Ann Voskamp's Blog

When it comes time to light that first candle on the first Sunday of Advent, the Hope Candle, it crosses my mind that I’ve never lost hope down some rabbit hole.

Honestly? Where I’ve lost hope is looking into my reflection in the mirror.

I’ve lost hope looking straight into my own eyes and feeling like there’s no way out of you and the way you’ve gotten things wrong, out of your past, out of your own tattered story, no way to rip out the smeared and ugly pages of your one story.

And maybe there’s times I’ve felt I lost hope when life tore a hole in my back pocket of my heart, and my creased and worn-out hope fell out when the bottom of things fell out — you know:

“You can think you’ve lost hope, or you can try to shield yourself from it, abandon it, mock it, guard against it or try to trash it.“

When the door clicked close for the last time.  When that email landed and kicked hard right in the gut.  When the doctor shook his head slow and the room kinda spun, when too many mattering things felt impossibly wrecked, and how do you keep going on hoping — when it’s the important parts of your life that are write offs?

But who knew that folded and creased Hope   unfolds into wings?

Turns out: You can think you’ve lost hope, or you can try to shield yourself from it, abandon it, mock it, guard against it or try to trash it.

But hope is a rising thing and flies to you.

No matter where you are — in the unknown and unfamiliar —   Hope is like a homing pigeon that knows how to find its way back home to you.

Because Hope has an inner map and will always wing its way back to you.

You may feel like you’ve lost hope — but Hope never loses track of you.

“Hope is the one constant, because Jesus is constantly with you.“

Hope is always coming home to you.

After I’ve lit the first Advent candle, Hope, I gaze long st its reflection in windows and see myself in the pane:

When you feel like you’ve lost hope — the question to ask is, “But where could my hope go?”

Hope in things — and you can lose Hope.

Hope in plans, in expectations, in dreams, in outcomes, in jobs, in bank accounts, in medicine, in people, in timelines, and you can lose Hope. Any of those things can wander off, fall through, disappear, taking your Hope with it.

We’re not meant to find hope in anything in this world, we are meant to lose hope in all the things here.

We don’t hope in anything of this world — we hope in God.

Hope in Jesus and your Hope goes wherever you go, because Jesus goes with you.

“Jesus knows turns you never heard of, makes roads you wouldn’t have dreamed of, makes miracles happen exactly where you never would have imagined. “

When you’re going through dark days, keep on going, because Jesus goes with you and He is your Hope, going through whatever you’re going through.

Hope only seems lost — when you can’t find a way forward.

And maybe? You don’t need to know the way forward, because Hope has a map, and Hope has a name, and His name is Jesus — and Jesus is The Way and when He is your way, there is always a way forward.

And I touch the window pane, touch reflection of face and Advent flame, touch all kinds of pain — and maybe that’s what I feel, how I’m found, how Hope is found … and I can feel Hope’s returning:

Hope is the one constant, because Jesus is constantly with you.

And Jesus knows turns you never heard of, makes roads you wouldn’t have dreamed of, makes miracles happen exactly where you never would have imagined.

There is a reason He is called The Way.

And I whisper the three words that breakthrough the darkest days of the year:

Hope in God.

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join us for a Soul Care Advent You want to care for your soul, & have a More non-anxious, more soul-spacious Advent? Come —Join Our Soul Care Advent Right here And you’ll receive soul care Daily Advent emails: with deeply moving, spiritually formative Scripture, Notes to Soul, a short video devotional from Ann, and lots of daily free gifts to make this a deeply meaningful, fulfilling and lighter December.

The free Paper Chain to Freedom — your own free daily advent paper chain, because the greatest gift Jesus gives us is what He takes from us — our shame, our discouragement, our overwhelm, our brokenness, our sin — releasing us from bondage and breaking every chain– and liberating us to living fully and freely in His love! To help trace the utter relief of that freeing gift through this advent season, we’re giving you a free gift of a beautifully designed Paper Freedom Chain to cut, color, and create – a way to break free from all kinds of stress, feel all kinds of bondage fall away and burdens lift, and truly care for your soul as you experience the greatest gift, and deep relief, of freeing change – and truly living more freely!  This is the gift our souls truly long to experience this Christmas! One broken chain link, one day, one gift of real release at a time!

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Annnnnd? This Advent, Stay in the Story of God — that will change your whole story: 3 Christmas Devotionals for the whole family so you don’t miss Jesus & you all get the gift of wholehearted delight in Christ, The Greatest Gift!

3 Award-Winning Christmas Devotionals for the Whole Family

The Greatest Gift (Adult Christmas Devotional): NYTimes Bestseller & Best Devotional of the Year, ECPA, 2014

Unwrapping the Greatest Gift (Family Christmas Devotional): NYTimes Bestseller & 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 — we have ourselves The Greatest little Christmas yet!

Happy, happy, happy weekend!

Let yourself smile, be crazy inspired, laugh, love & really live the gift of this life
just a little bit more this weekend…

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:

Photo by Ksenia Yakovleva

Photo by Prchi Palwe

Photo by Michele Purin

Photo by Skön Communication

Photo by Kateryna Hliznitsova

Maybe this weekend has some time for lighting a candle, turning on some Christmas music, and baking some sweet little cookies to usher in Advent & this season of waiting?

Little bits of God’s goodness to brighten your day: Begin the weekend with an Incredible Ride Through the Snow!

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The Whole EArth is full of His Miraculous Glory!

NASA astronaut captures Northern Lights from space

Click here to watch this awe filled video!This is crazy beautiful!

Living with the Dark Winters in Sweden

How fun is this! Wait for it…..

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POST OF THE WEEK FROM THESE PARTSWhat You Keep The Most Track of Says the Most About You: About Love, Records of Wrongs — or Counting Blessings

I can’t stop thinking about what Ms. Beth said here — and what am I doing about it, is literally changing my life.

So moved by how many of you we heard from — and how it’s changing your life too.

If some record of wrongs has been on your mind too — don’t miss this read!What we were up to this past week, here on the farm

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Heart Vitamins for you this week:How to Avoid the Holiday Hustle Be so soul encouraged: Read here!Living Strong from the Inside OutThe Internet Tried To Steal My Confidence … Jesus Won It BackJust one comment WOW!! so moving Can we Choose correctly? Can we start this? SOUL LEARNING 101 this week:Trusting God for PEACE in Uncertain TimesWe would make billions if we monetised the Bible app. Here’s why we never will Such a good read! “In A Cave With God”- Walk With JesusAnd Some fall treats for your Week!Are these a Christmas morning staple in your house too? Cranberry Orange cake These look incredible!WOW! This looks incredible! Wanna try?such a good idea! So fun! Need a great Dip recipe? Need to try this year! Creative Bits for you this week: This is such a good read! How fun is this! Beauty is hiding everywhere All from a typewriter Insane! These are so pretty! I love this! So fun! Can we try?Little bits of Christmas for you this week:WOW! Click here to watch! Doing this for our table I love this idea!! what if we ended some loneliness? Christmas girls night?Some inspiration? yes, yes, yes!Something to Guide you through this season: “The Seasons Collection Show: Thanksgiving, Christmas and Beyond!”

Come prepare your hearts with Ruth Cho Simons and I, and our friends, Grace Anne Baker, granddaughter of our Dr. David Jeremiah, and TaRanda Greene, and prepare your hearts with us!

Join us here! Make a joyful noise unto the Lord: May Cause a Spontaneou Outburst of Festive Joy SO SO GOOD! WOW! Just WOW! So moving!Absolutely Magical! Listen hereAre you ready? It’s the Night Before Advent!“What You Need to Relax into the Best Advent (& Free “Night-Before-Advent” Party Printables)”

Maybe all the wonder of Christmas — doesn’t really always have to be the work of a mother?  

The Wonder of Christmas is always really the work of our Heavenly Father.

The real wonder of Christmas is that we don’t have to make Christmas magical – when we simply enter into the wonder of what’s Scriptural. 

The Read for your heart on the Night Before Advent And Relax into Advent & Deep Peaceand with your own Night Before Advent Party… and enter into the Story of God to restore & re-story your family!

Everything (FREE!) you need for the Annual Tradition of a “Night Before Advent” Hot Chocolate Party, completely redesigned, all FREE GIFTS for our email list subscribers! 

a “Celebrate Christ” bannerthe Hot Chocolate Part inviteHot Chocolate Station signs Frameable Prints to focus hearts on the reason for the season.Tags for your own Night Before Advent Box — to wrap up new holiday pajamas, and Advent books to focus hearts on Jesus for the entire Christmas season. And the  printable poem: “The Night Before Advent”

Not only will real hope, from my heart to yours, be emailed directly to your inbox, but too? You get free access to our really amazing whole Resource Library, including all the most recent free tools and frameables, all exclusive tools we’ve made just for you — hopeful, helpful resource of gifts for you!

AND–we have even more free, exclusive Advent gifts (!!) for you coming in the weeks ahead!
Join the list right here to not miss anything!

Join the list ( or click here to sign in and access all of your free gifts) Do you want to join us for a Soul Care Advent? Click here to join us! ALL OUR ADVENT CHRISTMAS BOOKS ARE NEARLY 50% OFF!
This Advent, Stay in the Story that the rest of your year, rest of our family, will need– for generations after you 3 Award-Winning, NYTIMES Bestelling 25 Day Christmas Devotionals  for the Whole Family  — ALL NEARLY 50% OFF

The Greatest Gift (Adult Christmas Devotional): NYTimes Bestseller and Best Devotional of the Year, ECPA, 2014

Unwrapping the Greatest Gift (Family Christmas Devotional): NYTimes Bestseller and 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 tree, 25 days of readings, 25 day advent flap calendar, hiding all 25 Biblically inspired ornaments! For any age) 

You don’t want to miss these sales!you can’t help but smile:Crazy talented Cannot stop watching! So fun! Watch here! I love this! This is the BEST! So magical! SO FUN!CRAZY! The BEST! I want to start one! Incredible!! Thoughts to Really Ponder: Our Prayers Don’t Disappear into Thin Air You need to read this!My Generation Loves ‘Processing.’ That’s Not Always a Good Thing A thought-provoking read… Why this Hebrew Word Can Mean Something Good – or Something TerribleMake this a part of your Christmas this year! the compassion gift guide has been a Tradition and blessing For our family Every Year and we want to invite you to join us this year! MAKE THIS PART OF YOUR GIFT GIVING TRADITION … Click here to check out Compassion’s Gift Guide! What we’re Listening to on the Farm this week“Holy Forever” – Christmas Version“Breath of Heaven” (Mary’s Song)Local Friends? FREE! Tonight? SAVE YOUR FREE SEAT! Grab this deal while you still can!

We almost can’t believe this happening until December 16th! This is wild!

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Loved to life is on sale buy 3 for the price of 2! Crazy! $15 dollars a book! Just add three to your cart and watch the savings! RUN! Grab yours here! Have you too been thinking about the new year already? And maybe how to prepare your heart to see the beauty in the everyday? 50% off the best little Gratitude Journal! Grab yours now and maybe a few more to gift this Christmas Season! Only $10 on Amazon! Run while this sale lasts! 35% off right now!

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Maybe enjoy the week by making a warm cup of coffee and settling down with a good book by the fire.

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. 

“The real wonder of Christmas is that we don’t have to make Christmas magical – when we simply enter into the wonder of what’s Scriptural. “

Someone mentioned to me in passing the other day that when they grew up, they actually realized that all the magic of Christmas — is really always the work of some mother. 

And I laughed – loudly. 

As a mama, I laughed and smiled and nodded –  and deep within, I exhaled with a relief that my weary bones could actually feel: 

The Wonder of Christmas is always really the work of our Heavenly Father.

The real wonder of Christmas is that we don’t have to make Christmas magical – when we simply enter into the wonder of what’s Scriptural. 

There’s one Story that’s the truest, realest story, a story that we can enter into, that will amaze us, carry us, remake us, revive us, restore us and re-story us – especially when the world and all our hearts are hurting in all kinds of ways…

“You are made by the Word, for the Word. And only when you press into the Word who made you, will you become fully who you were made to be.“

Yes, true, and I feel this too: There are narratives everywhere that are vying for our attention, stories that want our eyes, that want our buy in. There are headlines everywhere shaping the story, cultural pressures that are working to press whole generations into a certain mold. 

We all live and breathe and have our being in an atmosphere of stories that mean to shape us and form us. Which isn’t a surprise, really: 

This is a world made by the Word – so this is a world of stories, and everything in this world is a story that means to form our souls.  

In a world made by the Word, there is only one Story worth staying in, there is only one Story worth being formed by.  

So we light the candles this time of year and enter into the hush of Advent, because this is the truest true, in this world that cannot, in any way, have been made simply by some accident: 

You were made by the Word, for the Word. 

And only when you press into the Word who made you, will you become fully who you were made to be. 

This is why we, as a family, pray to Stay in the Story – not because it just matters now, today – but because it matters for generations, for always.

This is why we are a people who keep returning to this Story, the story of Jesus, and every spin around the sun, when the calendar year about turns – we return to Advent, to this adventure of a lifetime, this seeking Him, this looking for Him, this waiting for His coming, this coming to Him. 

“Only the Word who made you, the Word and story of God, can fully understand you and your soul, like a mother knows all the curves contours of her child’s own face. Only when a soul molded by God will be fully whole.  “

Because: Your soul will only be rightly, fully, wholly formed human – when it’s formed, informed, transformed by the heart of God, the Word of God.  

Only the Word who made you, the Word and story of God, can fully understand you and your soul, like a mother knows all the curves contours of her child’s own face.

It’s only when you let the life of Jesus shape your life, that you will experience being shaped in the most life-giving ways. 

Only when a soul molded by God will be fully whole.  

This is why we wait in the dark of Advent for His coming, why we wait and anticipate Him by turning of the pages of this Story that knows and holds and enfolds us: 

Find yourself in the Story of God – and you find your truest self. 

Enter into the Story of God  – and you enter into the heart of Christ and find your heart mending. 

When we enter fully into the story each Advent, stay in the Story in midst of all kinds of loud, chaotic, catastrophic stories  – the Word becomes the clearest window to see how this world turns, and how we can turn to find the surest way through. 

So here, on the cusp of Advent, now is the time to light hope in the dark and feel all the anticipation spark and ignite our hearts – turning the pages of the Story, burning hotter and hotter through these days of December, till we can’t contain all this hope and start a wildfire of lit love. 

This word, Advent, it’s rooted in the Latin verb “adventio,” meaning – “I am coming, I arrive.”  

This word, Advent, it’s rooted in the Latin verb “adventio,” meaning – “I am coming, I arrive.”  We only arrive – when we keep coming to Jesus.  

As the year winds down, as I deeply feel the frailty and endless faults of my humanity, as we sit in the wonder of Christmas and wonder if we will ever arrive and be all we were meant to be, we are the people who direly need the adventure of Advent, this waiting for His coming, His arrival. 

Because: We only arrive – when we keep coming to Jesus. 

Maybe now, at this point in our story, at this time of year,  the only question to ask is:

What story will we let deeply form us, which story will get to re-story us? 

How will we prepare for Christmas so we don’t miss Him, so we stay in the Story that can truly restore and re-story us, how will we intentionally prepare Him room, how will we prepare our tender hearts… to be mended…  by pressing into His heart?

Relax into Advent & Deep Peace

and with your own Night Before Advent Party… and enter into the Story of God to restore & re-story your family!

The Eve of Advent is here!

And we all get to begin! With everything you need for the Annual Tradition of a “Night Before Advent” Hot Chocolate Party, completely redesigned, all FREE GIFTS for our email list subscribers!

a “Celebrate Christ” bannerthe Hot Chocolate Part invite Hot Chocolate Station signs Frameable Prints to focus hearts on the reason for the season.Tags for your own Night Before Advent Box — to wrap up new holiday pajamas, and Advent books to focus hearts on Jesus for the entire Christmas season. And the printable poem: “The Night Before Advent”

Not only will real hope, from my heart to yours, be emailed directly to your inbox, but too? You get free access to our really amazing whole Resource Library, including all the most recent free tools and frameables, AND our new GORGEOUS free ezine – all exclusive tools we’ve made just for you — hopeful, helpful resource of gifts for you!

AND–we have even more free, exclusive Advent gifts (!!) for you coming in the weeks ahead!
Join the list right here to not miss anything!

JOIN THE LIST (or, if you’ver already joined the list, just SIGN IN HERE) & GET ALL THE LATEST FREE GIFTS INCLUDING THE WHOLE FREE “NIGHT BEFORE ADVENT” PARTY KIT ALL OUR ADVENT CHRISTMAS BOOKS ARE NEARLY 50% OFF!
This Advent, Stay in the Story that the rest of your year, rest of our family, will need– for generations after you 3 Award-Winning, NYTIMESBestelling 25 Day Christmas Devotionals for the Whole Family — ALL NEARLY 50% OFF

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 tree, 25 days of readings, 25 day advent flap calendar, hiding all 25 Biblically inspired ornaments! For any age) 

And then Click here for ALL YOUR FREE GIFTS FOR YOUR NIGHT-BEFORE-ADVENT PARTY P.S. have you SEEN all the other free Christmas freebies we have for you? Tags! Cards! Ornaments! ) Don’t miss these!

Just before I put these feet to these old pine-planked floors in the here in our farmhouse every morning, I often think of how Jews pray, as soon as they wake, before their feet even hit the floor, a prayer of Thankfulness to God, called  “Modeh Ani, ” a prayer of only 12 words long and goes like this: 

Thankfulness is the password into the full life: a genuinely full life of wholeness and wellness. 

“Thankful am I to You,

Living and enduring Sovereign, 

for restoring my soul to me in compassion. 

Great is Your faithfulness beyond measure.”  

And it always strikes me: Why say: “Thankful am I — instead of I am thankful?”  

Because God’s people believe that very first words out of our mouths in the morning should not be the word, “I” – but rather, “Thank You.”

Not the focus on I – but eyes on God, and thankful to Him.  

Thank you, God, for the gift of this breath, this heartbeat, this day that is all miracle, all gift … a grace day to be alive! 

The first word in everything… is always THANK YOU….

We are called to more than believe – we are called to be thankful. We are called to more than a people of doctrine — we are called to be a people of doxology.

The Hebrew word for “thanksgiving” is actually “todah”—  which is kin to the root of the Hebrew word and name: Judah.

Judah, the son of which all Jews derive their name (Jewish people come from the line of Judah), who was so named by Leah because, “This time I will thank God” (Gen. 29: 35). 

And whole Jewish family come from this one man, Judah – an echo of “todah,” the Hebrew word for thanksgiving – was named thus because of thankfulness to God.   

As Rabbi Sacks says, “The word Modeh, ‘I give thanks,’ comes from the same root as Yehudi, meaning ‘Jew.’ … Jewishness is thankfulness: not the most obvious definition of Jewish identity, but by far the most life-enhancing.” 

Jewishness is thankfulness. 

And for those who follow the Jewish Messiah, those of us who follow Jesus, the Lion of Judah, that too is our actual, deepest, truest identity.  We are called to more than believe – we are called to be thankful. We are called to more than a people of doctrine — we are called to be a people of doxology.

At its core: Christian faithfulness is thankfulness. 

Orthodoxy always become doxology.  There is no true orthodoxy without true doxology. 

At the heart of genuine Christian identity – is always a genuinely thankful heart. 

At its core: Christian faithfulness is thankfulness. 

Because: Thankfulness is the password into the full life: a genuinely full life of wholeness and wellness. 

There’s no other way into wellness apart from thankfulness. 

“Enter with the password, “Thank you” is how some translate Psalms 100’s words: “Enter into His courts with thanksgiving.”   

Enter into His presence, enter into wholeness, enter into wellness, enter into the abundance, enter into the good life: with the password “Thank you.” 

There’s no other way into wellness apart from thankfulness. 

I’m not sure I’m thinking that when I reach for a pen before 10 am, and jot down a few more gifts in my gratitude journal, but there are days I wonder what in the world does your brain actually look like on thankfulness?

WHAT DOES YOUR BRAIN LOOK LIKE ON Thankfulness? 

Apparently? “Participants who practice gratitude show lasting increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex—even 3 months after journaling.” (NIH study, 2016)

To give thanks — is to get mentally strong. Giving thanks gives us a new brain. 

“When we express gratitude… our brain releases those “feel-good” chemicals, dopamine and serotonin, the two crucial neurotransmitters responsible for our emotions…. By consciously practicing gratitude everyday, we can help these neural pathways to strengthen.”

Why in the world is genuine Christian identity, at heart, about having a genuinely thankful heart? 

Because: To give thanks — is to get mentally strong. 

“People who express gratitude have been shown to have a higher volume of grey matter in their right inferior temporal gyrus.”

Which is to wildly say: 

Giving thanks gives us a new brain. 

Who in the world doesn’t want a new brain? 

Doxology is an anti-dementia intervention! 

A recent 2025 review on certain interventions in early-stage cognitive impairment notes that the practice of gratitude is powerfully associated with higher cognitive function, and actual structural differences in emotion/memory regions of the brain, in older adults. 

Doxology is an anti-dementia intervention! 

Giving thanks is not only spiritually wise—it’s biologically transformative. Thankfulness builds a bigger, better, healthier brain more inclined toward genuine joy, deep peace, and steadying trust.

“Gratitude trains your brain to scan the world not for threats, but for blessings,” is how Harvard researcher, Shawn Achor, describes and prescribes thankfulness. 

The fact is that neuroscientists can now see on brain scans that when we practice gratitude, it activates the prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate, regions of the brain responsible for emotional regulation, attention, and meaning-making.

It’s impossible for gratitude and fear to dominate your brain at the same time. 

Gratitude also engages parts of the limbic system where emotion and memory are stored and processed. Over time, when we give thanks again and again, count gift after gift, repeated thanksgiving not only strengthens these neural pathways, but it down-regulates the activity in our  brain’s threat circuitry, and tamps back the alarm system that keeps our brains always scanning for danger.

When caught in stress or anxiety, the brain keeps releasing that stress hormone cortisol. But when we intentionally practice gratitude, research shows giving thanks can help lower cortisol levels, reduce sympathetic nervous system activation, and support healthier parasympathetic rhythms — our body’s built-in calming system.

Which means? 

It’s impossible for gratitude and fear to dominate your brain at the same time. 

Because fear and gratitude are competing for the same neural real estate in our brains. 

While fear accelerates – gratitude regulates.

The more we practice thanksgiving, the more we space we give to strengthen those circuits of calm, connection, and joy — and fear has less space and fuel to hijack our. Literally: Gratitude overtakes, and down-shifts, fear. Like a car dropping into a lower gear to slow safely on a steep descent, thanksgiving signals the nervous system to step out of fear’s fight-or-flight and into deeper calm and trust. While fear accelerates – gratitude regulates.

If you want to push fear out of your life, let thankfulness be at the center of your heart and mind. 

If you want to push fear out of your life, let thankfulness be at the center of your heart and mind. 

And after giving thanks for thousands and thousands of gifts and blessings, in gratitude journal after gratitude journal, over the last decade and a half, that is what I can testify to:

The wellness experienced because of thankfulness isn’t only about what a brain looks like on thanks — but how a whole body works healthy on thanks. 

WHAT DOES YOUR BODY LOOK LIKE ON THANKSGIVING? 

Research’s found?  “Those who were grateful had better cardiac functioning and were more resilient to setbacks and hard experiences” (McCraty & Childre, 2004).

The more of life’s little gifts you give thanks for, the more you can handle all of life’s really big, hard things.

The more gifts you count, the more stronger your heart is. 

The more gifts you count, the more resilient you are.

Thanksgiving literally lowers your blood pressure, reduces your heart rate variability caused by stress, and has actually been found? To Improve outcomes in patients with congestive heart failure and coronary artery disease. In a study from the University of California, San Diego, heart failure patients who kept a daily gratitude journal had reduced inflammation markers and improved heart rhythm (HRV) (Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 2015).

The more of life’s little gifts you give thanks for, the more you can handle all of life’s really big, hard things.

But your body on gratitude effects more than just your body’s heart  – giving thanks effects the way your body sleeps: 

People who practice gratitude before bed, fall asleep faster, sleep longer, and wake up feeling more refreshed. Why? Because, again, cortisol accelerates, and thankfulness regulates – and gratitude lowers cortisol, the stress hormone that can spike at night with anxious thoughts. 

Counting gifts, instead of sheep, helps you sleep.

The point is: Counting gifts, instead of sheep, helps you sleep.

Yet, honestly, after these more than 10 years of living into thanksgiving as more than a holiday, but as all of my days, maybe the secret I’ve most deeply discovered, especially now as I’m working on my doctorate in soul care, is that thanksgiving’s greatest health transformation happens more than only in body and brain — but in one’s soul.

WHAT DOES YOUR SOUL LOOK LIKE ON THANKSGIVING? 

Cut to the quick. Startled. That’s the only way to describe what happened when Luke 17 jarred me awake to the secret to real soul health. The story started with sickness — with 10 sick lepers.

“One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him” (Luke 17:15–16 NIV). 

Then Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17:17–19 NIV)

Wait. I tace those lines back, track down the secret to true wellness.

Our wholeness, our wellness, our very salvation — our true soul health — is associated with our actual thankfulness. 

Hadn’t Jesus already completely healed this leper? Exactly like the other nine who were cured, who hadn’t bothered to return and thank Him? So what does it mean for the truly soul-healthy, and what in the world does Jesus actually mean when he says “Your faith has made you well”? 

Jesus’ words, as a literal translation read, “And [Jesus] said to him, ‘Having risen, be going on, thy faith has saved thee.’” — or made you well. The word is sozo in the Greek. Many translations render sozo as being made “well” or “whole,” but its literal meaning, I read it—“to save.” Sozo means true wellness, complete wholeness, real salvation. To live sozo is to live the whole, full, saved, truly healthy life. 

Jesus came that we might live life to the full; He came to give us wellness and wholeness, He came to give us sozo. And when did the leper receive sozo—the saving to the full, whole, healthy life? When he returned and gave thanks. 

Our wholeness, our wellness, our very salvation — our true soul health — is associated with our actual thankfulness. 

We only get to enter into the fullest, wholest life if our faith gives thanks.

The physical leprosy is healed in all 10 of the lepers — but only the one leper who says THANK YOU experiences sōzō—salvation, completeness, wellness, wholeness.

This is the deepest secret to real soul health: 

Jesus counts thanksgiving as integral to a faith that gives salvation.

We only get to enter into the fullest, wholest life if our faith gives thanks.

Because how else do we accept His free gift of salvation if not with thanksgiving? 

Thanksgiving is inherent to a true salvation experience; thanksgiving is necessary to live the well, whole, healthy fullest life.

It was that esteemed theologian, Charles Spurgeon, when he sat with the only one leper who came back to say thank you, and his heart ached as he wrote: 

“There are more who receive benefits than ever give thanks for them” Spurgeon wrote. 

“Nine persons healed, one person glorifying God; nine persons healed of leprosy, mark you, and only one person kneeling down at Jesus’ feet, and thanking Him for it. 

[We] cannot attempt a catalog all of the benefits, the gifts, the riches of His grace that we receive  day after day; and yet is there one man in ten that thanks God for these? … 

 Who is in the top 10 percent in life – who give God thanks for the gifts of their life?

We receive a continent of mercies, and only return an island of praise…. Multitudes of our fellow citizens pray when they are sick and near to dying, but when they grow better, their praises and thanksgiving then grows sick unto death, with no song of thankfulness… 

There is a great blessedness in thankfulness. 

Personal thanks to a personal Savior must be our life’s objective.” (Spurgeon)

You know you’re truly healthy when you know your brain, body, and soul can’t afford to let your gratitude grow sick. 

You know you’re truly healthy when you know your brain, body, and soul can’t afford to let your gratitude grow sick. 

Who will be the one in ten – who goes back to God to give Him thanks? 

 Who is in the top 10 percent in life – who give God thanks for the gifts of their life?

Only those who pick up a pen and write down the gifts they’re grateful for, who live with a brain on thankfulness with a body on thankfulness, with a soul on thankfulness, can experience true wellness, complete sozo, real wholeness.

A life of wellness — is only found in a life of thankfulness.

As C.S. Lewis writes in Reflections on the Psalms: “Praise is inner health made audible.”

Our thankfulness is our inner wellness made audible.

When heads bow around the table, when I join all those offering their “thank you”– it’s all our souls saying aloud that they’re healthy and whole.

Thankfulness is a measure of our soul wellness… 

Our thankfulness is our inner wellness made audible. Thankfulness is a measure of our true soul wellness… 

Which is why thanksgiving is meant to be more than just a holiday — but the posture of all of our days — all of our healthy days.

Though I do wonder if it’s possible:

Thanksgiving is perhaps the most favorite holiday because it comes asking for almost nothing — no baskets to fill, no gifts to wrap, no candy to sort — just an invitation to come to a table with a thankful heart. 

And so we do.

We dare to come, every morning with the first words out of our mouths, “Thankful am I…” and every evening, coming to the table, one of the wild and grateful 10 percenters, because at the heart of all the truly healthy, and at the heart of a true Christian identity –– is always a truly thankful heart. 

Want to Live Thankful? all these FREE Thanksgiving Gifts are for you! 

A free Thankful Prayer for your gathering around the table, a Thankful Jar, a Thankful Tree, a Thankful Calendar — an entire Thankful collection of FREE printables for you to help you to LIVE GRATEFUL — and have truly GREAT DAYS! There are so many FREE GIFTS waiting for you! Don’t miss THE JOY OF ALL THIS FREE GOODNESS!

GRAB ALL YOUR FREE THANKSGIVING GIFTS HERE The Very Best Little Gratitude Journal & way to LIVE the Wellness of Thankfulness!

When the ache feels like more than the heart can carry, and you’re longing for a truly healthy live, body, mind and soul — try gently picking up a pen and looking for miracles and gifts of grace, even here, to count gifts, all from a good and relentlessly loving God who draws near with grace upon grace in our heartache.

The Best Little Gratitude Journal for you — has spacious lines to name three miraculous gifts of grace each day, and is uniquely formatted to daily see how God has shown up with gifts on this day of the month, on all the previous months. 

THIS GRATITUDE JOURNAL IS LIFE-CHANGING: Gifts & Gratitudes gently helps grow trust in a God who doesn’t always explain our suffering but who always enters into it with us. 

When you don’t know what or who to count on tomorrow… if you start counting Gifts & Gratitudes — your eyes… and heart… begin to open to Who you can always count on…. especially on the hardest days.

And how exactly does the Christ-life of thankfulness THAT IS WELLNESS? My story of just that: One Thousand Gifts. 

Are you ready to begin—or begin again—a life-changing habit of daily gratitude? Want DEEP HEALTH, to reset, refresh, reboot your life and literally rewire your brain? Be one of the more than 2 million people who have stepped into the life-change of this experience.

It’s only in the expression of gratitude for the tender, complicated life we already have, we discover miracles of grace in this same life . . . a life we can take, give thanks for, and break for others. We come to feel and know the impossible right down in our bones: we are wildly loved – by God.

Let’s end the year strong and genuinely soul-healthy… Life is a miraculous gift and far too short to do anything but awaken to the miracles of grace in the midst of the brutally hard — to live thanksgiving and count all the ways you are truly, deeply loved.

I keep track of the days. 

Countdown of days left till Christmas. So many days till all the term papers are due to my prof for my doctorate of ministry program. Exact days till university-daughter comes in that porch door and is home for the holidays. 

I keep track of all kinds of unruly numbers.

Track whatever you want to change trajectory. 

Blood pressure numbers at the end of the day when I sit there at the chair by the window and just try to stay calm, so calm, waiting for the release of the pythoning pressure band around my upper arm and then for the numbers to finally flash up on the screen. Her heart rate on the oximeter when she says she can feel that arrhythmia pounding like horses across her chest. His sleep score versus my sleep score. Average number of steps at the end of every week because you’ve got to somehow gently keep moving to keep moving the stress through. 

I just keep keeping track. 

They say, sure, that’s good, and I’ve scrawled it down in a journal somewhere: 

Track whatever you want to change trajectory. 

“The world measures hyped productivity, while God records our sleepless nights and hidden pains“

And yeah, sure, I guess they have a point, and maybe it’s human nature to always keep tracking all the things.

Like even: The price of a Big Mac all around the planet. (Really?!) Or there’s The Museum of Failure tracks and records all kinds of failed products: Colgate lasagna (yeah, look, the point is that they tried and that’s what counts!) Crystal Pepsi ( mehhhh, but hey, it’s only a failure if you don’t learn and grow!),  Harley-Davidson cologne. (No,yeah, just… no) And then, apparently, there’s a museum in Independence, Missouri, Leila’s Hair Museum, that has not just kept record of the hair of Abraham Lincoln, Elvis Presley, George Washington, Marilyn Monroe and Michael Jackson, but (ha!) garnered a question on Jeopardy on December 30th, 5 days after Christmas, back in 2016. 

“What the world lifts high, heaven may set aside — and what the world may ignore, God may write in gold.“

Thank God, God Himself gets it: 

God Himself keeps His own records of the numbers of hair on our heads (“Even the hairs of your head all numbered” (Matt 10:30), and He keeps records of every single tear that ever falls (“You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?” Ps. 56:8: The world measures hyped productivity, while God records our sleepless nights and hidden pains).

And God keeps His own records in His own books, His book of remembrance, (“A book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed His name” (Malachi 3:16) because our God records reverences that may never trend, and all the faithfulness that may never go viral, but instead heals and leads to wholeness (Mal. 3:16), and in His book of life, He records the actual name of every single individual who belongs to Him, so you get to wildly “rejoice that your names are written in (actual) heaven” (Luke 10:20). 

Turns out? 

We track for seen and measured results, while God looks for the secret and hidden and faithful that’s unseen. Earth’s obsessions rarely show up in heaven’s registries. What the world lifts high, heaven may set aside — and what the world may ignore, God may write in gold.

And while this whole, ole world keeps track and keeps score… God keeps tracking close to us, to literally bless us and keep us. 

While I keep tracking things that I’m longing to change — the Love who is God, and never changes, never stops keeping track of my belonging. 

I can’t say I was, in particular, thinking any of this when I sat near the back, beside a best friend of more than 3 decades, under the teaching of Beth Moore last week, scratching down notes in my journal, but it’s all I’ve been thinking about since Mrs. Beth leaned in and just laid it down for us all: 

“All that will ultimately matter in the end, when you take your very last breath, and then come face to face with Love Himself – oh, Love has a face – and His name is Jesus – is that when we see Him, will there be anything actually far greater than Him saying, “Well, here’s my girl – and didn’t she love? Didn’t she just love so, so, so well?”  

“You can either keep a running mental tally of others’ sins — or you can keep a running ledger of God’s loving mercies. “

I’m so moved in Spirit, that I don’t keep moving my pen across the page, but I let the Spirit move and hover over the depths of me: 

Am I keeping account of the countless ways I can love — so I can be love in this old hurting world? 

And then she reads the words, straight from the holy text: “Love keeps no records of wrongs. (1 Cor 13)”

Really? Even in wild days like these? 

And the Spirit stirs over my interior stillness and maybe this is the invitation, maybe this could be the inner posture: I refuse to neither deny any injustices, nor to let any wrongs define my identity, or dominate my mind. 

This is the work: Let go of the inner ledger that’s nursing wounds – to let there be space to still truthfully name sins, so there can be a healing of all injustices. Love always does this holy work: Report any abuse, and release all resentment. 

Maybe:

The way we keep no record of wrongs is by refusing to let any evil become our personal focus…

And the way we stand against all evil is by refusing to let any denial become our public mask.

And the Holy Spirit’s not done with me, but moves even deeper within my spirit, and I slowly scratch it down, surrendering:

Whatever we may log as an accomplishment, God may log as a noisy clang if there’s actually no love.

Love for God means there is keeping a record— not of grievances, but of gifts and graces.

Isn’t that the daily choice I always have? 

“Love for God means there is keeping a record— not of grievances, but of gifts and graces.“

You can either keep a running mental tally of others’ sins — or you can keep a running ledger of God’s loving mercies. 

I glance down at the journal on my lap. Looping ink across page. Notes in margin. Swooping arrows. References and verses and quotes. But somewhere deep within us-– there are two recording journals in every human heart: 

A Record of Wrongs: all the ways they’ve failed me… 

and A Record of Love: all the ways His love’s saving me

Is there somewhere in my heart a Record of Wrongs Journal keeping track of: Rejection. Wounds. Distance and silence…. Dashed hopes… That comment. What they did, or didn’t say, or do. How this seems to be failing, and how that is going wrong, yet again. Scars. Betrayals… Disappointments. 

Whatever you track the most often —- ends up saying the most about you. 

What I didn’t know for a long time is that the truth is: 

Whatever we track – can end up haunting and hunting us down. 

Whatever numbers we think are important enough to track – add up to what is actually most important to us. 

Whatever you track the most often —- ends up saying the most about you. 

And whatever we keep an account of, is what we will end up being accountable for. 

Is it time to let go of being a bookkeeper of others’ sins and failures and the Record of Wrongs Journal and turn it all over to God?

And it’s time to spend more time and attention on keeping the other record book, the Record of God’s Love Journal: God’s grace carried us here… God’s sustaining love is holding us here… this small blessing… this unexpected gift… this grace upon grace upon grace. 

Is it time to keep a better ledge of all the ways His love is daily saving us? 

Love keeps no records of wrongs, and those who belong to Love Himself are called to keep a record all the ways He Loves….Love keeps no records of wrong, but our love of Him has us always keeping a record of gifts:

“Love keeps no records of wrong, but our love of Him has us always keeping a record of gifts…”

Today, He loved me with a smile of a friend… 

Today, He loved me with a gift of that little unexpected kindness… 

Today, He loved me with a grace of this tender moment… and this little moment of loveliness… of His love.  

Count all the ways He loves you – and you see there’s a love you can always count on especially when everything else is going wrong… 

The mind always gets to choose: to keep a grievance list… or a gift list. 

“When we forget not all His benefits – it’s our whole lives that benefit. “

The heart can keep track of all kinds of wrong – or the heart can commit to keep track of the goodness of God.  

The mercy of this sunrise… the sound of their voice and the way laughing with them feels… wrapping  hands around a steaming cup of warm… the gift of this moment of light dancing on the wall… the grace of this line of music… the gift of this truth, this promise, this hope… 

When we forget not all His benefits – it’s our whole lives that benefit. 

The mind always gets to choose: to keep a grievance list… or a gift list. 

When I find a pen these days, and find myself keeping track of gifts and gratitudes, I find not just my truest self, as a Lover of God, but I find too this durable, steadying joy.

Keeping a list of gifts is this gift that keeps us. Keeps us going, keeps us sane, keeps us hoping, keeps us looking for love, His love… and we find ourselves surprised by love. And find ourselves surprisingly loved. 

These are the days. I keep a pen close. I keep track of God.

Who always keeps tracking close . 

When the ache feels like more than the heart can carry — try gently picking up a pen and looking for miracles and gifts of grace, even here, to count, all from a good and relentlessly loving God who draws near with grace upon grace in our heartache.

The Best Little Gratitude Journal for you — has spacious lines to name three miraculous gifts of grace each day, and is uniquely formatted to daily see how God has shown up with gifts on this day of the month, on all the previous months. 

THIS GRATITUDE JOURNAL IS LIFE-CHANGING: Gifts & Gratitudes gently helps grow trust in a God who doesn’t always explain our suffering but who always enters into it with us. 

When you don’t know what or who to count on tomorrow… if you start counting Gifts & Gratitudes — your eyes… and heart… begin to open to Who you can always count on…. especially on the hardest days.

What does the Christ-life really look like when your days are gritty, long — and sometimes even dark? How is God even here? My story of just that: One Thousand Gifts. 

Are you ready to begin—or begin again—a life-changing habit of daily gratitude? Want to reset, refresh, reboot your life and literally rewire your brain? Be one of the more than 2 million people who have stepped into the life-change of this experience.

It’s only in the expression of gratitude for the tender, complicated life we already have, we discover miracles of grace in this same life . . . a life we can take, give thanks for, and break for others. We come to feel and know the impossible right down in our bones: we are wildly loved – by God.

Let’s end the year strong… Life is a miraculous gift and far too short to do anything but awaken to the miracles of grace in the midst of the brutally — to count all the ways you still are truly loved.

Happy, happy, happy weekend!

Let yourself smile, be crazy inspired, laugh, love & really live the gift of this life
just a little bit more this weekend…

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:

Photos by Anita Austvika 

Maybe take some time out of your weekend to reset yourself for the week with a cup of coffee and putting pen to paper…. and exhaling long….

Little bits of God’s goodness to brighten your day: This is wild!

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CHANGING LIFE’S PATH FOR KIDS There’s so much love and goodness in the world! Read here!Absolutely Dreamy!

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Cloud Characters? How fun is this! Want to see more? Too fun! The world is full of His glory!This is wild! Can you imagine? You have to read this! Heart Vitamins for you this week:The Gift of Weakness: How Failure Can Strengthen Our Faith Be so soul encouraged: Read here!The Unshakable Promises of God Listen herePreparing for a Holiday That Will DisappointDid you know this? I love this! Delight in the Word Can we start this? SOUL LEARNING 101 this week:The Pathway To See God’s GloryThe God Who Breaks Us with KindnessYou need to listen!So good! I love this! I needed this! Don’t miss thisAnd Some fall treats for your Week!Apple pie bars Wanna try? So yummy These look incredible!Cranberry lemon… YES! The perfect dessert!Creative Bits for you this week: Click here to see more from our artist daughter-in-law, Aurora!I LOVE this! This week?This is perfect! Can we all try this? So so Fun! I love this! This is amazing! Can we try?Little bits of Christmas for you this week:Slow and simple Click here to watch! Stunning! I love this idea!! This look so cozy YESS! I love this! yes, yes, yes!Something to Guide you through this season: “The Seasons Collection Show: Thanksgiving, Christmas and Beyond!”

Come prepare your hearts with Ruth Cho Simons and I, and our friends, Grace Anne Baker, granddaughter of our Dr. David Jeremiah, and TaRanda Greene, and prepare your hearts with us!

Join us here! Make a joyful noise unto the Lord: I love this! So moving!WOW! Listen hereThis is amazing! don’t miss this! So good! you need to listen Post of the week on the farm: “Where is God When Your Miracle Doesn’t Happen”

On the days that I wrestle hard with the questions, I sit long with honest songs, the tightened guitar strings echoing the ache of my prayers— and there are rests where I rest in the knowing: 

Living in the tension of mystery and miracle ties a broken heart to God.

Heard from so many of you how much this meant to you: Click here to read!you can’t help but smile:The best! Cannot stop watching! So funny! Watch here! I LOVE this! This is the BEST! The kindness of strangers SO FUN!I want to pick him up! The BEST! So so fun! Incredible!! Thoughts to Really Ponder: Lazarus: Story of Hope for Our Loved Ones You need to read this!What Redemption Means in the BibleWhat Do a 103-Year-Old Theologian’s Prayers Sound Like? Click here to read!Time is not promised Listen hereYou have to watch So goodthe compassion gift guide has been a Tradition and blessing For our family Every Year and we want to invite you to join us this year! MAKE THIS PART OF YOUR GIFT GIVING TRADITION … Click here to check out Compassion’s Gift Guide! What we’re Listening to on the Farm this weekHouse of Worship, Michael W. Smith & Chris Brown“One More Day”on the book stack at the farm

Our family absolutely LOVES the work of Joe Sutphin who illustrates children’s books and graphic novels. 

These include the timeless classics Little Christmas Carol and Little Pilgrim’s Progress , the official graphic novelization of Richard Adams’s masterwork Watership Down, Andrew Peterson’s beloved Wingfeather Saga, and more! THESE ARE GORGEOUS CLASSICS for every child’s library!

As a family, we will be reading Little Christmas Carol and our youngest will be working through the Little Christmas Carol Activity book! — what a gift to every family!

From the creators of the bestselling, beautifully illustrated Little Christmas Carol comes a companion activity and coloring book to engage young kids’ hearts, hands, and minds. Your kids will be delighted as they immerse themselves in the mazes, crosswords, word searches, and more. Imaginative illustrations are just waiting to be enlivened with color. These pages are filled with joyful activities that will help your kids to participate and connect with the classic Christmas story of the endearing humbug whose life of greed, regret, and loneliness is redeemed and joyfully changed.

ARE YOU READY? Do you want to join us for an incredible time of discovering the wonder of Christmas in the Psalms? Click here to join us December 1st!! Local Friends? FREE! Next Saturday! SAVE YOUR FREE SEAT! Writers! Can we Meet You in January?Hope Story Conference may be just the thing you need to start your year off with your eyes fixed on Jesus!

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We’re gathering for our 8th annual Writer’s Conference in beautiful Charlotte, NC on January 29-31, 2026, and we’d love you to join us! Experience three unforgettable days designed to awaken your words, strengthen your voice, and surround you with a community who believes in the power of story.

Across the weekend, you’ll hear best selling authors and keynote voices, learn from workshop presenters who will help refine your craft, and step into quiet writing rooms where inspiration becomes practice. Thursday night we’ll pause for Celebrate Your Story—a joyful evening where we recognize the milestones of our Hope*Books authors and invite everyone in the room to see what’s possible for their own writing journey.

This is more than another event. It’s a gathering designed to move your writing forward.

Enter code ANN when you register for $50 off!

IT’S GOING TO BE AMAZING! Grab your seat here!We almost can’t believe this happening until December 16th! This is wild!

Hey? Do you want to get Audible Premium for 99 cents for three months? You get to choose one book every month — so 3 audiobooks for 99 cents!! This is a crazy deal!!

WOW! Get three audiobooks for 99 cents each!You will not believe the sales going on right now!

If you’re looking for a Christmas gift for someone you love, now is the time to grab them! Check out this sale!

The Greatest Christmas Collection is on sale right now! Up to nearly 50% off! Run and grab yours! RUN! Just $24 on AmazonOnly $28 at Christian Book! $16 on Amazon$19 at Christian Book Just $12 at Amazon!$13 at Christian Book!50% off! Do you want the best little gratitude Journal and Sacred Prayer Devotional to guide you through to the new year? Grab your while they are on an INCREDIBLE sale! Only $12 on Amazon! Run while this sale lasts! Just $10! Grab yours while they last!Do you know anyone who you’ve been wanting to get this for? Now is the time! Loved to life is on sale for just $18! Just $18! Grab yours now!

*These sales are currently offered on Amazon USA and Christian Book USA*

If You Want to Live Thankful?Don’t miss these FREE gifts! We have all these  these FREE GRATITUDE Gifts for you! 

A Thankful Prayer for your gathering around the table, a Thankful Jar, a Thankful Tree, a Thankful Calendar — an entire Thankful collection of FREE printables for you to help you to LIVE GRATEFUL — and have truly GREAT DAYS! There are so many good things waiting for you! Don’t miss these!

Click here for your free gift!Morning worship for you

Maybe enjoy the week by making a warm cup of coffee and settling down with a good book by the fire.

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. 

There are stories you read once and there are stories that read you every Christmas. I was ridiculously thrilled when I first opened A Little Christmas Carol — honestly, overwhelmed with wonder in my heart. The amazing artwork of Joe Sutphin has taken the beloved Dickens classic and somehow made it new again — tender, true, and lit with the kind of hope we ache for in December. Joe Sutphin doesn’t just illustrate — he illuminates. His art slows you down enough to feel the story, to notice grace in the smallest gestures, to see how even the coldest hearts can be warmed by Love Himself. I cannot recommend this enough: This Christmas, gather around the fire with your family and a copy of Little Christmas Carol. You’ll be reminded that light still breaks through, that redemption still finds us, and that Christmas is still the miracle our weary world needs. It’s a tremendous joy to welcome Joe to the farm’s table today…

Guest post by Joe Sutphin

The best way to experience Little Christmas Carol is to read it aloud — real wonder!

“It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself.” – Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens discovered this himself, and started a side career where he gave public readings of his famous tale.

Something about the story grabs the public imagination and appeals directly to the children who hear it.

Perhaps this is because Dickens infused his story with references to simple, childlike Christian faith: “It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself.”

Lines such as this have provoked a long discussion about what Charles Dickens meant.

Strictly speaking, A Christmas Carol is not a gospel story–the author makes no mention of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. He does, however, construct a secular story with a spiritual theme, one that points to Christ with Scripture allusions and symbolism. At the very least, A Christmas Carol can be seen as a Victorian fable, almost a parable, or perhaps a morality play. 

The story begins when Scrooge, a “covetous old sinner,” confronts the natural consequences of his miserable life– “the lonely darkness over an unknown abyss, whose depths were secrets as profound as Death.” For Scrooge, the church had “became invisible” under the cover of a dark fog, offering no solution. 

Tiny Tim enters the story to remind us of Christ’s compassion: “He hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk and blind men see.”

Dickens frames Scrooge’s transformation as a journey from darkness to light. At the end, the misty fog departs with “the churches ringing out the lustiest peals he had ever heard. . . . Oh, glorious, glorious!”

Literary critics have noted these themes and have pointed to an unbroken thread stretching back to The Pilgrim’s Progress. John Bunyan’s allegory addressed the burden of sin and the promise of salvation through Christ. Dickens reflected further on the implications of the Great Commandment–to love God first, then love your neighbor as yourself.

Every family can learn how to show kindness, respect, and compassion for the people we meet. As we do, we find the same joy that Scrooge experienced.

And this edition of Little Christmas Carol , it’s based on the 1843 text of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, updated and lightly edited to create a read-aloud experience for families with young children. The illustrations by Joe Sutphin continue the acclaimed visual style of Little Pilgrim’s Progress, an animal world where no humans are seen, set in nineteenth-century London. In keeping with the original text, the narrator speaks directly to the reader at times (look for the Charles Dickens moth who pops up in various scenes!). We hope this new edition will encourage families to make meaningful and lasting memories together through books.

This? Becomes a read-aloud family!

I mean — listen to this timeless classic :

“A Merry Christmas, Uncle! God save you!” cried a cheerful voice. It was the voice of Scrooge’s nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this was the first intimation he had of his approach.

“Bah!” said Scrooge, “Humbug!”

He had so heated himself with rapid walking in the fog and frost, this nephew of Scrooge’s, that he was all in a glow; his face was ruddy and handsome; his eyes sparkled, and his breath puffed again.

“Christmas a humbug, Uncle!” said Scrooge’s nephew. “You don’t mean that, I am sure.”

“I do,” said Scrooge. “Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.”

“Come, then,” returned the nephew heartily. “What right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You’re rich enough.”

Scrooge having no better answer ready on the spur of the moment, said “Bah!” again, and followed it up with “Humbug.”

“Don’t be cross, Uncle,” said the nephew.

“What else can I be,” returned the uncle, “when I live in such a world of fools as this? Merry Christmas? Out with your merry Christmas! What’s Christmastime to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in ’em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? If I could work my will,” said Scrooge, indignantly, “every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!”

“Uncle!” pleaded the nephew.

“Nephew!” returned the uncle, sternly, “keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine.”

“Keep it!” repeated Scrooge’s nephew. “But you don’t keep it.”

“Let me leave it alone, then,” said Scrooge. “Much good may it do you! Much good it has ever done you!”

“There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say,” returned the nephew.

“Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmastime, when it has come round–apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that–as a good time.”

“A kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time–the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.”

“And therefore, Uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket…

I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!”

Our family absolutely LOVES the work of Joe Sutphin who illustrates children’s books and graphic novels.

These include the timeless classics Little Christmas Carol and Little Pilgrim’s Progress , the official graphic novelization of Richard Adams’s masterwork Watership Down, Andrew Peterson’s beloved Wingfeather Saga, and more! THESE ARE GORGEOUS CLASSICS for every child’s library!

Joe’s fascination with nature, and the living creatures in the fields and woods around his home, has informed his art for much of his life. Joe lives in a barn with his wife, Gina, and a bunch of cats.

As a family, we will be reading Little Christmas Carol and our youngest will be working through the Little Christmas Carol Activity book! — what a gift to every family!

{Our humble thanks to Moody Publishers for their partnership in today’s devotional.}

Some lean over gravestones and say:  The miracle didn’t happen.

And others lean over gravestones and say they got their miracle because she was a miracle, and getting to love her was a wonder, and every moment together was a miracle of grace and there is no other was to explain the extraordinary that she was.

What if I don’t have to understand, as long as I know God stands close?

My sister was killed, run over, in front of my mama and I, and I watched my wild Mama sob-rock her baby girl’s bleeding body in her own begging arms, and I have paced-prayed for rain while our livelihood, the crops we’ve planted, shriveled up and died out there in parched fields, and I’ve cried till I’m hoarse, howling for God to save marriages that burnt to the ground, leaving us sting choking for years on ashes and all the flying embers.

We mustered faith and fasted for days and prayed through healing services, anointing the limp-sick with oil, only to end up burying our two baby nephews within 18 months, and grieving sharp for years.

Why in the blazes do some miracles happen and others don’t?

The human experience isn’t always explainable. The human experience is always nothing short of a holy experience.

You can count on it like the spin of autumn stars and early November fog sifting in slow down by the woods:

Miracles aren’t a measure of anyone’s good standing, but miracles are a mystery that defy understanding.

By definition, miracles are mysteries: the way a miracle happens is a mystery — and if a miracle happens it’s a mystery.

Miracles are never a function of anyones’s goodness, worthiness, or earnestness — and miracles are always the mysteriousness of His ways.

The truth of it is, we breathe in a world of mystery: No two sunsets have ever painted the sky the same. And of all the snowflakes that have ever fallen to the earth since the beginning of time, 10 followed by 34 zeros, no two have ever even once been identical. And every one of our stories are infinitely unique, and singular miracles that bear a glory all of their own.

We breathe mystery. We inhale an otherworldly grace. The human experience isn’t always explainable. The human experience is always nothing short of a holy experience.

And the human experience can be hard but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a holy experience.

Six times a day, every single day, our youngest son for years injected himself with a needle to stay alive. His pancreas is dead and 24/7 he needs insulin, and a needle or pump to be that organ, or he ends up dead. Our daughter with Graves Disease, who had to have her thyroid radiated, and daily takes meds to be her thyroid, she comes to me quiet this week and asks what we will do if her little sister with a congenital heart defect, three open heart surgeries behind her, and, Lord willing, a heart transplant ahead of her, has a the hardest road ahead? And I nod, with all kinds of unknowns hanging too….

Prayer isn’t so much about outcomes, but coming much closer to God.

Sometimes the miracle isn’t wholly healed bodies, but that we get to wholeheartedly love each other.

Those who long to see miracles,
see everyday miracles everywhere.

And yes, we pray for healing, and we know that by His stripes we are already healed in eternal ways. We pray for restoration, and we know that by His mercy we know complete restoration and no condemnation. And we pray for more time, and we know that by His grace, we have been given time that goes beyond all time.

The miracle that always happens in prayer happens in the most important place: the heart.

Prayer isn’t so much about outcomes, but coming much closer to God.

Sometimes the miracle isn’t wholly healed bodies, but that we get to wholeheartedly love each other.

I’ve held babies in my arms who looked long into my eyes and died and I can only choke out the wandering ways of my own busted heart:

There is no prayer more passionate than that of a mother begging God for a miracle for her child — and there is no greater passion than a Father who gave His Son as the miracle that answers every prayer.

Live like God is a genie in a bottle, and we become like angry drunks.

Live like God is king on a throne, and we become intoxicated with awe.

The King is working good out of everything, so nothing is wrong — trust His sovereign ways. His ways are good, not because His ways are my ways, but because His ways are gloriously higher than mine.

When we surrender to the mystery of His ways rising higher than our ways, our hope rises. The miracle is already here: God is near.

I don’t have to understand, as long as I know God stands close.

Miracles happen everyday
To everyone
Maybe just not every one, or the one, you dreamed of.
But stay awake to all the ones that did.

He is the mystery that dances slow with my question marks, the aching arms that carry the shards of my dreams, the hands that lift my chin and presses His broken heart close enough to catch every one of my tears so my suffering becomes the heartbeat of His sacrifice.

And on the days when I’m raw with begging God, I turn and look into His face tender with grace and read the embrace of His heart:

Miracles happen everyday
To everyone
Maybe just not every one, or the one, you dreamed of.
But stay awake to all the ones that did.

When the miracle doesn’t come like hoped,
God still comes like He always planned.

When things don’t make sense,
God still makes a way.

We may not always get our miracle,
But we always get God
And that is the miracle that is more than enough.

To keep breathing
To keep believing
To keep  being brave.

When we feel discouraged —
God loans courage
that stared down the pit of hell
and crushed beady-eyed evil with his unwavering heel.

All is more than well — all is grace.

When our tears burn and we taste the wet saltiness of grief,
we taste God
who weeps kind with us at tombs
Even when He knows the rising is coming.

All is more than well — all is grace.

We may not always get our miracle,
But we always get God
And that is the miracle that is more than enough.

On the days that I wrestle hard with the questions, I sit long with honest songs, the tightened guitar strings echoing the ache of my prayers— and there are rests where I rest in the knowing: 

Living in the tension of mystery and miracle ties a broken heart to God.

When the ache feels like more than the heart can carry — try gently picking up a pen and looking for miracles and gifts of grace, even here, to count, all from a good and relentlessly loving God who draws near with grace upon grace in our heartache.

The Best Little Gratitude Journal for you — has spacious lines to name three miraculous gifts of grace each day, and is uniquely formatted to daily see how God has shown up with gifts on this day of the month, on all the previous months. It’s LIFE-CHANGING: Gifts & Gratitudes gently helps grow trust in a God who doesn’t always explain our suffering but who always enters into it with us.

When you don’t know what or who to count on tomorrow… if you start counting Gifts & Gratitudes — your eyes… and heart… begin to open to Who you can always count on…. especially on the hardest days.

What does the Christ-life really look like when your days are gritty, long — and sometimes even dark? How is God even here? My story of just that: One Thousand Gifts. 

Are you ready to begin—or begin again—a life-changing habit of daily gratitude? Want to reset, refresh, reboot your life and literally rewire your brain? Be one of the more than 2 million people who have stepped into the life-change of this experience.

It’s only in the expression of gratitude for the tender, complicated life we already have, we discover miracles of grace in this same life . . . a life we can take, give thanks for, and break for others. We come to feel and know the impossible right down in our bones: we are wildly loved – by God.

Let’s end the year strong… Life is a miraculous gift and far too short to do anything but awaken to the miracles of grace in the midst of the brutally — to count all the ways you still are truly loved.

Click here to pick up A Key to seeing Miraculous Gifts, even here & now

Happy, happy, happy weekend!

Let yourself smile, be crazy inspired, laugh, love & really live the gift of this life
just a little bit more this weekend…

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:

Photo by Sixteen Miles Out

Photo by Sixteen Miles Out 

Photo by Kat von Wood

Photo by Kelly Sikkema 

Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash " target="_blank" rel=" noreferrer noopener">

Photo by Sixteen Miles Out 

Maybe take some time out of your weekend to reset yourself for the week with a cup of coffee and putting pen to paper.

Little bits of God’s goodness to brighten your day: The Beauty of The Grand Canyon So Beautiful!

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“This former crime reporter uses writing to help people in prison transform their lives”You don’t want to miss thisPolar Bear Cubs Taking Their First Steps- This is really beautiful “How Gratitude Is The Lens You Really Can’t Afford to lose, in a Really Hurting World“ Don’t leave the internet before you read this! Absolutely Stunning!

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Heart Vitamins for you this week:“The Seasons Collection Show”You don’t want to miss out on this conversation! Click here to see more! “A Home That Proves You Can Never Have Too Many Books” This is a must read! “Behold the Daily Mercy of the Word”This is so sweet! I love this! I love this! Can we start this? SOUL LEARNING 101 this week:“Revival Starts Smaller Than You Think”You do not want to miss this read!!“The God Who Is Worthy Of Our Waiting”The Key to True TransformationSo so good! I love this! You did this for me Don’t miss thisAnd Some fall treats for your Week!I Loved this video!! Maybe it will give you some inspiration too! Rosemary Garlic Bread These look incredible!Loaded Sweet Potato Skins The perfect side dish! Need Inspiration? You need to try this! So so cute! I love this! Creative Bits for you this week:

Do you need some adorable DIY decor ideas for this season? These are for you!

Such a good addition! Incredible! You have to make this! Can we all try this? I love this one! Click here to watch! This is so cute! I love this idea!! Free Courses for you this week:

The Bible Project has so many FREE courses for you to take that really help you dive deeper into God’s Word and your relationship with him! You don’t want to miss this incredible resource!

“The Messianic Torah” Click here to learn more!Make a joyful noise unto the Lord: On repeat! So moving!I love this! Listen hereWOW! So good! don’t miss this! So Talented! you need to listen Post of the week on the farm: “When You Feel Rejected, Cut-Off, Not Enough: What changes Everything“

Once His, always His… 

Christ is yours, and you are Christ’s, so regardless of what goes wrong or awry, belovedness is always your birthright.

Click here to read!you can’t help but smile:Cuteness Overload Cannot stop watching! Crazy talented Watch here! I love this! This is the BEST! We have to do this! SO FUN!So fun! The BEST! Absolutely Wild! Incredible!! Thoughts to Really Ponder: “How You Know You Belong to God”“Why (Really) Do We Become Prayerless?” You need to read this!“When You Want to Change Your Husband”God, vlogs and Gen Z: How a new generation is making church ‘cool again’ Click here to read!the compassion gift guide has been a Tradition and blessing For our family Every Year and we want to invite you to join us this year! MAKE THIS PART OF YOUR GIFT GIVING TRADITION … Click here to check out Compassion’s Gift Guide! What we’re Listening to on the Farm this week“Hard Fought Hallelujah’“esus, Keep Me Near the Cross” on the book stack at the farm

I know I’ve been called to serve the world’s most vulnerable people and I’ve come to realize something deeply: everything changes when we start to see the image of God in every person—ourselves, our neighbors, and even those we struggle to love.

In my new book, Look Again, I share stories that have shaped me. Lessons I’ve learned from Scripture. And, the truth that’s changed how I live. My hope is to challenge you to step into your purpose to make a lasting impact, right where you are. 

Through personal stories, biblical teachings, and daily prayer, Demi encourages you to turn to God for your confidence and security rather than relying on external factors like appearance, success, or the opinions of others. As Demi says, “true self-worth comes from recognizing who God says you are.” 

Knowing Who You Are Because of Who God Is will help you let go of your insecurities and fears and build a more resilient faith. With Demi’s guidance, you will learn to cultivate a deep and unbreakable confidence in God’s love and His plan for your life. 

Do you want to join us for an incredible time of discovering the wonder of Christmas in the Psalms? Click here to join us December 1st!! Canadian Friends? FREE! For Christmas! SAVE YOUR FREE SEAT! Can we Meet You in January?Hope Story Conference

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We’re gathering for our 8th annual Writer’s Conference in beautiful Charlotte, NC on January 29-31, 2026, and we’d love you to join us! Experience three unforgettable days designed to awaken your words, strengthen your voice, and surround you with a community who believes in the power of story.

Across the weekend, you’ll hear best selling authors and keynote voices, learn from workshop presenters who will help refine your craft, and step into quiet writing rooms where inspiration becomes practice. Thursday night we’ll pause for Celebrate Your Story—a joyful evening where we recognize the milestones of our Hope*Books authors and invite everyone in the room to see what’s possible for their own writing journey.

This is more than another event. It’s a gathering designed to move your writing forward.

Enter code ANN when you register for $50 off!

IT’S GOING TO BE AMAZING! Grab your seat here!We almost can’t believe this happening until December 16th! This is wild!

Hey? Do you want to get Audible Premium for 99 cents for three months? You get to choose one book every month — so 3 audiobooks for 99 cents!! This is a crazy deal!!

WOW! Get three audiobooks for 99 cents each!Amazon is having a Buy 3 for the Price of 2 on select books right now!

If you’re looking for a Christmas gift for someone you love, now is the time to grab them! Check out this sale!

Click here to see all of the sales! If You Want to Live Thankful?We have all these  these FREE GRATITUDE Gifts for you! 

A Thankful Prayer for your gathering around the table, a Thankful Jar, a Thankful Tree, a Thankful Calendar — an entire Thankful collection of FREE printables for you to help you to LIVE GRATEFUL — and have truly GREAT DAYS! There are so many good things waiting for you! Don’t miss these!

Click here for your free gift!Easy Thanksgiving Side Dishes From Scratch

Maybe enjoy the week by making a warm cup of coffee and settling down with a good book by the fire.

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. 

The world we live in desperately tries to define us by our appearance, our bank accounts, and our influence — but what if we’ve missed what matters most? You and I, every single one of us, are seen, known, and cherished by the God who breathed galaxies into being. The one who painted sunsets across the sky is tenderly mindful of you. Over the years, I’ve seen Tim Tebow share God’s love far beyond the football field. Whether it’s through safe homes in developing countries, advocacy for vulnerable children, or Night to Shine, a worldwide celebration for people with special needs and disabilities. At the heart of it all, he remains devoted to affirming the value of every human life, a perspective he shares in his new book, Look Again. It’s a joy to welcome Tim to the farm’s table today…

Guest Post by Tim Tebow

Recently, Demi and I visited the Rijksmuseum, a famous art museum featuring masterpieces from great Dutch artists like Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Van Gogh. The place was packed.

While I’m definitely not an art connoisseur—I’m more of a people person than a painting guy—­ Demi’s heart was set on seeing one-­of-­a-­kind masterpieces, worth millions, that have shaped history and preserved the memories of artists long gone.

Speaking of millions, in 2023 the Rijksmuseum acquired Rembrandt’s The Standard Bearer for 175 million euros ($191.3 million). And that’s just one of thousands of paintings in this museum. Talk about value!

I remember standing in front of one painting in particular. At least thirty art lovers stood locked in time, admiring the brushstrokes of the work or the history behind it or marveling at the artist’s technique.

Many were holding up their phones to capture a snapshot of the carefully preserved strokes of oil on a canvas. Before I say what I’m about to say, I do not mean to diminish the beauty of art or the talent behind the artist. I may not understand art, but I know it takes something special to create something meaningful.

As I watched the gawking and awestruck crowd, I realized something. If they had flipped their phones to selfie mode, they would have seen a true masterpiece.

They would have seen a living and breathing human being, designed by the master architect of the universe. They would have seen a masterpiece that is infinitely more valuable than any multimillion-dollar painting. Because that’s who we are.

That’s who you are—the pinnacle of creation made on purpose.

When we don’t recognize or believe our true worth as God’s masterful creation, we settle for hollow substitutes.

We often rely on the opinions of others, our social status, or our accomplishments to boost our self-esteem and make us feel better about ourselves. We chase approval from others rather than focus on what matters most.

All this is less than the “abundant life”  Jesus promised in John 10:10. The Greek word John uses for ‘abundant,’ is “perisson.” Perisson describes a life “exceedingly, very highly, beyond measure, more, superfluous, a quantity so abundant as to be considerably more than what one would expect or anticipate.” I don’t know about you, but that’s the kind of life I want. And that’s the kind of life God came to give, because He thinks you and me are worth it!

You see, human beings matter to God in a way that no other creature ever could.

As Paul Tripp wrote, “Adam and Eve are not just part of the catalog of creatures that God made. They are above, they are special, and they are christened with a dignity that separates them from everything else.” King David echoed this remarkable truth when he wrote Psalm 8:

What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet. (Psalm 8:4–6)

David marveled at the fact that God, the Creator of all things, not only considers humans but cares about them. Just thinking about this gives me chills; it’s a humbling reminder. I often forget, or take for granted, that I was created with such love and intention.

We are uniquely created with infinite value and worth, yet we often look past ourselves and others.

What might happen if we took the perspective of our Creator and chose to look again?

I know I’ve been called to serve the world’s most vulnerable people and I’ve come to realize something deeply: everything changes when we start to see the image of God in every person—ourselves, our neighbors, and even those we struggle to love.

In my new book, Look Again, I share stories that have shaped me. Lessons I’ve learned from Scripture. And, the truth that’s changed how I live. My hope is to challenge you to step into your purpose to make a lasting impact, right where you are. 

Tim Tebow is a speaker, entrepreneur, college football analyst for ESPN and SEC Network, and the author of five New York Times bestsellers, including Shaken, This is the Day, and the children’s book Bronco and Friends: A Party to Remember. Prior to his current endeavors, Tim was an NFL quarterback, a two-time NCAAF national champion, Heisman Trophy winner, and College Football Hall of Fame inductee. 

He’s also the founder of the Tim Tebow Foundation, dedicated to bringing Faith, Hope and Love to those needing a brighter day in their darkest hour of need. Since 2010, the foundation has served some of the world’s Most Vulnerable People – the real MVPs – across more than 100 countries through ministry focuses in Anti-Human Trafficking & Child Exploitation, Orphan Care + Prevention, Profound Medical Needs, and Special Needs.

Tim is married to Demi-Leigh Tebow—speaker, author, entrepreneur, and former Miss Universe 2017. They live in Jacksonville, Florida with their daughter, Daphne, and their three dogs, Chunk, Kobe, and Paris.

{Our humble thanks to Thomas Nelson for their partnership in today’s devotional.}