[SPEAKER_01]: This is Cynthia Gannoff and you are listening to the mesmerized podcast.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hey friends, welcome to the podcast.

[SPEAKER_01]: And today, today we're going to kick off December and we are going to talk Christmas.

[SPEAKER_01]: And maybe have a moment to slow down and think through a couple of things as we enter this busy season.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I did this last year, but I'm going to do it this week.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to reach a little bit of the Christmas story because who doesn't love a little bit of the Christmas story being read to them.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm going to read you a little bit out of Luke 1, the birth of Jesus for told.

[SPEAKER_01]: In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, the town in Galilee, to Virgin pledged be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.

[SPEAKER_01]: The virgin's name was Mary.

[SPEAKER_01]: The angel went to her and said greetings, you who are highly favored, the Lord is with you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.

[SPEAKER_01]: You will conceive and give birth to a son and you are to call him Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: He will be great and he will be called the son of the most high.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever.

[SPEAKER_01]: His kingdom will never end.

[SPEAKER_01]: How will this be Mary asked since I'm a virgin that Angel answered the Holy Spirit will come on you in the power of the most high will overshadow you.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Even Elizabeth, your relative, is going to have a child in her old age and she who is said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month.

[SPEAKER_01]: For no word from God will ever fail.

[SPEAKER_01]: I am the Lord's servant, Mary answered, may your word to me be fulfilled [SPEAKER_01]: Not beautiful.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love that verse.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's underline in my Bible.

[SPEAKER_01]: For no word from God will ever fail.

[SPEAKER_01]: Isn't that a promise we need?

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I am excited today that we are going to talk about Advent, hope, and my friend Stephanie Martin is coming on.

[SPEAKER_01]: She's been on the show many times before.

[SPEAKER_01]: One of my besties and we are going to talk about the real real of going into the Christmas season and kind of what's hard and what we feel like the Lord has been laying on our hearts and our families.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the things we look forward to, the things we dread, our favorite Christmases, and our least favorite Christmas songs.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I hope you enjoy this time, just chatting with the girlfriends today talking Christmas.

[SPEAKER_01]: So here we go, Stephanie Martin.

[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like we have to discuss this almost every time.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're the only one that I say an hour before, not really, but like a day before.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, we do the podcast with me, and then I send you my notes.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's anybody's guess what I thought we were talking about, because it was really, really just random thoughts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but it's not what good friends do.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that's what I was thinking about.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was thinking about we're going to the holidays and I just wanted to break it down and keep it real and have one of my best friends on to talk about all the things that come with the holidays.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I was excited that she said, yes, because you always say yes, and so thank you for doing this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, thank you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, let's start off, we'll start off on a, on a easy-going note.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, first of all, I was going to ask you a Christmas question.

[SPEAKER_01]: But can we just back up for one second and talk thanksgiving?

[SPEAKER_01]: You said something to me was hilarious to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: We all have college kids.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't know Stephanie Stephanie has two in college and one in ninth grade.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you said something that I'd said my college kids here too.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you said it's like being held hostage in the best of ways.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now I'm still laughing because you do you feel like you need to be to be there every second that they're there But they want to get do stuff and you don't know when and see breezy You know, you're like I mean whatever like and they're like well I mean I might have plans.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean we might be going somewhere in the next hour or not And you're like, oh, it's truly fine and you just act like it's no big deal But like the second it falls through you're like, I mean, it's totally totally so we we survive Thanksgiving And I don't know if you feel this way, but like [SPEAKER_01]: I come out of Thanksgiving a little tired going straight into Christmas.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, whoa, that was a quick turnaround, especially with college kids.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now, I mean, I think Thanksgiving is year two.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, and then I went, so I went to this is what brought this all about.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I was a church Sunday and I went to a church that we don't usually attend, but that I love and they obviously is a first week of Advent.

[SPEAKER_01]: They were talking out hope and I was like, you know what?

[SPEAKER_01]: a lot of things come to my mind during the Christmas season, but not necessarily hope.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I wanted us to talk about that, but but now before we get there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, Christmas growing up give us give us a little insight.

[SPEAKER_01]: What made it magical or a favorite gift or something for you when you were little?

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know what, I don't know what inspired this, but I was little.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was probably forish.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, for those of y'all who don't know, I was born in 1978.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I mean, you know, this is the early 80s in West Texas.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I wanted an American flag.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, shoot up.

[UNKNOWN]: I don't.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what, I don't know what I mean, especially patriotic.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I wanted an American flag.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I remember asking, um, Santa for that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And, um, I woke up Christmas morning and our Christmas tree was covered in American flags.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I thought it was magical.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, just positively magical.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it was like my heart's desire took on a physical form.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I just, it is so like magic.

[SPEAKER_01]: How many American flags should you have in your house?

[SPEAKER_01]: Current day.

[SPEAKER_00]: Zero.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that came and went.

[SPEAKER_00]: And went.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like, I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, as a parent and whoever helps with Christmas, it was the 1980s West Texas in December.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, Amazon was not your friend.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, not a thing, so you know what?

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, Laura.

[SPEAKER_01]: I would have told my kids back in that day pre-Amazon, I'd have been like, American flags are overrated.

[SPEAKER_01]: What do you think about rocks?

[SPEAKER_01]: What if anything you can find in this?

[SPEAKER_00]: Which you like some pine cones in your face is pretty.

[SPEAKER_01]: Totally.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think for me, and I said this before, but I wanted, do you remember that Barbie van?

[SPEAKER_01]: The huge long van?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what, is that even a van?

[SPEAKER_01]: Is it a mobile home, is it a fifth wheel?

[SPEAKER_01]: The Barbie fifth wheel that's what I wanted.

[SPEAKER_01]: No one to fifth.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I had its own steering wheel, everybody.

[SPEAKER_00]: You need to explain what a fifth wheel is.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even know what a fifth wheel is, but it made me laugh.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I got the Barbie long van RV thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I was so excited.

[SPEAKER_01]: And again, a product of the late 70s, early 80s, if you're ready, we left that our house.

[SPEAKER_01]: I got my gift and we were going to my uncle's house.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I was so upset about going there because they were chain smokers, it's not funny at all, but I don't know why I'm laughing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I just knew my Barbie van was going to stink to high heaven.

[SPEAKER_01]: If there's anything you don't want is a chain smoked on Barbie van.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you can, you can never get the smoke smell out.

[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Poor Barbie, she never saw it coming, but I went anyway.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, oh, but anyway, yeah, that was it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I was trying to think of traditions too as growing up.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's interesting, you know that's about my mom, in my dad, but my mom is like, there's just no one better.

[SPEAKER_01]: She's like, mom of the year, and a great cook and a gracious host.

[SPEAKER_01]: I can't think of a darn tradition we had.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we went to church.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think our parents were busy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody was sitting around angushing over traditions.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, my family certainly wasn't.

[SPEAKER_00]: We were free wheeling.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think there was a tradition.

[SPEAKER_00]: We held.

[SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so now it's funny with my kids like, you know, all the traditions that I like to keep up with and I was thinking the other night like I like us to decorate the tree together there's not one person in this household that enjoys decorating that tree not a one, but I'm like everybody gather round we shall we shall have hot chocolate and watch a Christmas movie and nobody decorated me, but they also sit there measureably and so some of those things, but you and I were also talking out another tradition like [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think anybody did this all those years ago, but like Christmas cards, like that's one that you and I both try to do every year.

[SPEAKER_01]: We send out a card.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're struggling this year.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm struggling this year.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, in all honesty, I struggle most years with the Christmas card.

[SPEAKER_00]: But this year, I, I don't think it's going to happen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I don't think it's going to happen.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think we talked about this, I feel like the lords been asking me to see the people around me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like whether it's the UPS guy or my own children or my husband or whoever it is, just do not have the next thing on mind and to be like, you know what, I'm open.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can be interrupted and he's really convicted of me of that lately and just the to-do list is something I decided I needed to shave down if I'm gonna even be open to do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So by Christmas cards this year.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, and you said that to me the other day, you said something to that effect that I felt like the Lord is calling me to slow down and see people.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I said, well, that was kind of convicting.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've never been moving faster and and blown past people more than I am right now in my life.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I was like, good thing the Lord spoke that over you and not me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I will keep going.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, not exactly, but you see people.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, [SPEAKER_01]: Um, you also said kind of candidly recently that Christmas feels hard this year.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know you've had kind of a hard year and that just going into it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're going and feeling labored and tired.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think all of us feel that I feel that after maybe not as much as some, but I feel that after.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thanksgiving.

[SPEAKER_01]: I feel that after a hard year.

[SPEAKER_01]: I feel that as my dad's facing serious illness and you know the dichotomy home looks different with more kids in college and you've lost your dad.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know people listening have had loss or some financial things.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's easy to feel all the things this time of year.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like magnifying.

[SPEAKER_01]: It feels like and when I was at church Sunday [SPEAKER_01]: That's something we should just stop and have a moment and speak one is hope.

[SPEAKER_01]: And not that we're coming from a place of authority.

[SPEAKER_01]: Other than we're coming from the place of Scripture, and that is the authority on hope.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so let's get to it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's talk advance.

[SPEAKER_01]: Did you know what advent mean meant that the Latin meaning?

[SPEAKER_01]: No, what does it mean?

[SPEAKER_01]: It means coming or rival.

[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't know that either.

[SPEAKER_01]: Coming or rival.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I was thinking about this and you've been studying, which is even great, even better, because you've been studying this a lot in your Bible study, the Gospels, but also we were talking at how there's 400 years between Malachi.

[SPEAKER_01]: and the New Testament and 400 years that the Jews have no word from God.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they are waiting, right, and anticipation for Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so just remind us a little bit about that.

[SPEAKER_01]: What did it look like at the end of the Old Testament?

[SPEAKER_01]: Where are we in the story?

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, well, you know, this year, my church is setting Matthew, the women are last year.

[SPEAKER_00]: We did first and second kings.

[SPEAKER_00]: And first and second kings is really great because it really gives you a great history of what's happening in Israel.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, David becomes King, first we have Saul, then David becomes King, and he's an amazing king.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's a man after God's own heart, but you know, he makes him bad choices.

[SPEAKER_00]: It tears his family apart.

[SPEAKER_00]: Solomon does reign, but then after that the kingdom is just split, and it becomes Israel at becomes Judah, and then Israel is pretty much decimated because of their sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when David was King, David got May, David a promise.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he said, hey, listen, there's going to be a king that has a kingdom that's eternal.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he's going to come from your line.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's what everyone was holding on to.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, we're going to have an eternal king.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to be in his family, and he's going to rule.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then as the kingdom disintegrates, there's sort of this lingering question of weight.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is God going to keep us promise?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is he faithful?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is he loyal to us?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like where is this?

[SPEAKER_00]: We're waiting.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're on the edge of our seat.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've been through a lot.

[SPEAKER_00]: We go into exile.

[SPEAKER_00]: We come back and Israel's no longer really ours.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you have this 400 years.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're living in a land that is not being governed by them.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're being oppressed.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's a dark time.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so imagine as they're waiting in anticipation, and then we have 400 years, and remember in Malachi 3-1, there's the word that a coming messenger will prepare the way.

[SPEAKER_01]: A coming savior will bring righteousness, healing, and restoration.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's in Malachi 3 and 4.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so here we go, it's New Testament, and John the Baptist is in the picture, and he is saying, like he's preparing the way for Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: We were talking new, and I were talking about this, that there was different responses to Jesus being born, and we're going to get to hope everybody I promise.

[SPEAKER_01]: But there's different responses.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is how we actually live life.

[SPEAKER_01]: We kind of circle things until we actually get everyone, so it's real life for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: But lots of different responses to it, and I was thinking about Simeon in particular, and before we even get there, you said you had a couple that you have been studying of the responses to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: So hit your first.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so in Matthew, we're just, we're seeing how the angel comes to Mary and then to Joseph and then the wise men start coming from the east and they stop in Jerusalem, they talk to hear it who is supposedly king of the Jews and they're like, hey, we're here to worship and he is totally opposed now he tries to place sneaking on them and he's like, I mean, just tell me where they are and then worship that really he wants to kill them kill Jesus and so he's opposed.

[SPEAKER_00]: The wise men are seeking, they are looking and they want to worship, they've brought gifts, they're all in, which is really surprising because they're, they're not Israelites, they don't know, they don't have the scripture, but they see something miraculous happening and they want to be in on it and then the third we have whenever the wise men go to visit here, they say, hey, we're going to go visit where is he and he calls the chief priests, priests in the scribes and he says, hey, [SPEAKER_00]: where's this king going to be born?

[SPEAKER_00]: And they said, well, it's Bethlehem.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's, I think Bethlehem and Jerusalem are just about seven miles apart.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so the chief priests and the scribes, even though they know their scriptures, they don't even go.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have a written record of them even checking it out for themselves.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's one of maybe apathy.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so, I mean, that's a way to look at it today around us.

[SPEAKER_01]: And for ourselves, like, how do we approach the fact?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's so easy at Christmas to be like, okay, like back in the hub, and all the things, Christmas cards, or presents, this stuff.

[SPEAKER_01]: But like, have we really stepped back and appreciated, like, how are we approaching?

[SPEAKER_01]: The birth of Jesus, like the Savior, like our we in opposition, probably not if you're listening to this, but maybe maybe you still have questions, maybe you're skeptical.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like we can get through that right, but you could be that you are all in and you're seeking or it could be that there's an apathy towards just how we, how we run our relationship with the Lord, the things we're doing and seeing in the way we maybe seek him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so thoughts on that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, there is hope.

[SPEAKER_00]: There is hope because we later find out even in Matthew that some of the Pharisees are open.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, there is actually a synagogue leader in comparison.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when his daughter falls extremely ill, he seeks Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so, we can be open.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even if we're apathetic, he meets us right where we are.

[SPEAKER_00]: and he wants us to even just be open to the hope.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I was looking and Luke and I was, and I think this was in the sermon from Sunday, but it was talking out of Simian and how Jesus was taken later as presented at the temple.

[SPEAKER_01]: And there was a man there named Simian and basically, [SPEAKER_01]: All he wanted was to see the Lord and he had given given word that he would see Jesus, the Messiah before his death, and so he was prompted by the Spirit to go to the temple, which let's just have a moment there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like to be prompted to go to the temple.

[SPEAKER_01]: How long is this guy been waiting?

[SPEAKER_01]: How much silence has there been?

[SPEAKER_01]: And he's feels a prompting.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's like, well, I better get to the temple.

[SPEAKER_01]: I would have been like, well, I got things to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I've been waiting this long.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think I [SPEAKER_01]: But I love this that he went to the temple and then he saw Jesus and knew that that was the Messiah and basically said, like, well, not basically, I read it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace for my eyes of senior salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel.

[SPEAKER_01]: The child's father and mother marveled at what was said about him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then Semiah blessed them and he said to Mary's mother, this child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be spoken against so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed and a sword will pierce their own soul too.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I love that not only did he show up and see Jesus and acknowledge the Messiah, but that others were encouraged and brought up by his belief, not only Mary and Joseph, but the people around that people were like, oh my gosh, like others were impacted by his faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think there's something to that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he kept a hope in Jesus that [SPEAKER_01]: before he died, he believed it'd see him, and that hope came true, and the hope was Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I just wonder if we just need little reminders, like we have Jesus, that is our hope.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is our hope, and we come expectant, but without expectation of anything, but expectant of the God of the universe who sent his son to die for our sins, and how does that change how we look at Christmas, and how we approach it?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I think that it's easy for us to read the Bible and say, [SPEAKER_00]: the Jews didn't even see Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were expecting something else.

[SPEAKER_00]: And how could they miss it?

[SPEAKER_00]: And how did, and it's so easy to look at Him and say, how could they do that?

[SPEAKER_00]: But really, I have expectations, whether I realize it or not, if how Jesus is going to show up in my holidays, and in my family.

[SPEAKER_00]: And, [SPEAKER_00]: If I took a long enough time to kind of tell you, it'd probably be like, well, I kind of expect to healthy family and good time together and people getting along and food on the table just the way we like it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And presence and joy and there's all kinds of things that I'm kind of expecting from Jesus in my holiday.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I've just really been challenged to can I be expectant [SPEAKER_00]: of what he might be doing outside of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: What else could he be doing in my life and in the people I love that doesn't look like a perfect table scape and just the right food with just the right presence?

[SPEAKER_00]: And can I let that go?

[SPEAKER_00]: or my kids aren't getting along or I feel frustrated.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I do not have this mastered, but I feel like the Lord's calling me to look at this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I feel alone or I feel uninvited or not good enough or whatever the things are that seem magnified this time of year.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, is this an opportunity for us to reassess?

[SPEAKER_01]: our expectations, and are we expectant in what Jesus is doing, whether or not it's visible at that moment.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so we think about hope and just how, like I think of Simeon, his entire hope was the Messiah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And once he saw the Messiah, he was like, I'm good, I'm done.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I'm not prescribing that for all of us to be like, well, we know Jesus we're done, but at the same time, how loosely can we hold things if we know that he's already fulfilled our main expectation?

[SPEAKER_01]: If we know him, our eternity is set, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: And so it allows us to hold things so much more loosely that I like to grip really hard, especially this time of year.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I was thinking like in your life, when you felt like the Lord's laid it on your heart to really start seeing people, let's just talk about this for a second.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like if we live with our hope in Jesus, and we know Jesus and [SPEAKER_01]: We know our attorney's secure and that the significance of this baby being born is so big yet we miss this because of all the hubbub.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, if we could really step back, how does that change how we approach some things?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, let's just be really practical.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's talk about how we approach people and to your point really seeing people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, hopefully I'm not so wrapped up in my to-do list [SPEAKER_00]: the phone rings and it's somebody I wasn't expecting to talk to because I was need to go out the door, have a doctor's point or whatever it is that I will still take the time to answer it until listen, just sit and listen and be present with that person with whatever they're going through.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not try to fix it, not try to change the situation, but will I be patient enough to be there for them?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I think of whoever might call or those type of people, I think about even my extended family, some places where I need to show up better and be more present.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think about people that I probably don't know around me and showing up well for those people.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, just none of this happens, though, without kind of a little bit of a philosophical change and really starting to focus on the main thing, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, our hope is in Jesus and if you're hope is in Jesus and you see it really vividly, especially at Christmas, then you don't have to put hope in the expectations, you don't have to put hope in our calendars and the presence and our kids showing up and being nice and our mother-in-law not giving us, you know, [SPEAKER_01]: a Taco Bell gift card, and mine doesn't do that, but whatever the things are, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: And so it changes.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it looks like you were looking up something as you want to.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's just, you know, in Matthew 121, this is where it says the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he said Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife for that, which has been conceived in hers from the Holy Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: She will bear a son and usual coalescing Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: for he will save his people from their sins.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that was the purpose.

[SPEAKER_00]: He even told him, he's like, this is what he came for.

[SPEAKER_00]: He came to save the people from their sins because you know what, that's something we can't do for ourselves.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we can't.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's the best thing that we could ever be saved from.

[SPEAKER_00]: But me as a human, I struggle with being unsatisfied [SPEAKER_00]: with it with myself or with my family.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I just, I'm trying to let that go.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think what you're also trying to say is not heap more things on to the moms because this season, I feel like as a mom sometimes where the magic makers, the heart at a home.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so it feels like a lot of pressure.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's not what we want.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not trying to add more pressure.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think he's saying, come to me, you know, who are we, and have you learned?

[SPEAKER_00]: And I will give you rest.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't, I've been praying through that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, what does that look like?

[SPEAKER_00]: What does that mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because I know he is our hope, and he does want to give us rest.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think he still offers it today, just as much as he did then.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm, [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just trying to break myself with my own expectations to just see where does he offer me rest.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then I think also from the perspective of our kids to some degree, are we doing him a disservice?

[SPEAKER_01]: If we aren't always the magic makers and everything looks perfect and everything, you know, the calendars are full and that presence are great.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I just wonder, and some of you, are we pointing them back towards their desperate need for Jesus and the hope that we have in him when really they don't even need to look at that hope because we're trying to fill every gap in their lives.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm just wondering, is there a sense of that that if we [SPEAKER_01]: If we slow it down, if we, a lot of us, most of us as women, we set the tone in our home, if we could slow it down and go back to what really matters and pointing ourselves and them back to really the open cries, I just think that would be such a beautiful thing for our families too.

[SPEAKER_00]: So beautiful.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, today I was, I think I was just, you know, picking up a few little items here and there and I was thinking, I mean, if I, if I get this wrong, it's, they're not going to know that I love them.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's it, done the same.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I don't need to stress myself out if I got the right candy.

[SPEAKER_00]: What's gonna make a bigger impact is if I'm more patient or I'm not, if when I lose it, I go back and I say me and that was, that was not good.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't apologize.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then probably have more of that rather than the performative work, that would be amazing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, don't knock on performance.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm trying real hard to make you clear out of performing over here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for your three friends.

[SPEAKER_01]: Any of your grand three in me is always struggling with the achievement in the performance.

[SPEAKER_01]: And oh, the age-old over here.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right, well, I love that we can just talk about hope.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I love that we can look at the different places that [SPEAKER_01]: The ways in which Jesus was met, his birth was met.

[SPEAKER_01]: And where do we fall into that in even today?

[SPEAKER_01]: Where is our hope coming from?

[SPEAKER_01]: And how can that impact the next three weeks and how we do things?

[SPEAKER_01]: And set the stage for how we want our kids to see things in view the birth of Jesus and the significance of that?

[SPEAKER_01]: OK, so [SPEAKER_01]: we're going to end on a kind of a shallow note.

[SPEAKER_01]: Two things I'd like to discuss real quick.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before we get shallow, can I just let people know if they're not feeling the hope it's okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: First sure, please.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like last year after last my dad, I was like, or I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: it is okay and it's hard and if you're not feeling it that's come come as you are that's the beauty of Jesus come as you are and see cam I'm by the way doing a Louis Giglio Advent book I'm not by any means asked to promote this or anything else I just personally am doing that when I will link it in podcasts and I like to start my day with that and Bible recap but it's kind of [SPEAKER_01]: What are you waiting on and how is Jesus the answer to our wait.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if you don't have a great like advent type book that you're doing that might be a great way to recenter as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: Are you doing things specific to that.

[SPEAKER_01]: So now you just want to see.

[SPEAKER_00]: On the spot David trip.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the thing Paul David trip come into meet come the red one.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the red one.

[SPEAKER_00]: He came out with a green one.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Paul David trip red one will make sure that's linked to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So literally Paul David trip.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know you have a red one and a green one.

[SPEAKER_00]: The green one just came out.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I would like to get my hands on it.

[SPEAKER_01]: OK, I have the green one.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'd love to loan it to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: OK, we're going to end with this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Two things I'd like to discuss.

[SPEAKER_01]: So boy, we have something in common.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we're going to be respectful to those that this involves.

[SPEAKER_01]: But we have husbands who love gifts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so it's happening every year.

[SPEAKER_01]: You think the pressure is getting something great for your kids?

[SPEAKER_01]: You come over to our homes because our husbands, they enjoy a good gift and they're so kind and graceful and lovely.

[SPEAKER_01]: But man alive, trying to, so I wrapped two of Mike's presents last night and I just had to tell y'all this, I did the little tag and it said to Mike from Mike, because he literally has been picking up presents.

[SPEAKER_01]: Apparently on that bad at it, that he just picks up along the way and hands them to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: So to Mike from Mike to himself this year.

[SPEAKER_01]: He did, he bought himself.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just, I wouldn't even in the territory of where he was.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he said, he went, I really love this.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, that is fantastic.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like we're talking, they want an apple watch and we bought a slinky is what's happening every Christmas, not literally, but yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, okay, and then the last thing is, you know, I have some really strong opinions about Christmas songs.

[SPEAKER_01]: And there's one in particular, I cannot have.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know which one is it, which one is it?

[SPEAKER_01]: One.

[SPEAKER_01]: Huh?

[SPEAKER_01]: I know which one, you can't, okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, first of all, do you have one?

[SPEAKER_01]: Did you can't stand?

[SPEAKER_01]: Or do you have a favor?

[SPEAKER_01]: We'll take a notes in on a Christmas song note.

[SPEAKER_00]: I, you know, the one, one that just is so overplayed, besides them are I carry one which by the way, I kind of like, okay, so I wanted to.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to own that one, but, um, every Christmas I give you my heart is that last Christmas, I gave it a Christmas.

[SPEAKER_00]: I, I didn't want to know that day you gave it a, is that when I believe it's when everywhere all the time and I just, I don't need that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't need wham Christmas.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, wham, this is for Stephanie.

[SPEAKER_01]: Mine is the Christmas shoes.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a piece.

[SPEAKER_00]: It made mom's mind.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, mom's dying.

[SPEAKER_01]: She doesn't need shoes, everyone.

[SPEAKER_01]: You sure don't need to stand in line for the red shoes.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then have enough change, the whole thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like butterfly kisses.

[SPEAKER_01]: Those kind of songs.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do it too much for this three and any other M.A.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have our short heels who have the same heels.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, happy, advent, Stephanie, [SPEAKER_01]: everyone, and we shall kick off the next few weeks and do them well.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hopefully as well as we can, you will not be receiving a Christmas card from Stephanie.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, ladies and gentlemen, I love you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wish you a very Merry Christmas, but you are not here.

[SPEAKER_01]: And to show you the dichotomy between us, mind wouldn't out before Christmas.

[SPEAKER_01]: So exactly.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's where we are this year.

[SPEAKER_01]: And next year, I'll be the one that's like, oh, I can't do a card, I'm out.

[SPEAKER_01]: So.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, thanks for being willing to read my train of thought notes and show up at the last minute and have conversations, the real real behind all the stuff going on right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're a good friend.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're a good friend and I love it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you pray for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Give us a little coffee to prayer on the way out.

[SPEAKER_00]: I will.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dear Father, God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, man.

[SPEAKER_00]: We love you.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are so mysterious and you do crazy things and [SPEAKER_00]: You know what, Lord, would you just open our hearts and our minds and our ears to any of that?

[SPEAKER_00]: What you're doing in all of our lives?

[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe something we just don't even anticipate, we even understand.

[SPEAKER_00]: But would you just crack open our hearts so we can be just, I don't know, ready for that light.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that hope that you have to offer because you know at Lord, you are always the same.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're the same and you still offer love and peace and joy and hope.

[SPEAKER_00]: and we're so grateful for that, and I pray that over everybody who's listening, or I pray that they receive your blessings that you have to offer, and Lord may we just beat the souls of all of those things that you've given to us, not out of duty or obligation, but just compelled by your love.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Lord, I just pray for this Advent season, and help us to see those around us, and we love you and Jesus name.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right, thanks, friends.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks, bye.

[SPEAKER_01]: Alright friends, I huge thank you to Stephanie for always jumping in.

[SPEAKER_01]: I now feel compelled to sing the song I don't like.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sir, I want to buy these shoes for my mama.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I'm going to stop there in a terrible.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, actually hang us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay friends, so happy advent, Merry Christmas month, and we have some great shows in next few weeks to make sure you are tuning in, and you guys, thanks for being a part of the mesmerized family.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're the very best.