Latest / The Wholehearted Enneagram Podcast / Wholehearted Advent | a conversation with author Sherri Gragg

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Wholehearted Advent | a conversation with author Sherri Gragg · The Wholehearted Enneagram Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Has 2020 left you feeling disappointed and perhaps even disillusioned?
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Do you wonder if you have anything left to give this holiday season?
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: But what if I told you 2020 was made for Advent?
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: This year more than ever, I imagine you have been tested, stretched, and worn thin like never before.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: For me, I in this unexpected year, knowing we need the hope of our Savior more than ever.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Would you join me in this moment to make space for your longing and light of the hope that you have available to you?
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: The conversation you're about to hear will and reinvigorate you and will remind you that God meets us in our limitations.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Sherry Gragg is the author of Arms Open Wide, A Call to Linger in the Savior's Presence and Advent, The Story of Christmas.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Sherry's Advent book is stunning.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Her depiction of the whole God story is written with a fresh and insightful perspective.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: And as someone who has grown up in the church, I personally appreciate the opportunity to read through the familiar stories with new eyes.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to make sure I share this conversation with you early enough so you could get her book and read through the 30 chapters of her book this Christmas season.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you can only do one thing to create a whole-hearted rhythm this Christmas, let it be to read through this book.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm serious.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: You'll have a new appreciation for the reason we have to celebrate this Christmas.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: You'll be reminded how God works all things together for good for those who are called according to his purposes, and that his ways are better than ours, and in our season of waiting and longing, the Lord is still working on your behalf.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: This conversation will be one you are going to want to share with your girlfriends.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, I'm going to be offering something really special to end out this year and begin 2021.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: If you want early access, I'd love to have you jump into my five days to fund this Christmas event.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: It starts November 16th and all the content will be available through November 23rd.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Details are in the show notes.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: I hope to see you there.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, my name is Amy Wicks, and I love to talk about the gospel message your heart was created to hear.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a Christian Enneagram coach for moms, who loves to share resources which help you be confident that you are the best mom for your kids.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a mountain mama who somehow ended up on a cul-de-sac in the Midwest.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: I was overwhelmed by motherhood, and I struggled to understand my true motivation.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: But the Lord didn't let me stay there.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: He helped me turn those challenging moments of motherhood into a wholehearted decision to get intentional with my faith, my marriage, and my kids.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: I share a broken-hearted perspective with stories, but with wholehearted purpose and plans, you can live a life full of courage and abundance.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Think of this podcast as your come-the-go mom pal and friend who can't help but talk about Jesus and the immigrant.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: So get to that pile of laundry.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Or hit the treadmill or load up the kids in the car for that grocery run.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Get ready to be encouraged and challenged while you listen.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is the Simply Wholehearted Podcast.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: How are you feeling?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: I um I guess I'm well, but I'm still not the same.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's just going to take a while.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm understanding.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Those who get it.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, for some it's just a very like, it was a cold.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: But for those who had it a little bit harder, it's taking a few weeks of recovery to feel fullness of health again.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I'm impatient for that.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's hard for me to wait for that.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: Totally, totally.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: I would be too.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: And you're a teacher, you said?
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: This is my first year to teach.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: I've I've been a writer, uh, full-time writer for a very long time, but with COVID, our income dropped dramatically, and we had two kids go to college at the same time.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yikes to be.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I needed to add a little something else to the lineup.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: I get it.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: I hold down three jobs.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: I teach BE and I write for another ministry, and then I do this, which this is more like you know, you're paying to have a hobby.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: Any any creative work feels that way at times, doesn't it?
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it does.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: It does.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Why didn't anyone tell me?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: There's a reason they call a starving artist.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, exactly.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: I did read a really good book.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Was it Jeff Goins who wrote the uh something about no such thing as starving artists or the myth of the starving artist?
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Have you heard that or read that?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh no, I have not.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I might have to shoot you an email.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: I just think you would find it really, really good.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh yeah, that's brilliant.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: It still left me with going, well, your theory is really good, but it feels like a theory.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Oh but I think it was the idea of figuring out what people are gonna pay you for, which if you've been a writer for a long time, which I feel like I have heard you around a lot of different places.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Take a minute to brag on yourself a little bit.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Have you like talked with Kathy Lip before?
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe like I'm trying to think what other writers, authors you would have been paired up.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: That would have been like, oh, I um my first book was Arms Open Wide.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: It was with Thomas Nelson about six years ago, and I just was so blessed as a first-time author to land that kind of a contract.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: After that, I did some work with Sheila Walsh, and I was on the Five Minutes to Jesus series, and then I did freelance for a while and worked uh freelance PR in journalism.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: I've always done freelance all along.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh Day Spring came along and said, How about if you kind of reboot the idea of arms open wide, but for advent?
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's that's what I came up with with this book.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: So okay.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's awesome.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: I was really curious to know about the journey and all of that for you.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that you know, there's so many of us who are we're doing what we love really on the side, and we do the other things to meet make, you know, to make life work, which right, right?
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's great to have the energy to do both, but obviously as you recover, it's been a little bit harder.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, I I think this year is really hard for teachers anyway.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so hard.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: And to be a first year teacher in the middle of all of it is especially hard.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: And and you know, kids are germy.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: And yes, they are.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, they're and if you're in a if you're in a room of a lot of germy little children, you're rather likely to get sick.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: So it's that's what happened.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's what happened.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, my mom and sister are both teachers, and then my dad is actually subbing this year as well.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: And he has been gamefully employed every single day.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, oh yeah.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: And some of the campuses are quarantining for a couple weeks, and other, you know, it's just all sorts of I don't know how they're keeping it straight.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I know they're all so tired right now, and that's just the reality of it.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: People need to be nice to their teachers, they're doing their very best.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I have thought about it a couple times that I need to do some sort of very implicit week-long shout-out for the teachers because they are.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: I was just um just talking to one of my coaching clients, and we were having that conversation too of like, oh, the teachers are carrying such a huge burden right now.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I see you.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: We see the teachers, and we're I'm so so grateful.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I I get to teach outside, so that's my my blessing and burden.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, especially as we had snow this week a little bit early.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: You did.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, that's crazy.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: It is crazy.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's the Midwest every year.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I don't think we got snow before in October.
• 8:10
  unknown: Yes, we did.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we did actually.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I used to be used to it.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: I lived in Colorado for 11 years.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I would love to hear because we are Enneagram people.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: We love to use it as a way, I think it helps us process story, our story.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: We understand our childhood lens, our experience, why we have a perspective that's so different from a sibling's, or you know, or name it.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: We all live in the same household and we walk away going, wait a minute, did we have the same childhood?
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: But we're not a type, but I love to talk about it because it gives us a little understanding into you, what's going on in your mind, in your world.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: So give us the lowdown.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: What type do you lead with?
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: And how do you think that understanding the Enneagram has helped you in your life?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm a five-wing four and a good friend of mine.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: He leads people through the process of discovering the Enneagram, and he was always kind of nudging me.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't like I took a test and I knew what I was.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like I took the test, then I had to ponder things probably six months before I came to that.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the best thing for me is that it helps me understand what I do when I'm under stress, and from that, what my vulnerabilities are and also what my needs are.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that as a primarily five, I tend to sort of turtle in, you know, to hide and to feel like a lot of things take too much emotional energy from my life.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I've learned that part of that is the way I'm made, and I need to really honor that, that it takes uh solitude and quiet to be a creative person and to just sort of manage my inner landscape.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: But at the same time, I have to balance that out and not just stay there.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I have to remind myself to say yes because it'll feel like it's going to be exhausting if a friend says, Hey, come over, and I'm thinking, ooh, people, yeah, I don't know.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe I can't handle that, you know.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: But I never regret going.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: So it's sort of understanding what I need at the same time, how I can become unbalanced in that has been very helpful for me.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: I think sure, sure.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: How has it been in a classroom full of kids?
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think as a five, that would be super challenging.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: It it is, and I'm not really sure what the answer is because I have had so much for years, so much solitude.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I think actually I was struggling with that from the time the pandemic hit because I went from working at home alone every day, just me and my dog, and then suddenly everyone was here, right?
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: And uh that meant I had a uh, let's see, at the time it was a 16-year-old, a 17-year-old, a 19-year-old, and then a 21-year-old came back home.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: And my husband also started working from home.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I was just like, I'm gonna lose my mind.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Seriously, seriously, yeah.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: I'm really struggling, like being in that room all day long with all those little bodies.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how do I balance that out?
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: And it's something I'm talking to God about a lot because I realize I'm not quite right without that space.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, I just uh finished all month of October.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: I did just Enneagram and Motherhood series because I've written a curriculum, taken a lot of the women in our church through it to understand our motherhood better in line of the Enneagram.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: But I had our five on who happens to be a cousin-in-law, and she has three little kids, especially any withdrawing type, the four, the five, the nine, the constant intimacy that is required in motherhood, or for you in a classroom full of children, that drains you so quickly.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: And on top of it, for a five, when you wake up going, I don't think I ever got to 100%.
• 12:04
  unknown: Right, right.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I had five children.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: So I really feel like my life has never quite matched.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: You totally unmade.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that's the challenge, isn't it?
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: It is, it is the challenge.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's kind of the breaking of ourselves in a way that leads us to this place of, oh, we're utterly reliant on the Lord.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's the dying to ourselves, where for you, not only does your personality require it, but we all long for solitude in some way, you know, form or fashion.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's the going, okay, I I really can't do this without your strength, Lord, and supernatural strategy to find the recharging time because that's so important and so valid.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: It hasn't gone away just because your circumstances don't allow it.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that it allowed me to give myself grace about that, that that's a real thing.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: And the word I love is finitude, you know, that we all run out of time, energy, faith, strength.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: There's a line that's the way God made us.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: And after that is God, you know.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so there's like a grace built into that to realize, okay, this is where my line is, and that's okay.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, there's nothing to beat myself up that I can't be better than that.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's really okay.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: And and I feel like once I can kind of stop fighting that and accept it, then options open up.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's really beautiful.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: I love how you finitude.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna meditate on that a little bit because it's true, because that plays into our scarcity, right?
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: And yet there's the abundance of God who meets us in our scarcity.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm gonna sit on that.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, my friends will too.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I alluded to this before, and I know I asked you in the questions ahead of time.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: I like this our concept of our broken-hearted moments lead us to a wholehearted dependence and decision in Christ.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're here, we're talking about Advent.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's always a beautiful time of year because we get to remember Christ, and every day can be this Christ-centered celebration that we have an excuse to really play up.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: But this year, more than ever, man, it's challenging, right?
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: We have circumstances completely outside of our control.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: This year has just been, as we reflect, maybe has more broken-hearted moments, the ones that we feel are worth celebrating.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: But as you kind of went into this writing a book on Advent, I know there's a whole story behind it, but where was that broken-hearted moment that has led you to a better wholehearted celebration of Christ's birth and the Advent season?
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: Both Arms Open Wide and Advent really came out of the same place.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: And it's that I was really wounded by the church.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I grew up in a faith environment that was really harsh, that didn't have a lot of grace for finitude.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: I really grew up with this flawed view of who God was, and I felt like he was someone waiting up there that no matter how hard I tried, like the moment I messed up, he was just gonna whack me with a hammer, you know.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so when I was young, I pretty much just tried to avoid him.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: And as I got to be a young adult, I really came to a place I didn't believe in God at all.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I had some really dark seasons of just despair, feeling like I was never enough.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so God was very kind to me to allow that deconstruction of my faith because as it was built back, it was really a truer view of who God was.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: That was such a relief and a joy to me that I really wanted to share that God with other people.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: And part of the way he did that was I began to study because I'm a five.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I began to really study the history and the culture of the Bible.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I went to Israel with Dr.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: James Martin, and he taught on site, and all of those things I realized that sometimes the way I was seeing God and the way he was presented to me were because I didn't really have the whole picture of what was going on in that moment because we were coming at it from a 21st century uh Western viewpoint.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so as I began to really find that it was healing for me, and I really wanted to share that outrageously kind God with other people.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's why I wrote the books.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think it's a beautiful depiction, and it's perfect for those who really do really the whole picture in bite-sized chunks.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I love how you broke it up and really you can read it in five minutes and walk away with man, a wealth of information because you're a five.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's so great.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's so good.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: I need more fives in my life because that's my line of growth.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: And there are some days that are very, very far from that.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I need more of you.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's right, Kai.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: We all need each other.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's right.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: We do the whole body.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we can't do without one thing.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's just such a beautiful depiction, and I think it's worth going through it.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you've grown up in the church, even if you've heard the Christmas story what feels like a thousand times, I believe you provide a real fresh, intimate perspective into the story of our savior and why faith is so invaluable to us.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I think you've done a great job.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, thank you, thank you.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I have three rapid fire questions that we're doing for our advent season podcasts.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: So you ready for them?
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: You can go as as deep or as you know, deep and wide as you want to.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of Christmas gifts are on your list this year?
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I didn't know if you meant like things my wish list or for other people.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Your wish list, yeah.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: My my wish list is always books, books, more books.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: Love it, yeah, or anything that allows me to get out in nature because I'm a hiker.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so if I have time, a cabin, some books, alone in the woods, solitude.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm happy.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's so good.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, perfect.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what do you not enjoy about the gift buying process?
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: I can't stand the chaotic materialism.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: So when I hear the words Black Friday, I don't hear great deals.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: I hear don't go out of your house.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I hear.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: So that's what I don't like.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: This year you'll have your wish.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Shudder, shudder.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what do you actually enjoy about the gift buying process for others?
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: I think about it a lot because I want people to be feel like they're seen and loved.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: Those moments are just precious.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: I have a friend who just completed ordination as a deacon in the Anglican church, and she worked so hard for it for so long.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: And she wanted to do it because she wants to offer kindness and compassion.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: So a mutual friend and I bought her this beautiful little tribal communion set, and that will fulfill her giftedness and honored everything she's put into it.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: And as we sat and watched her take each little piece out, and she's crying.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like I was like, that's as good as it gets.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's better than ever receiving any gift.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: So that's my favorite thing.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love that.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Me too.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that just says to how you have that in that four-wing, that five wing four, you you really saw someone and you took the time to study and learn, and you displayed that love really well.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's beautiful.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what are three ways that we could practice advent this season?
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because obviously it looks different than years past.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: And hopefully next year, game on, we can we can have our choice of what we want to have and not have, according to our type.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly, exactly.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: How would you encourage us as moms, as daughters, and just living out this as really as Christ's followers?
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so here's the great news is that 2020 was made for Advent because Christmas is all about joy and celebration.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: And there's been seasons in my life that I was not feeling that.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: And this year, Advent's about preparing our hearts and it's about making space to bring all of the places that aren't right where we're still longing and we're still hurting and we're still grieving, and to hold those in hope as we wait for that morning star to dawn.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: Advent gives us space to do that, and that's what it's meant to me.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: It was such a relief to me to discover that it's okay to not be okay during Advent.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: And this year there's a lot of people hurting.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: So, some things I always do.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: I always have some kind of a reading, of course, like a daily reading.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's just great to have something that day by day helps you make that space for God.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: And the next step for me is journaling.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: I think that takes it from here to here.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: We begin to work out in our own place whatever we've read means to us.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like if it's my book you read, I'll have journal prompts on my website.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: If not, just pick up a journal and write.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: Just be honest with God.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: And the third one that I'm really excited about for this year is to practice intentional acts of kindness.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I think this is important every year to observe during Advent, but this year especially.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: And as I've had COVID, my community has been so kind.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they've dropped food on my porch, chocolate, snorky t-shirt, you know, flowers.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh knowing I was seen and they loved me gave me the courage to keep getting back up, you know.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: And Advent and Christmas are about Emmanuel.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: God is the one who comes to be with us and walk alongside us.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: And as we do that for other people who are hurting, we really reflect that.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like this season for the church is a great opportunity to really demonstrate what we're supposed to be about.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: And we're supposed to be about mercy and kindness, and we can be something really different right now.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we can choose to love the other no matter what, and we can choose to minister in the darkness and to offer kindness, and I think it's just a great way to observe the season.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that is beautiful.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: The ministry of kindness may it be what we're what we accept the call to every season because we just need more of it.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we do.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we do.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you so much, Sherry.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: This conversation was beautiful, and I'm just excited that this conversations like this will help set the tone and set our hearts for preparing the way really for the most important gift, and that's Christ Himself.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you so much for having me.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: I really loved being here.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: You two get all the way better.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: I am so grateful for this fresh reminder to prepare our hearts for the best gift we will ever be offered.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope that you get Sherry's book, Advent, The Story of Christmas.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's available on Amazon, and I encourage you to journal along with the readings.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Filling your soul with the hope of Christ will empower you to live out your ministry of kindness this season.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, something really fun is head of your way.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I want you to be in the know.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: If you are hearing this the week of November 16th, it's not too late to join my five days to fun this Christmas.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's only one dollar, and you'll get the support you need for a wholehearted celebration this year.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so grateful to have you join me for this fourth annual Simply Wholehearted Advent Season.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: I've got so much goodness headed your way for the rest of 2020.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: Join me next week and continue to pursue perspective, purpose, and plans for your wholehearted Advent season.