The Titus 2:4 Project - Women Mentoring Women

Every December, the pressure creeps in — the ads, the expectations, the endless lists of things we feel like we should buy. Bigger. Better. More. But if you’re anything like me, when you pause long enough to think about it, you start to realize… the gifts that truly last rarely come wrapped in shiny paper. Do you remember what you got for Christmas last year? How about five years ago… or twenty? A few years back, I read a post on a county-wide social media page from a mom who was desperately looking for “cheap gifts” so her kids would have enough to open on Christmas morning. The classic struggle of quantity over quality. And if I’m honest, I’ve fallen into that same trap more times than I’d like to admit. Her post transported me back to a Christmas forty-seven years ago, when my parents didn’t have much money to spare. As a child, I didn’t understand layoffs or budgets, but I knew my dad had been out of work at General Motors for a long stretch. That year, my parents gave me a gift...

Christmas with seven children is a level of chaos that I find it hard to explain… even all these years later.  The limited budget versus the mile-long wish lists. The limited days in a week versus the never-ending schedule of holiday programs, band concerts and classroom parties.  The limited energy I felt versus the growing list of things that needed to be done. The limited chances to focus on the true meaning of Christmas versus the overwhelming pressure to make Christmas into something it was never meant to be. I was exhausted by early October just thinking about it – before the pumpkins were even carved for Halloween. It seemed like our kids were never satisfied, always wanting something they didn’t get… and the guilt over never feeling like I had done enough was disheartening. We all had expectations that weren’t being met. Christmas didn’t feel “warm and fuzzy” like I thought it would. Honestly, it felt more like a chore. But somewhere along the way, I found a way to rev...

It's December 1st. Wow. I know it's very cliché...but this year has gone so, so fast!   We've survived Black Friday, Small-Business Saturday, and today is Cyber Monday...tomorrow is Giving Tuesday. Do you ever feel like everybody wants a piece of you?? My dream is just to get back to the meaning of the season. Love. That's the reason Jesus Christ put on a robe of flesh and entered this cold, selfish world in the first place. The love of God. Jesus brought it to us. We need to bring it to others.  Today's Advent scripture is found in John 1: -5. The NIV says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2  He was with God in the beginning. 3  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4  In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome [ a ] it. Jesus is the Word. He was spoken in...