December 1, 2024 • 18 mins
Today’s episode focuses on the significance of Advent, a time of anticipation and preparation for the celebration of Christmas and the coming of Christ. Host Kristin Fitch shares insights on how to cultivate a spirit of reflection and connection with God during this busy season. She emphasizes the importance of spiritual growth and invites listeners to consider what might be blocking their faith or preventing them from fully embracing this time of year. Throughout the episode, Kristin offers practical suggestions for incorporating Christ into Christmas traditions, such as creating scripture cards and establishing an Advent prayer plan. By embracing small, meaningful practices, listeners can deepen their faith and experience a more joyful and peaceful Advent season.
Takeaways:
- Advent serves as a time for spiritual reflection, anticipation, and preparation for Christmas.
- The four weeks of Advent focus on hope, faith, joy, and peace, enhancing our hearts.
- To deepen faith during Advent, consider asking what may be blocking your spiritual growth.
- Incorporating small, meaningful practices can help bring Christ into the holiday season.
- Creating scripture cards for gifts encourages reflection on Jesus’s birth during celebrations.
- Engaging in prayer, meditation, and music can enrich your Advent experience and connection to God.
Join our growing community of Christian women committed to living fully and intentionally with God’s guidance. Download our free Joyful Living Devotional Journal and reignite your passion today.
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Advent, Advent season, Christian women, faith, preparation for Christmas, spiritual reflection, hope, faith community, prayer life, Christmas traditions, Christ’s birth, Advent candles, biblical wisdom, deepening faith, Christmas music, thin places, meditation apps, holiday season, encouragement in faith, gifts for Jesus
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
As today marks the first dayof Advent for this holiday season,
I wanted to come on and justshare with you a little bit about
Advent and talk about thefocus of Advent and how can we set
our hearts on the anticipationand preparation of Christmas and
Christ and just let us get inthe posture of what this time is
(00:25):
really meant to do in our hearts.
Welcome to Faith Fueled Woman,a podcast designed for Christian
women eager to deepen theirfaith and shine God's light in every
aspect of their lives.
Each week we'll delve intopractical strategies, inspiring stories
and biblical wisdom to equipyou with the tools you need to navigate
life's challenges and growdeeper in your faith.
From finding calm in thechaos, forming deep Christian friendships,
(00:48):
to everyday ways to connectwith God.
We'll cover it all.
Hi, I'm your host, Kristen.
I'm an encourager, a faith ledentrepreneur, a mom and a wife.
Let's be encouraged in oureveryday lives.
As we let our faith guide us,fuel us, and fill us with God's.
Incredible peace, wisdom andjoy in our lives.
Right, so for this miniepisode today, we want to talk about
(01:09):
Advent and what Advent reallymeans in Latin was.
Well, one of the things itsays, it's a Tavernier, which is
to come or arrive.
Right.
So we're waiting inanticipation of the birth of Jesus
and also we're waiting inanticipation of Christ coming again.
Right.
(01:30):
Of course, we don't know whenthat will be, but it's basically
getting our hearts right andgetting in presence of God, slowing
down and taking the time toreflect together on God's faithfulness.
It's how can we humble ourhearts and how can we invite the
Lord into our lives duringthis season?
(01:50):
So Advent's four weeks longand there is a focus or a theme each
week of Advent.
And the first week is the weekof hope, which is also called the
Prophet's Candle.
And I guess I should back up.
So I think it was sometime inthe 1800s that they started doing
(02:10):
Advent.
Cat.
I'm sorry, Advent candles orthe Advent wreath.
And so each week, each Sundayat the start of the week, they would,
they'll, I should say they,they started.
But now many people do this.
Now light one candle and theneach week is representing that week.
And so the first week is hope.
(02:30):
The second week's theme isfaith, and that can also be called
Bethlehem's candle.
The third week is joy andcalled sometimes a Shepherd's candle.
And the fourth week is peace,which is called the angels candle.
Now, some people also mightlight A fifth candle for light and
purity, and that's calledChrist's Candle.
(02:54):
Not all Christians lightAdvent candles or have an Advent
wreath.
But, you know, it isinformation for us to know about.
And so you can choose to dothat or not.
But really what we want to dois how can we focus ourselves to
bring Christ into Christmasand into this time of year?
Because actually, Advent isthe beginning of the liturgical year.
(03:20):
And so this is really thebeginning of our, you know, our calendar,
if you will, from a biblicalstandpoint, not January.
And so what I want to talkabout today is just asking ourselves
a couple questions and thengiving you a couple ideas for ways
that we can spend a littlemore time with down our spiritual
(03:41):
reflection or in time inprayer or just, you know, being in
connection to God.
And so first thing is, is it'sa great time of year for spiritual
reflection.
And there are some questionsthat we could linger on or ask ourselves.
One of those is, is theresomething preventing you from receiving
(04:02):
Christ or blocking you fromdeepening your faith?
And so just ponder thatquestion for yourself.
And that could just be yourbusyness in your life.
That could be something you'reholding on to that you don't want
to let go of.
It could be a hurt, it couldbe something you don't want to forgive
someone for a grudge.
It could be anything.
(04:24):
Another question we can askourselves is, am I spiritually growing?
And you can add to that, am Ispiritually growing in my faith community?
Am I spiritually growing in myprayer life?
Am I spiritually growing in my heart?
Am I spiritually growing byreleasing the hurt that I'm holding
on to?
But this is a great time totry to grow in our faith.
(04:46):
And we can do it in reallysmall ways, which is what I'm going
to talk about in a few minutes.
And then we can also just askourselves, am I allowing in God into
my life?
Am I welcoming in the HolySpirit into my day?
And then am I slowing downenough at least for minutes throughout
(05:07):
the day to pray or to get quiet?
Are we finding time forsilence so that we can listen to
God?
And so for me, what I've foundis there's small ways that we can
add Christ into the season.
And I'm going to share acouple of those with you.
And then I'm going to sharewhat I've started doing now in preparation
(05:31):
of Advent so that I'm readyand I'm in a posture that I'm going
to spend more time on my faiththis year than I ever have before.
Okay.
So just between now andChristmas, some of the things that
we've done in the past is wemake sure we all, we watch some movie
or series that's about Christ, right?
Christ's life, Christ's birth,something so that we make sure we're
(05:55):
not only watching thecommercialized secular Christmas
shows, which I.
We love those and we watch those.
Too, but we don't want to makeit only about that, of course.
Next is we will do.
I'll create scripture cardsand I will put them on Christmas
morning on some of the gifts.
So as we go around the roomand open a gift, each person will
(06:17):
have to read a scripture cardor several throughout the morning.
And I try to make them onesthat are around Christ's birth or
this time of year.
But it just lets us slow downand then remember before we're opening
our gift why we're gathering,why we're celebrating today.
So I always love that I havesome friends and family that do a
(06:38):
birthday cake for baby Jesuson Christmas morning, you know, so
it might be like a cinnamonroll cake or something like that.
We have also been to birthdayparties for baby Jesus where people
bring gifts for people inneed, you know, during this season.
So that's always a lovely andfun thing, especially if you have
kids.
Okay.
(06:58):
So really what it comes downto is how can we add in time for
reflection, time for prayerand reflection when it's such or
can be such a busy time, busytime of gathering and a busy time
of playing and a busy time ofdoing all these things to our houses
(07:20):
that make it look beautifuland rich and sparkly.
How do we make sure that wedon't get caught up in the consumerism?
Well, one way is that we canstart doing an Advent prayer plan.
And so you can do those from.
There's so many Bible appsthat have those that will start next
week.
(07:40):
So Proverbs 31.
I'm.
I'm most likely going to dothat one.
He reads Truth is another one.
It has an Abbott plan, the Bible.
I think there's a Bible.
Many Bible apps that will haveAdvent plans.
But also I'm actually testingout the some of the Bible and meditation
apps.
And so I can't say which onethat I'm going to go with yet.
(08:02):
But some of those are called Glorify.
Another one's called Prayer orPrayer dot Com.
Another one's called Abide.
Those are all generalChristian Bible apps or prayer apps
and meditation apps.
Then there's another onecalled Hollow, and that one's geared
towards Catholic Christians.
But I'm also testing that oneout because I had just listened to
(08:23):
an interview with the founderof that and I was just curious about
it.
So I'm kind of testing themout and seeing which ones really
help in my prayer life,putting God first throughout my day.
Because all of them havesermons and messages, prayers, but
then they also have alldifferent length, you know, messages
(08:46):
and things like that that aresome are one minute or two minutes
long just to get you sort of,you know, speaking to God, asking
God to come into your day.
And then they have ones thatare five minutes long to 15 minutes
and then longer from there.
But in other words, it theseapps help you put prayer more into
(09:06):
your life, right?
It's small bite sized pieces,but then also in bigger ways they
have reminders.
They can pop it up at every.
At the same time every day.
So I'm really enjoying testingthese out.
And when I go on my walksbesides listening to a podcast, I'll
pop on a couple of those andlisten to them to finish my walk
off.
So I really enjoyed that.
(09:27):
Another thing that we can dothat's pretty easy, it only takes
a couple minutes is we candownload an Advent playlist or in
other words, Advent songs onour phone.
So you can do that through anystreaming music service, Apple Music,
or Pandora or all the manyother ones.
So I downloaded one off ofPandora just the other day, which
(09:48):
was just beautiful.
It had about nine or 12 songsthat someone else already curated
for Advent, but they were justvery focused on this season Birth
of Jesus, about darknesscoming into light.
And then I also just recentlysaw this is from several years ago,
but Matt Mayer has the Adventof Christmas album and so I've just
(10:09):
saved that to my playlist.
And his name is Matt M A H E Rbut he's a Christian singer.
And so you might enjoy that.
Just in other words, what arethe small things we can do that will
let us just pause in our day?
Or if we were going to listento music anyways, or we were going
to listen to somethinganyways, why not add a little bit
of prayer or worship musicinto our lives, especially during
(10:34):
this time.
And I would also say somepeople take this opportunity or Advent
as an opportunity to fast.
You know, some.
And that could be anythingfrom fasting from food or listening
how much food you have in a day.
It could be fasting fromsocial media, you know, whatever
it might be.
But it's whatever is going tolet you set your sights on Christ,
(10:57):
on God.
That is what you would fast on.
And so that's another thing wecan do right now.
And then it's just getting quiet.
You know, can you take fiveminutes out of your day or 30 minutes
out of your day and sitoutside, you know, get in nature
or take a walk, you know, andjust sometimes pause the podcast,
pause the music, and justallow yourself to hear from God.
(11:21):
And so I think that that'sreally important, especially during
this time.
The next thing is it can be abusy time of year.
So my question to each of usis, how do we make this time time
of reflection and slowing downin some ways and not of hustle and
busy and trying to do more, right?
(11:43):
More gifts, more parties.
And look, I love parties and Ilove gifts, doing those things.
But I also don't want it totake over or consumer overwhelm me.
And so how do we combat that?
Well, it's.
We tell ourselves, you know,what can we fit in realistically
in a day where it won'texhaust us?
(12:05):
Could we push somethingfurther out?
Can we do a little less or canwe plan ahead?
So, for instance, I alwayscook goodies for my neighbors and
some other friends.
But what I've learned is thatI can do batch cookie making, right?
So I might make three batchesor more of cookie dough, and then
I will freeze to the types ofcookie dough.
(12:28):
And then when I'm ready tomake cookies for the neighbors, I'll
start pulling out thedifferent types of frozen dough and
then I'm ready to go.
I don't have the big mess.
I don't have to make five doughs.
I just have to cut the cookiesat that point and bake them and then
put them in some sort of container.
So find ways to make thingssimpler on yourself.
If you make make a batch ofsoup or chili right now, maybe make
(12:51):
a little extra and freeze theextra so that one night when you're
busy, you can just go and grabthat frozen soup or chili or whatever
the meal might be plan on.
If you have a super busynight, you and if you're married,
your spouse, maybe one night aweek, you're going to order pizza
or get takeout or get a pickupmeal because you know that you're
(13:13):
booked up the whole day and night.
So just give yourself a littlebreak so that it's a little easier.
But if you think ahead and youknow, hey, you know what night's
going to be kind of crazy.
So let's figure something elseout for dinner, you know, so I'm
not fitting that into.
And then at the end of theday, I think it's just about giving
glory to God and lingering inhis presence.
(13:36):
And so that's really the goal.
It's.
It's not to put more pressureon us to try to do Advent in a perfect,
certain way.
It's really just to set oursights on Christ, to look up to the
sky and to make sure that weknow that this season, the beginning
of the liturgical year islet's start it off right.
(13:56):
Let's start it off bydeepening our faith and taking a
little more time for ourselvesto deepen that relationship.
And so that's all I wanted tocome on and share with you today.
I hope you have a beautiful,joyful and peaceful Advent full of
hope and that you step intoChristmas with an open heart and
(14:17):
just knowing that at the endof the day, it's about setting our
sights on Christ and justcoming together to love on each other
and just to share the hope ofthe birth of baby Jesus.
And as I wrap up today'sepisode, I have something that I
wanted to share with you.
It's just a beautiful Celticconcept that I think this time of
year really lends itself tobeing opened to this idea and to
(14:41):
being aware of the presence ofGod in our lives.
And I want to share a littlebit from the book Bittersweet by
Shannon Nyquist.
She talks about a beautifulconcept that I think during Advent
and Christmas is so relevantand so real.
And it's this.
This is what she says.
One of my favorite Celticideas is the concept of thin places.
(15:04):
A thin place, according to theCeltic mystics, is a place where
the boundary between thenatural world and the supernatural
one is more permeable,thinner, if you will.
Sometimes they're physical places.
There are places all overIreland where people have said, if
you stand here, if you facethis direction, if you hike to the
top of that ridge at just theright time of day, that's a thin
place.
(15:24):
A place where the passagebetween heaven and earth is a short
one.
A place where God's presenceis almost palpable.
He later goes on to say, but I digress.
Thin places.
Places where the boundarybetween the divine world and the
human world becomes almost non existent.
And the two, divine and humancan for a moment dance together uninterrupted.
(15:44):
Some are physical places andsome aren't places at all, but states
of being or circumstances or seasons.
Christmas is a thin place.
A season during which even thehardest, hardest hearted of people
think about what matters.
When even the most locked up,individuals loosen their grasp for
just a moment in the face ofthe deep beauty and hope of Christmas.
(16:06):
The shimmer of God's presence,not always plainly visible in our
world, is more visible at Christmas.
When you find a thin place,anytime, anywhere, we should live
differently in the face of it,because if we don't, we miss something.
Some of the best moments thatlife with God has to offer us.
These thin places are gifts,pleasures, and they're worth changing
(16:27):
our lives for.
Reach through from human toSacred Every time the goodness of
this season moves you, a thinplace is an opportunity to be more
aware of the divinefingerprints all over the world.
And Christmas is oneinvitation after another to do that.
When you hear music thatpierces your spirit, thank God for
the gift of music.
(16:47):
When you witness generositythat reminds you of the deep goodness
of humanity, thank.
God for the way he created us.
When you feel the profoundsense of beauty, thank God for it.
When the traditions and smellsand sounds of Christmas that you
love and wait for all yearlong overwhelm you and you think,
I love this world we live in,thank God for those things.
(17:08):
When the faces of yourchildren or your parents shock you
with the love you feel forthem, thank God.
And I'll just share this last sentence.
She says there's another kindof thin place and we find ourselves
in these places when our livesand our hearts are broken, opened.
Brokenness has a way ofallowing the supernatural into our
lives in the same way thatdeep joy and great beauty do.
(17:28):
And maybe I'm finding evenmore so friends, during this Advent
season and Christmas season, Iinvite you to be aware, be present
and you might just experiencemore of those thin places, those
experiences where God ispresent and it's closer than ever
(17:49):
during the rest of the year.
So that is what I wish for youthis Advent and this Christmas season.
Thanks again for listening tothe show and if you enjoyed today's
episode, we would love it ifyou could take a minute to leave
a rating and review on ApplePodcast because it helps our show
get discovered by more people.
And if you'd like to beencouraged in your faith and in your
(18:09):
life, go on toKristinFitch.com and sign up to get
my newsletter.
I have lots of freebies andlots of inspiration encouragement
that will be coming your wayand I would love it if you joined
part of our community.
As today marks the first dayof Advent for this holiday season,
I wanted to come on and justshare with you a little bit about
Advent and talk about thefocus of Advent and how can we set
our hearts on the anticipationand preparation of Christmas and
Christ and just let us get inthe posture of what this time is
(00:25):
really meant to do in our hearts.
Welcome to Faith Fueled Woman,a podcast designed for Christian
women eager to deepen theirfaith and shine God's light in every
aspect of their lives.
Each week we'll delve intopractical strategies, inspiring stories
and biblical wisdom to equipyou with the tools you need to navigate
life's challenges and growdeeper in your faith.
From finding calm in thechaos, forming deep Christian friendships,
(00:48):
to everyday ways to connectwith God.
We'll cover it all.
Hi, I'm your host, Kristen.
I'm an encourager, a faith ledentrepreneur, a mom and a wife.
Let's be encouraged in oureveryday lives.
As we let our faith guide us,fuel us, and fill us with God's.
Incredible peace, wisdom andjoy in our lives.
Right, so for this miniepisode today, we want to talk about
(01:09):
Advent and what Advent reallymeans in Latin was.
Well, one of the things itsays, it's a Tavernier, which is
to come or arrive.
Right.
So we're waiting inanticipation of the birth of Jesus
and also we're waiting inanticipation of Christ coming again.
Right.
(01:30):
Of course, we don't know whenthat will be, but it's basically
getting our hearts right andgetting in presence of God, slowing
down and taking the time toreflect together on God's faithfulness.
It's how can we humble ourhearts and how can we invite the
Lord into our lives duringthis season?
(01:50):
So Advent's four weeks longand there is a focus or a theme each
week of Advent.
And the first week is the weekof hope, which is also called the
Prophet's Candle.
And I guess I should back up.
So I think it was sometime inthe 1800s that they started doing
(02:10):
Advent.
Cat.
I'm sorry, Advent candles orthe Advent wreath.
And so each week, each Sundayat the start of the week, they would,
they'll, I should say they,they started.
But now many people do this.
Now light one candle and theneach week is representing that week.
And so the first week is hope.
(02:30):
The second week's theme isfaith, and that can also be called
Bethlehem's candle.
The third week is joy andcalled sometimes a Shepherd's candle.
And the fourth week is peace,which is called the angels candle.
Now, some people also mightlight A fifth candle for light and
purity, and that's calledChrist's Candle.
(02:54):
Not all Christians lightAdvent candles or have an Advent
wreath.
But, you know, it isinformation for us to know about.
And so you can choose to dothat or not.
But really what we want to dois how can we focus ourselves to
bring Christ into Christmasand into this time of year?
Because actually, Advent isthe beginning of the liturgical year.
(03:20):
And so this is really thebeginning of our, you know, our calendar,
if you will, from a biblicalstandpoint, not January.
And so what I want to talkabout today is just asking ourselves
a couple questions and thengiving you a couple ideas for ways
that we can spend a littlemore time with down our spiritual
(03:41):
reflection or in time inprayer or just, you know, being in
connection to God.
And so first thing is, is it'sa great time of year for spiritual
reflection.
And there are some questionsthat we could linger on or ask ourselves.
One of those is, is theresomething preventing you from receiving
(04:02):
Christ or blocking you fromdeepening your faith?
And so just ponder thatquestion for yourself.
And that could just be yourbusyness in your life.
That could be something you'reholding on to that you don't want
to let go of.
It could be a hurt, it couldbe something you don't want to forgive
someone for a grudge.
It could be anything.
(04:24):
Another question we can askourselves is, am I spiritually growing?
And you can add to that, am Ispiritually growing in my faith community?
Am I spiritually growing in myprayer life?
Am I spiritually growing in my heart?
Am I spiritually growing byreleasing the hurt that I'm holding
on to?
But this is a great time totry to grow in our faith.
(04:46):
And we can do it in reallysmall ways, which is what I'm going
to talk about in a few minutes.
And then we can also just askourselves, am I allowing in God into
my life?
Am I welcoming in the HolySpirit into my day?
And then am I slowing downenough at least for minutes throughout
(05:07):
the day to pray or to get quiet?
Are we finding time forsilence so that we can listen to
God?
And so for me, what I've foundis there's small ways that we can
add Christ into the season.
And I'm going to share acouple of those with you.
And then I'm going to sharewhat I've started doing now in preparation
(05:31):
of Advent so that I'm readyand I'm in a posture that I'm going
to spend more time on my faiththis year than I ever have before.
Okay.
So just between now andChristmas, some of the things that
we've done in the past is wemake sure we all, we watch some movie
or series that's about Christ, right?
Christ's life, Christ's birth,something so that we make sure we're
(05:55):
not only watching thecommercialized secular Christmas
shows, which I.
We love those and we watch those.
Too, but we don't want to makeit only about that, of course.
Next is we will do.
I'll create scripture cardsand I will put them on Christmas
morning on some of the gifts.
So as we go around the roomand open a gift, each person will
(06:17):
have to read a scripture cardor several throughout the morning.
And I try to make them onesthat are around Christ's birth or
this time of year.
But it just lets us slow downand then remember before we're opening
our gift why we're gathering,why we're celebrating today.
So I always love that I havesome friends and family that do a
(06:38):
birthday cake for baby Jesuson Christmas morning, you know, so
it might be like a cinnamonroll cake or something like that.
We have also been to birthdayparties for baby Jesus where people
bring gifts for people inneed, you know, during this season.
So that's always a lovely andfun thing, especially if you have
kids.
Okay.
(06:58):
So really what it comes downto is how can we add in time for
reflection, time for prayerand reflection when it's such or
can be such a busy time, busytime of gathering and a busy time
of playing and a busy time ofdoing all these things to our houses
(07:20):
that make it look beautifuland rich and sparkly.
How do we make sure that wedon't get caught up in the consumerism?
Well, one way is that we canstart doing an Advent prayer plan.
And so you can do those from.
There's so many Bible appsthat have those that will start next
week.
(07:40):
So Proverbs 31.
I'm.
I'm most likely going to dothat one.
He reads Truth is another one.
It has an Abbott plan, the Bible.
I think there's a Bible.
Many Bible apps that will haveAdvent plans.
But also I'm actually testingout the some of the Bible and meditation
apps.
And so I can't say which onethat I'm going to go with yet.
(08:02):
But some of those are called Glorify.
Another one's called Prayer orPrayer dot Com.
Another one's called Abide.
Those are all generalChristian Bible apps or prayer apps
and meditation apps.
Then there's another onecalled Hollow, and that one's geared
towards Catholic Christians.
But I'm also testing that oneout because I had just listened to
(08:23):
an interview with the founderof that and I was just curious about
it.
So I'm kind of testing themout and seeing which ones really
help in my prayer life,putting God first throughout my day.
Because all of them havesermons and messages, prayers, but
then they also have alldifferent length, you know, messages
(08:46):
and things like that that aresome are one minute or two minutes
long just to get you sort of,you know, speaking to God, asking
God to come into your day.
And then they have ones thatare five minutes long to 15 minutes
and then longer from there.
But in other words, it theseapps help you put prayer more into
(09:06):
your life, right?
It's small bite sized pieces,but then also in bigger ways they
have reminders.
They can pop it up at every.
At the same time every day.
So I'm really enjoying testingthese out.
And when I go on my walksbesides listening to a podcast, I'll
pop on a couple of those andlisten to them to finish my walk
off.
So I really enjoyed that.
(09:27):
Another thing that we can dothat's pretty easy, it only takes
a couple minutes is we candownload an Advent playlist or in
other words, Advent songs onour phone.
So you can do that through anystreaming music service, Apple Music,
or Pandora or all the manyother ones.
So I downloaded one off ofPandora just the other day, which
(09:48):
was just beautiful.
It had about nine or 12 songsthat someone else already curated
for Advent, but they were justvery focused on this season Birth
of Jesus, about darknesscoming into light.
And then I also just recentlysaw this is from several years ago,
but Matt Mayer has the Adventof Christmas album and so I've just
(10:09):
saved that to my playlist.
And his name is Matt M A H E Rbut he's a Christian singer.
And so you might enjoy that.
Just in other words, what arethe small things we can do that will
let us just pause in our day?
Or if we were going to listento music anyways, or we were going
to listen to somethinganyways, why not add a little bit
of prayer or worship musicinto our lives, especially during
(10:34):
this time.
And I would also say somepeople take this opportunity or Advent
as an opportunity to fast.
You know, some.
And that could be anythingfrom fasting from food or listening
how much food you have in a day.
It could be fasting fromsocial media, you know, whatever
it might be.
But it's whatever is going tolet you set your sights on Christ,
(10:57):
on God.
That is what you would fast on.
And so that's another thing wecan do right now.
And then it's just getting quiet.
You know, can you take fiveminutes out of your day or 30 minutes
out of your day and sitoutside, you know, get in nature
or take a walk, you know, andjust sometimes pause the podcast,
pause the music, and justallow yourself to hear from God.
(11:21):
And so I think that that'sreally important, especially during
this time.
The next thing is it can be abusy time of year.
So my question to each of usis, how do we make this time time
of reflection and slowing downin some ways and not of hustle and
busy and trying to do more, right?
(11:43):
More gifts, more parties.
And look, I love parties and Ilove gifts, doing those things.
But I also don't want it totake over or consumer overwhelm me.
And so how do we combat that?
Well, it's.
We tell ourselves, you know,what can we fit in realistically
in a day where it won'texhaust us?
(12:05):
Could we push somethingfurther out?
Can we do a little less or canwe plan ahead?
So, for instance, I alwayscook goodies for my neighbors and
some other friends.
But what I've learned is thatI can do batch cookie making, right?
So I might make three batchesor more of cookie dough, and then
I will freeze to the types ofcookie dough.
(12:28):
And then when I'm ready tomake cookies for the neighbors, I'll
start pulling out thedifferent types of frozen dough and
then I'm ready to go.
I don't have the big mess.
I don't have to make five doughs.
I just have to cut the cookiesat that point and bake them and then
put them in some sort of container.
So find ways to make thingssimpler on yourself.
If you make make a batch ofsoup or chili right now, maybe make
(12:51):
a little extra and freeze theextra so that one night when you're
busy, you can just go and grabthat frozen soup or chili or whatever
the meal might be plan on.
If you have a super busynight, you and if you're married,
your spouse, maybe one night aweek, you're going to order pizza
or get takeout or get a pickupmeal because you know that you're
(13:13):
booked up the whole day and night.
So just give yourself a littlebreak so that it's a little easier.
But if you think ahead and youknow, hey, you know what night's
going to be kind of crazy.
So let's figure something elseout for dinner, you know, so I'm
not fitting that into.
And then at the end of theday, I think it's just about giving
glory to God and lingering inhis presence.
(13:36):
And so that's really the goal.
It's.
It's not to put more pressureon us to try to do Advent in a perfect,
certain way.
It's really just to set oursights on Christ, to look up to the
sky and to make sure that weknow that this season, the beginning
of the liturgical year islet's start it off right.
(13:56):
Let's start it off bydeepening our faith and taking a
little more time for ourselvesto deepen that relationship.
And so that's all I wanted tocome on and share with you today.
I hope you have a beautiful,joyful and peaceful Advent full of
hope and that you step intoChristmas with an open heart and
(14:17):
just knowing that at the endof the day, it's about setting our
sights on Christ and justcoming together to love on each other
and just to share the hope ofthe birth of baby Jesus.
And as I wrap up today'sepisode, I have something that I
wanted to share with you.
It's just a beautiful Celticconcept that I think this time of
year really lends itself tobeing opened to this idea and to
(14:41):
being aware of the presence ofGod in our lives.
And I want to share a littlebit from the book Bittersweet by
Shannon Nyquist.
She talks about a beautifulconcept that I think during Advent
and Christmas is so relevantand so real.
And it's this.
This is what she says.
One of my favorite Celticideas is the concept of thin places.
(15:04):
A thin place, according to theCeltic mystics, is a place where
the boundary between thenatural world and the supernatural
one is more permeable,thinner, if you will.
Sometimes they're physical places.
There are places all overIreland where people have said, if
you stand here, if you facethis direction, if you hike to the
top of that ridge at just theright time of day, that's a thin
place.
(15:24):
A place where the passagebetween heaven and earth is a short
one.
A place where God's presenceis almost palpable.
He later goes on to say, but I digress.
Thin places.
Places where the boundarybetween the divine world and the
human world becomes almost non existent.
And the two, divine and humancan for a moment dance together uninterrupted.
(15:44):
Some are physical places andsome aren't places at all, but states
of being or circumstances or seasons.
Christmas is a thin place.
A season during which even thehardest, hardest hearted of people
think about what matters.
When even the most locked up,individuals loosen their grasp for
just a moment in the face ofthe deep beauty and hope of Christmas.
(16:06):
The shimmer of God's presence,not always plainly visible in our
world, is more visible at Christmas.
When you find a thin place,anytime, anywhere, we should live
differently in the face of it,because if we don't, we miss something.
Some of the best moments thatlife with God has to offer us.
These thin places are gifts,pleasures, and they're worth changing
(16:27):
our lives for.
Reach through from human toSacred Every time the goodness of
this season moves you, a thinplace is an opportunity to be more
aware of the divinefingerprints all over the world.
And Christmas is oneinvitation after another to do that.
When you hear music thatpierces your spirit, thank God for
the gift of music.
(16:47):
When you witness generositythat reminds you of the deep goodness
of humanity, thank.
God for the way he created us.
When you feel the profoundsense of beauty, thank God for it.
When the traditions and smellsand sounds of Christmas that you
love and wait for all yearlong overwhelm you and you think,
I love this world we live in,thank God for those things.
(17:08):
When the faces of yourchildren or your parents shock you
with the love you feel forthem, thank God.
And I'll just share this last sentence.
She says there's another kindof thin place and we find ourselves
in these places when our livesand our hearts are broken, opened.
Brokenness has a way ofallowing the supernatural into our
lives in the same way thatdeep joy and great beauty do.
(17:28):
And maybe I'm finding evenmore so friends, during this Advent
season and Christmas season, Iinvite you to be aware, be present
and you might just experiencemore of those thin places, those
experiences where God ispresent and it's closer than ever
(17:49):
during the rest of the year.
So that is what I wish for youthis Advent and this Christmas season.
Thanks again for listening tothe show and if you enjoyed today's
episode, we would love it ifyou could take a minute to leave
a rating and review on ApplePodcast because it helps our show
get discovered by more people.
And if you'd like to beencouraged in your faith and in your
(18:09):
life, go on toKristinFitch.com and sign up to get
my newsletter.
I have lots of freebies andlots of inspiration encouragement
that will be coming your wayand I would love it if you joined
part of our community.
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