going to give myself this Christmas?”

I already have pink fuzzy socks and flannel pajama pants with hearts on them so I settled on this: Permission to rest.

What does rest look like to me? It’s the little things: a nap, a cup of tea, a few moments sitting with my husband on the couch, a cozy blanket, a “no” instead of “yes” sometimes, leftovers for dinner. And, perhaps most of all, giving the critical voice inside my head the holiday season off. I’m sending her somewhere sunny like Florida or the Caribbean or Australia. Anywhere that’s far enough away that I can’t hear her. A one-way ticket, I hope.

I used to think “rest” was selfish, but then two things happened:

I read a whole lot of research that showed happier people are more giving, kind and generous.

And a friend said something to me that I’ll never forget: “Sometimes rest is an act of worship.”

Both of these makes good sense to me. So I’m picking “permission to rest” as a gift to myself because I know if I do then this gift will ultimately be passed on to the people I love and the Savior I serve and this weary world.

I may never be the best gift-giver, but I’m slowly learning. Maybe next year I’ll even be brave enough to venture back into the candle aisle.

What gift would you like to give yourself this Christmas? I’d love for you to share your answer by leaving a comment on this post. (Subscribers, to leave a comment please click here to visit the blog post.)

XOXO

Holley

P.S. If you, like me, are challenged at picking gifts, then this might be helpful. If you order five copies of Fiercehearted from my bookstore, you’ll save $10 and also receive this Be Strong and Courageous necklace (while supplies last). You can find all the information right here.

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When you link up your post, take a moment to leave an encouraging comment on the one that’s linked up just before yours. Thanks, friends!

I’m having Coffee For Your Heart with my friend Holley Gerth!

{click to tweet that you’re joining me here today}

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What’s Your One Word for Christmas?

by Holley 59 Comments

{my graphics are free goodies for you}

Here is a true and honest confession: Christmas and all its beautiful hoopla can sometimes drive me about half-crazy. This is not the fault of Christmas, of course. It’s purely my own neurotic self.

Shortly after Thanksgiving I start believing that since it’s the most wonderful time of the year then I must build gingerbread skyscrapers and create intricate snowflake designs in the carpet with the vacuum and give puppies wearing red bows to strangers standing in line with me at Starbucks.

I need an intervention. A focus. A way to remember this season is really all about Jesus and not about sewing an elf costume by hand with one eye closed while sipping homemade eggnog and singing Christmas carols with the neighbors.

(In case you’re thinking I ever actually do any of these things, I don’t. I just imagine doing them. And this is enough to bring on the crazy.)

So this Christmas I’ve decided to pick one word that will be my mantra and the rope that pulls me back from the brink of merry madness. My word this year is going to be…simplicity.

Simplicity means it’s okay to get the premade cookie dough at the store.

It means I have permission to nap instead of do vacuum art.

It means I treat my holiday sanity like a package under the tree marked “fragile.”

It means I love imperfectly in the ways I can and let go of the rest.

It means, most of all, that I remember Christmas isn’t about me. It’s simply about a baby named Jesus.

Would you like to join me in choosing one word for your Christmas? If so, I’d love for you to leave a comment sharing it. (Subscribers, to leave a comment please click here to visit the blog post.)

Whew, I feel better already.

XOXO

Holley

P.S. Are you looking for Christmas gifts? Then I’d love for you to stop by my bookshop. If you order five copies of Fiercehearted from my bookstore, you’ll save $10 and also receive this Be Strong and Courageous necklace too (while supplies last). You can find all the information right here.

*****

When you link up your post, take a moment to leave an encouraging comment on the one that’s linked up just before yours. Thanks, friends!

I’m having Coffee For Your Heart with my friend Holley Gerth!

{click to tweet that you’re joining me here today}

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A Different Kind of Gratitude

by Holley 23 Comments

{my graphics are free goodies for you}

The sky outside is a dense, soaked grey today. It reminds me of earlier this year when my husband and I watched from our living room window as menacing clouds rose up in the distance then stretched their fingers tentatively toward the ground. We live in tornado country and we don’t take such sights lightly. Flipping on the television, we heard the weatherman telling us to find a safe place as he pointed to splotches of red on the map. We went to our designated spot and took a moment to pray as the tree limbs began to sway outside.

The dark masses soon gave way to brilliant blue again. The wind quieted and we stepped back into the rhythm of our routine. It was not until hours later as I curled up in my cozy bed under a pile of warm blankets that it occurred to me to say “thank you” to God for what didn’t happen that day.

I mentally scrolled through the list of other disasters I’d narrowly missed in life. The bad-news boy I had a huge crush on as a teenager. The suspicious test results that worried the doctor but turned out to be nothing at all. The countless times I’ve asked God to keep my husband safe as he headed out for a bike ride and then watched him walk back through the door sweaty and smiling hours later.

And, yes, I understand that even if the storm wreaks havoc, the unwelcome diagnosis comes or the heart gets broken we are still to say thanks. I have experienced firsthand the mysterious, hard beauty that can come from tears and ashes. But the place where I seem to most often miss an opportunity to be grateful is when everything turns out fine and I just go on my merry way.

God invites us to say thanks then, too. First, simply because He is worthy of it. “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good” (Psalm 106:1). What He prevents in our lives is just as full of gifts as what He allows.

Also, this kind of gratitude can cure so much of our discontent. When I think of how I could be suddenly homeless after a storm, I smile a bit more at the roof over my head and don’t notice that stain in the carpet as much. When I recognize I might be in the hospital instead of sitting in a little coffee shop with my computer, it puts that envy-provoking picture on social media into proper perspective. When I think of all the turns my story could have taken, the rocky patches in the road of my relationships don’t seem quite as much like boulders.

This year as I sit down for Thanksgiving dinner I want to express my appreciation for all that’s right in front of me—good food, memories being made, dear friends and family. But I also want to thank God for all that isn’t there, for what could have been if things had gone another way or even if I had always gotten my way.

Yes, gratitude is about what we can see. But I’m learning it’s also about what, thankfully, will never be.

XOXO,

Holley

P.S. I’m incredibly grateful for you, friend! I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your loved ones. I’m saying a special thank you today that 17 girls were sponsored through Compassion International — by you! — for my 40th birthday. If you’re considering giving back this upcoming Giving Tuesday, I highly recommend sponsorship through Compassion. They are kindly still offering to send a free copy of my new book, Fiercehearted, to those who sponsor through this link. {The link may have trouble on mobile, but it opens easily when using a desktop!}

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When you link up your post, take a moment to leave an encouraging comment on the one that’s linked up just before yours. Thanks, friends!

I’m having Coffee For Your Heart with my friend Holley Gerth!

{click to tweet that you’re joining me here today}

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