Today, I have a gift I want to give you. I’s a gift EVERY WOMAN NEEDS! And it’s tucked inside this short video. I recorded it last week for a friend’s Christmas give-away, but after I finished it, I just knew God wanted me to give it to you too! So, instead of reading about it, please click the arrow below so I can tell you about it.
I’ve got a question and a give-away for you, but first here are some things I want to share::
Printable Christmas Prayer
For those hopping over from my P31 devotion today, welcome! That story I share in the video is the year that led to the writing of my Christmas prayer. If you’d like to receive a FREE printable version of it, please enter your email in the box below and click signup.You’ll receive an email within 24 hours that include links to download the prayer as a printable 4×6, 5×7 or 8×10 you can frame for yourself and give as gifts.
Confident Heart Online Study
I also want to invite you to join me and women from all over who will gather here beginning January 16th to read through my book, A Confident Heart. We’ll walk through each chapter together and discover how we can overcome self-doubts and strong or even subtle insecurity by learning how to to live in THE security of God’s promises! I’m so excited about all God’s laying on my heart for our study, and I’d love for you to be part of this special community where we’ll share encouragement, prayers and stories of all that God is doing in and through us!
To join us, enter your info and click Sign Up..
To find out more details about online study, click here.
Enter Today’s Give-away
How you are going to give yourself grace this Christmas? I’ll share my answer in the comments below. You can share yours and any other thoughts you have about video message or the topic of my devotion and you’ll be entered to win this gift pak just in time for Christmas:
- Copies of my book (for you & two friends)
- 3 Sets of Confident Heart conference calls (optional)
- $10 Starbucks gift card
- Godiva Chocolate Bar
Click below this post where it says “Share Your Thoughts” and do just that. Then be sure to share this post with friends (see those tell-a-friend buttons? They make it really easy). If you do, leave another comment and tell me. You’ll be entered twice! {Update: Congratulations Angel Miller (your were selected in our prayerful yet random drawing for a winner. We’ll email you details! Thank you all for entering. Be sure to sign up for email updates in the sidebar so you don’t any future give-aways!)
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Your message was exactly what I needed this morning and really blessed me. I shared it with several friends I believe will also be blessed because of it. I so appreciate your obedience to the Lord and His words of encouragement spoken through you.
I shared this link with my mother and 4 of my really good friends who I believe need to hear your message as well. I am so blessed by my family and friends and we need each other to encourage us and remind us of all of His blessings each and every day! Thank you again!
I am going to give myself grace this year by spending some time alone with him first thing on Christmas Morning, which is not what I usually do. With all the hustle and bustle of the day I often don’t get any moments alone with him on Christmas Day. I am planning to sit with him in solitude and rest before I start the day. Thank you so much for the reminder to open my gifts (His plans, His presence and His promises) first and then to share them with others throughout the day! Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Grace! That word keeps coming up time and time again 🙂 I’m giving myself grace by focusing on my children and allowing them to lead the holidays and our activities. We’ve decorated, we’ll bake together, but I will not rush the next 10 days. I will also take time between Christmas and New Year to study grace. It has come up too many times this past year to avoid it any longer!
I am giving myself grace on little details. I am the kind of person who likes to have EVERYTHING planned out to a T and not leave anything up in the air. This weekend, however, we have scheduled my daughter’s 1st birthday party on Saturday, followed by a family Christmas in my home. Then Sunday we are having another family Christmas in my home and my husband has to work until 2. That leaves me alone with 2 little ones to prepare everything. I have been feeling very overwhelmed and lost in all the plans – so I am giving myself grace on little details. We’re going to have birthday cupcakes for Christmas dessert. We’re going to have frozen rolls rather than the homemade rolls I usually make. I’m going to use my crock pot. And I may have a pile of dishes while we visit after dinner. But I’m going to enjoy this weekend. I’m going to enjoy being together with family and friends to celebrate the birth of my baby girl and even more, the birth of our Savior. And I’m really liking the idea of birthday cupcakes for Christmas dessert – it is a celebration of Jesus’ birthday after all!
Thank you so much for the permission to share grace to myself as well as to others. I forget that I can do that! The relief I have now as I start my day and all of its struggles, pain and disappointments is tremendous and now I can look forward to the future with hope that it won’t always be this way… God is near to me.
P.S. – I shared this great message on my facebook page!
I am giving myself Grace by not sending out Christmas cards as well. My first time ever. I also am not going to second guess myself in the gifts I give my loved ones. I love them and desire to show them this through the gifts I buy them and then I don’t think the gifts are good enough. Please…give me your grace Lord and the Grace to give it to myself. You are the most treasured Gift that we all need to receive.
I wasn’t able to read your devotion until this morning and I know that it was God’s timing! He was already working on my heart on this exact topic and I had just prayed this morning to be reconnected to Him. I felt grieved that at this time that should be all about the Lord Jesus had become a time of year where I feel the furtherest from Him. We all need to take a deep breath and re-focus on Him. He promise when we seek first His kingdom all these things will be added unto us…Thank you for the beautiful words that can help me this year and every Christmas to come keep my focus on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!!
I am giving myself grace this year by not sending Christmas cards as well. Also, I am trying to focus on Jesus and the true meaning of this wonderful holiday instead of all of the gifts and such. I am allowing grace for myself as well as other people.
I shared this on facebook with my awesome sisters, (so blessed to have 2 older sisters who love me and have been my greatest mentors and friends even though we live so far apart). We are hoping to do this Bible study together over the internet…perfect for long distance sisters:-) 3 books would be awesome!
I sat down with the purpose this morning of “getting it together”. Thank you for starting my time with the reminder of extending grace to myself in this time of so many expectations. I have so many hopes for our family time together this season but want the overwhelming theme to be receiving God’s gracious gift and bringing Him glory in all that I do and say. I want my family to see Him in me but for it to be natural and not me stressing to do this. I will post the word “GRACE” around the house as a reminder to focus on God and rest in his amazing grace. (no tree and minimal decorations at this point here too:-)
Thank you, Renee, for your message! It truly spoke to my heart as I had begun to focus on some of these things in my life. Christmas feels a bit different this year in that I have not been so focused on all the outward stuff. We just barely put up our tree last night (and it is not decorated yet!) and our family is scaling back gift giving this year. I want to focus on God’s GRACE and be filled with his presence more than anything else this year. What a gift that will be!
I’m gathering grace this Christmas by making our church services our priority. We’re taking birthday cake and my kids are excited about the possibility to share Jesus’ birthday cake with their friends at church (my husband’s quest to stay home all day has been overruled). My kids got an early Christmas present, new Bibles, and have been reading US the Christmas story. They found it all on their own and have been blowing me away with what they already know about the Bible and how to find things in it. Thank you God… and Happy Birthday Jesus!
Dear Renee,
Thanks for that special message today. I am from Kenya. This has been a particularly difficult year for me to get through. I will be spending Christmas with my two children – Nathan and Ryan – away from my husband, their father. It is the first year apart after a painful separation and I know it will not be an easy one. I am praying for grace from our sweet Lord, to steady my frail heart and help me leave all my cares behind. There will be less gifts for the children but hopefully enough love to go around. It would be a great blessing to receive a gift copy of your book this holidays as I start a new leaf, with a Confident Heart in Christ.
I’m receiving Grace to slow down and spend more time in the moment with my children. Focusing more on Christ than on running from one activity to another. I want to enjoy the spirit of Christmas without so much rush and shopping.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. And I love your Christmas prayer. I pray you and your family have a blessed Christmas and a wonderful New Year.
Thank you for your thoughts and reminder to give ourselves grace. I’ve been trying to slow life down to enjoy the true gift of Christmas this year…and it is tough…with all those expectations others and I have for the season. But I have decided to not make a full-blown Christmas dinner this year. Christmas cards may get cut as well. I just got the Christmas decorations up…and I’m trying to cut details that aren’t necessary to my family & I…so that we can see and experience the true gift of Christmas! I can already see the stress melting and feel the joy filling. Thank you again!
GRACE……honestly I haven’t taken hold of this word at all in the past few months. I have beat myself up over things that are not even important. The biggest lesson I learned was yesterday. I have stressed about not being able to give many gifts for lack of finances. Then yesterday when I got home, a tennis racket that had been thrown on our roof by one of my boys was placed in a Christmas bag along with two tubes of tennis balls and the card was signed “Santa’s helper”. 🙂 The smile on my kids faces and the joy that it gave them to see what someone else did for us hit me right in the stomach. I thought to myself and asked for God’s forgiveness for being so focused on giving a “monetary” gift instead of just a gift of doing something special for someone that they weren’t expecting. So today, I accept God’s grace into my life in the area of giving. Not monetary giving this time but giving of myself to Him to be used to bless others. What a beautiful word…..GRACE!
I just shared this via Twitter, my third post!
I have to allow myself not to get caught up in the money spent at Christmas. I don’t have it this year and am making some things for my husband this year. Sometimes it’s enough just to offer myself to others.