{my graphics are free goodies for you}

I’m tempted to complicate Christmas. It’s easy to make it about what I do: about how well I can tie bows, and choose party outfits, and make small talk. About how the table is set and the ham is cooked. About how I sing in the service and take notes from the sermon with my neat purple pen.

But the angels didn’t say, “Good news! You get to try hard. You get to wear yourself out. You get to make sure you have it all together.” Instead they declared: I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you (Luke 2:10-11).

A Savior! For us!

This reminds me all over again that the heart of Christmas has always been about two things: A child in a manger and childlike faith. I can never hear it enough. Christmas isn’t about hustle; it’s about humility. It’s not about perfection; it’s about grace. It’s not about effort; it’s about extravagant love.

Yes, Jesus came. We’re loved. Let’s celebrate!

XOXO,
Holley Gerth

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Here’s a Christmas present… my new devotional Hope Your Heart Needs is half off at Barnes & Noble for a limited time!

You want the new year to be different, to beat discouragement, to truly believe you’re loved and have new strength for whatever is ahead. I understand because I’ve been there too. Writing Hope Your Heart Needs changed my life and reading it will change yours too (it also makes a great little gift). 2019 really can be better.

*****

Note: The last Let’s Have Coffee link-up here will be on December 25th. I’m freeing up some time and energy to work on some exciting new things for you. Sue at Welcome Heart will graciously be hosting Let’s Have Coffee starting January 2nd, and you can link up there!

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

{Want to share a word of encouragement on Twitter? Click this link and then tweet!}

 {my graphics are free goodies for you}

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.

I pull my 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 choose 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.

What I love about 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.

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

When you think of Jesus, what’s a word that comes to mind like “hope” does for me?

XOXO
Holley Gerth

*****

Speaking of hope… my new devotional Hope Your Heart Needs is half off at Barnes & Noble for a limited time!

You want the new year to be different, to beat discouragement, to truly believe you’re loved and have new strength for whatever is ahead. I understand because I’ve been there too. Writing Hope Your Heart Needs changed my life and reading it will change yours too (it also makes a great little gift). 2019 really can be better.

*****

Note: The last Let’s Have Coffee link-up here will be on December 25th. I’m freeing up some time and energy to work on some exciting new things for you. Sue at Welcome Heart will graciously be hosting Let’s Have Coffee starting January 2nd you can link up there!

You’re invited to join the “Let’s Have Coffee” link-up! Simply write a post that has the kind of encouragement you’d share with a friend over coffee (the link-up goes live at 5:30am CT every Wednesday, and you can view the Link-Up Guidelines 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.

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

{Want to share a word of encouragement on Twitter? Click this link and then tweet!}

{my graphics are free goodies for you}

I recently audaciously and intentionally asked 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 make 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.

What gift will you give yourself this Christmas?

XOXO
Holley Gerth

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A gift for YOU: my new ebook, Hope for the Holidays.

This post is one of the devotions you’ll find inside the free (for a limited-time-only) ebook. I’d love to send it your way this Christmas! Click here for all the details.

*****

You’re invited to join the “Let’s Have Coffee” link-up! Simply write a post that has the kind of encouragement you’d share with a friend over coffee (the link-up goes live at 5:30am CT every Wednesday, and you can view the Link-Up Guidelines 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.

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

{Want to share a word of encouragement on Twitter? Click this link and then tweet!}