Susan May Warren

What Really Matters
by Dawn Meehan

In
the hustle and bustle and commercialism of Christmas, take time to
remember the real reason why we celebrate – the birth of Christ, our
Lord and Saviour. May you all have a blessed Christmas!

I had a
VERY long day with the kids doing little but fighting. By the time we
left for church, we were all short tempered, snapping at each other,
and not at all in the Christmas spirit. Thankfully, once at church, we
calmed down. Things were put in perspective for us. We sang Christmas
songs and began to smile at one another again. The kids didn't fight
once while we were there. Well, they did use their battery operated
candles as light sabers for a minute, but we'll forget about that part.

I
never sent out cards (sorry to all my family and friends). It just
didn't happen this year. I don't think I ever completely finished my
shopping, but it's a little late now. Several items I ordered online
have been back ordered. I just realized that the kids have eaten all
the cookies I've made and there are none to put out for Santa now. I
encouraged them to leave him a glass of wine instead. And I failed to
read the Christmas story to the kids before they went to bed.

Dawn Meehan (aka mom2my6pack) grew up in Chicagoland where she began her writing career at the age of 5 with her widely praised, The Lucky Leprechaun, an epic tale of a leprechaun who is- yes, you guessed it, lucky.

Dawn has six children, basically because she didn't want seven. She is the author of Because I Said So and spends her days blogging at BecauseISaidSo.com,
changing diapers, cleaning pudding off her ceiling, tackling
insurmountable piles of laundry, and explaining to her kids why they
can't have a pet squirrel or an indoor slip-n-slide.

12 Pearls of Christmas Series and contest sponsored by Pearl Girls®. For more information, please visit www.pearlgirls.info

All Decked Out For Christmas
by Maureen Lang

One
of the reasons so many of us love the holiday season is that it's just
so…pretty! Twinkling lights, shiny ornaments, packages that glisten
with bows and fancy wrapping. Our houses are trimmed with wreaths and
glowing trees, and the neighborhood lights up the night with strands of
icicles and glimmering reindeer.

Even we get decked out for the
holidays! Chances are most of us will attend at least one party this
season, and if we don't usually don clothing or jewelry with a bit of
sparkle, now's the time to take a chance with something that reflects
the holiday.

Smiles are another reason this season is such a
popular one. They accompany that familiar greeting-Merry Christmas!
Smiles go with the gifts we give and with the gifts we receive. Smiles
go with the old Christmas carols and classic movies we watch every year.

The
holiday season is a time when everything can seem amplified. But what
if we're all decked out on the outside, from the sparkling clothing to
our best effort at a smile, and on the inside we're anything but happy?
If life isn't what we expected it to be, the gap between reality and
our happy, hopeful expectations seem wider when everyone around us is
laughing through the season.

I know there are as many reasons to
be unhappy as there are to be happy, and I wouldn't begin to have the
answer to make this season bearable for everyone. But I do know a few
things that have worked for me:

Slow down.
What? During the busiest time of the year? Yep. I know when I feel
completely overwhelmed it's because I'm pressuring myself to do too
much. So I try to plan ahead, settle for less than perfection, do my
best without driving myself and everyone around me crazy. Choose what's
really important and let go of the other things. And I've adopted my
aunt's favorite saying: "However it turns out, that's how we like it."
Works wonders on attitude!

Pray.
As my pastor reminded me this weekend from Psalm 34:18: the Lord is
close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
God may not deliver us from our troubles, but He promises to stay
beside us-in fact, closer than when everything seems hunky-dory.

Find a moment to give thanks for what you do have (without looking around at those who have more).

This
last point deserves a moment of reflection, and is something I'm still
learning to do. I have a child severely handicapped by Fragile X
Syndrome, a genetic form of mental retardation. For years I thought I'd
accepted his condition. I obediently said to God, "thank you even for
this," since it taught me many things about adjusting to the life I've
been given rather than the one I might have chosen.

But as my
son gets older, I see new forms of acceptance making that feeling of
gratitude more genuine. I think I'm finally letting go of some of the
hopes and dreams I had for him, my oldest son. I can no longer imagine
him any other way than the way he is, even though I'd be first in line
if a cure is ever found.

I still think it's a good thing to give
thanks in all things, even if it begins out of obedience rather than
tender gratitude for whatever thorn we live with. But realizing it's
okay to grow into that gratitude was a blessing to me.

Maybe
some of the bruises on our spirit seem tender during the holiday
season, a reminder that all the glitter on the outside might not light
us up on the inside. My prayer is trust Psalm 34:18. Let's lean on Him
this season-He's right here beside us!

Maureen Lang
grew up loving to tell stories, and God has blessed her immeasurably to
be able to tell them to a wider audience these days. For the latest
goings-on, please check her blog!

12 Pearls of Christmas Series and contest sponsored by Pearl Girls®. For more information, please visit www.pearlgirls.info

Magnificat
by Anna Joujan

Holy.
Holy. Holy is the Lord. The familiar catch of breath. The sting in the
eyes. And the tears begin to flow with the falling rain. Or do the
tears fall with the flowing rain. What is it in these words that I
whisper that wrenches at my heart so? Why does Mary's prayer touch the
core of my being, so many centuries after it was spoken?

I think
it must be because I know that she was just a girl, just a human being,
with a woman's heart like my own. And so, when I hear her wondering
words, I can feel with her the emotion she must have felt. To bear the
son of God-what wondrous mystery, what glorious honour! And she was,
like me, just a young woman-much younger, in fact, than I am now. And
so, no matter how often I hear the story and read her words, it still
has the power to bring abrupt and unsought tears.

What a gracious God, to work wonders with such frail and faulty creatures as us!

Anna
G. Joujan was born in South Dakota, as a Canadian citizen, and was
raised in Zambia, the child of missionary teachers. Since her family's
move to the U.S., Anna spent her childhood and early adulthood
traveling throughout the world thanks to various educational and work
opportunities . . . France, China, Peru, and Jamaica being some of the
stops in her journeys. Her undergraduate degree in French Literature
led to a Masters in Information Sciences, and to work as a college and
high school librarian, and a cross country coach. She has also returned
to Zambia multiple times to teach for individual families and for local
schools. All the while continuing pursuing her passions of writing,
artwork, photography . . . and running to a fault. She blogs at Full of Grace.

12 Pearls of Christmas Series and contest sponsored by Pearl Girls®. For more information, please visit www.pearlgirls.info

The Answer
by Susan May Warren

Whos, Here, we are Whos here, smaller than the eye can see. Whos here, we are Whos here, I’m a Who and so is she…

I’ve always wanted to live in a musical. When I was a kid, I loved Oklahoma, Sound of Music, West Side Story. I seriously thought that, if the moment was right, maybe the stars aligned, people would break out into song and dance.

I
was sorta right. Because in my house, one needs to be able to talk in
movie lines and song lyrics to effectively communicate. At any moment,
someone might break out with a quip from the Princess Bride, or Finding Nemo. They might sing Tomorrow from Annie, or My Favorite Things like Julie Andrews.

But, most recently we’ve found ourselves speaking in “Suess”…

It’s suppertime, son, and the time is near To call far and wide the sneetches who hear Just the sound of their bellies, the whir of their gear The Gurgles and Burbles that give them great fear Tell them all, tell them loud, tell them clear Their hands they should wash, check their face in the mirror Because the food is now ready and it’s time to steer Close to the table, where they’ll find hot gribbles here.

Why, you ask? Because David and Sarah are performing in the community theater’s production of Suessical the Musical, a hilarious conglomeration of Dr. Suess’ fun work, from Horton hears a Who to Horton Hatches an Egg.

As
the Christmas season draws close (and the songs from the play linger in
my head), one line has stood out to me… “We are here, we are here!”
You know the story – that part where, after everyone has called Horton
names and they’re about ready to boil the speck that contains
Who-ville, Horton calls out to the Whos to send up a cry to prove
themselves as real. “We are here, we are here!”

It
strikes me that sometimes we can feel like Whos…smaller than the eye
can see. Tossed hither and yon by the wind, helpless and facing being
boiled. Tired, perhaps, or alone. Wishing someone might find us and pay
attention.

Someone has, and that’s the good news about
Christmas. Because we don’t have to “make ourselves heard,” like the
Whos. In fact, even before we realized we were headed for the cauldron,
God intervened. God demonstrated his own love for us in this – while we
were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:8). That’s what Jesus is
all about – he’s the answer to even the unspoken cry of our hearts,
saying, “I am here, I am here.” Lo, I am with you always, even to the
end of the age.

So as this season approaches with its whistles and bells I hope you hear the voice where the Mighty One dwells – down deep in your hearts, so nothing can shake the knowledge of his love, given all for your sake.

Merry Christmas from Susie May Warren

Susan
May Warren is the award-winning author of twenty-one novels and
novellas with Tyndale, Steeple Hill and Barbour Publishing. Her first
book, Happily Ever After won the American Fiction Christian Writers Book of the Year in 2003, and was a 2003 Christy Award finalist. In Sheep’s Clothing,
a thriller set in Russia, was a 2006 Christy Award finalist and won the
2006 Inspirational Reader’s Choice award. A former missionary to
Russia, Susan May Warren now writes Suspense/Romance and Chick Lit full
time from her home in northern Minnesota. www.susanmaywarren.com Check out her Christmas Novella, The Great Christmas Bowl.

12 Pearls of Christmas Series and contest sponsored by Pearl Girls®. For more information, please visit www.pearlgirls.info

Christmas in a Barn
by Mary DeMuth

12 Pearls of Christmas Series and contest sponsored by Pearl Girls®. For more information, please visit www.pearlgirls.info

The Pearls We Pass Down

by Holley Gerth

Ten years ago my Grandma Frances went home to heaven in her sleep just before Christmas.

My
Grandpa carefully handed me a brightly-wrapped box on Christmas morning
and said, "This is her gift. Now I want you to have it."

I opened the lid slowly and tears came to my eyes as I saw a lovely string of pearls.

My
Mom gently helped me fasten them around my neck. As I ran my fingers
over each one, I thought of my Grandmother and all she taught me
through her life…

FAITH

At
age twenty-nine, my Grandma contracted polio and learned she would
never walk again. She had a husband, two little girls, and a future
suddenly very different than she imagined.

A
pastor came to visit her in the hospital. He said, "Frances, this can
make you bitter or better." She often told that story with a sparkle in
her eyes as she said, "I chose better." I learned through her example
that faith is a choice and with God we can thrive through anything.

HOPE

My
grandparents took a leap of faith and started the first Christian
bookstore in their city with a small kiosk in the center of a mall.
Over the next few decades that little kiosk grew into a large and
successful store that touched countless lives.

Many of my
favorite childhood memories are of curling up in the back room with a
stack of books. My Grandma taught me hope is like a small seed and,
watered with prayer, it can grow into a huge blessing for many.

LOVE

For
fifty-six years my grandparents shared a life together. I adore these
two pictures because one is taken when they were dating and the other
just a few weeks before she died. The twinkle in their eyes is still
the same-and that's not easy in this world. They faced their share of
challenges, like my Grandma's disability, but always got through them
together.

My
Nana also loved her family deeply. When I went to college, she often
wrote notes to me and signed each one, SCTH (Stay Close to Him). She
showed me love is a commitment that begins with Christ and then
overflows to everyone else in our lives.

I
still miss my Grandma Frances, especially this time of year. Sometimes
I pull out her string of pearls and hold them in my hands. Then I think
about how we're all creating our legacy as we live. And while the
difficulties we face may seem hard to understand now, God can turn each
one into beauty that blesses our family for generations.

Holley Gerth – Cofounder of (in)courage, editorial director for DaySpring, author of Rain on Me, wife of Mark, lover of Jesus, friend to YOU.

Visit Holley at Heart to Heart with Holley or follow her on twitter as @HolleyGerth.

A
three strand pearl necklace will be given away on New Year's Day. All
you need to do to have a chance of winning is leave a comment here.
Come back on New Year's Day to see if you won!

A Long Ago Christmas Memory
by Patricia Crisafulli

The
old farm on a dirt road in the backwoods of northern New York State was
described to me so many times, I can imagine the place, even though I
never saw it: the big frame house with the wide porch, the pair of
maple trees out front, and the barn in the back where my grandparents
kept a cow or two, pigs and chickens, and a team of work horses.

That
old house came alive for me in dozens of stories that my mother told,
of how she and her sisters grew up there during the Depression. The
stories had that long-ago feel not only because of the years that had
passed, but also because of the era: tales of riding in a horse and
buggy in the summer and a horse and sleigh in the winter. My
grandfather owned an old Model A Ford, but the tires were patched
beyond repair and there was no money for gasoline.

One story
that has always stayed with me was of a particular Christmas in the
early 1930s, a time my mother remember as the "depths of the
Depression," and there was no money. In order to pay the interest on
the mortgage, to keep the bank from foreclosing on the farm, my
grandfather needed a relatively small sum. The amount I remember being
told was $13, but for the little they had in those days it might as
well have been $13,000.

Tested by trouble and sorrows, my
grandparents relied on their deep and abiding faith. As Psalm 34 tells
us, I sought the Lord, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my
fears. The answer to their prayers was to be found right in their own
backyard with gifts of the earth. My grandmother went into the woods to
gather bushel baskets full of ground pine, with green sprouts like
miniature boughs that spread in great patches along the earth. From
willow branches she made hoops, around which she bound the ground pine
to make wreathes.

She sat up all night making wreaths, enough to
fill a large hamper basket, which my grandfather strapped to his back.
At four in the morning, he hopped a ride on the milk train into
Syracuse, where he went door-to-door selling wreathes. Night after
night, my grandmother made wreaths, and day after day my grandfather
sold them.

As Christmas approached, my grandmother had saved
coupons that came in tins of coffee to get a Kewpie doll for her
daughters. The only other things she gave them were mittens she knit
herself.

Then on Christmas Eve, my grandfather came home from
the last day of selling wreaths, exhausted but relieved. The farm was
safe for another year. From what he had earned, he had a dime left
over, which he spent on his beloved wife to buy her a powder puff. That
night, my grandmother gave him her surprise: enough money from selling
butter and eggs all year to buy four new tires for the Model A Ford.

Hearing
this story as a child, my head was too full of the Sears & Roebuck
"Wish Book" catalog to really comprehend it. As an adult, I try to
fathom living with no money at all. What lingers in my heart, however,
is the love of my grandparents for each other: the dashing young
American soldier in World War I and the beautiful French girl he met
overseas and then returned to her country to marry.

Many years,
thousands of miles, and untold hardships later, that love continued.
During a very dark December, they found a way together to keep the farm
and the family together. And so it would always be for them.

Patricia
Crisafulli is a writer, published author, and founder of
www.FaithHopeandFiction.com, a monthly e-literary magazine with
stories, essays, and poetry to inspire and entertain.

12 Pearls of Christmas Series and contest sponsored by Pearl Girls®. For more information, please visit www.pearlgirls.info

How to Cope with Christmas
by Stacie Ruth Stoelting

Last
night, I dreamed that God resurrected my beautiful adopted aunt, Mary
Jo Hoffman. But morning renewed my mourning for her: Christmas trees,
snow globes, and music greeted my grieving heart. Relate?

In
previous years, my maternal grandpa (a.k.a. "Papa Ray") died near
Thanksgiving and my adopted "Grandpa Morley" died near Christmas. Now,
people cannot compare grief. But I believe we all know that the
holidays challenge the grieving.

Christmas arrives like a pretty
package full of grief triggers: Empty chairs, missing faces, and silent
voices seem to haunt the holidays. Here are "12 Ways of Christmas" for
the Grief-Stricken that have worked for me:

12 Ways of Christmas for the Grieving

1. Don't put excessive expectations on yourself. Don't expect the holidays to be the same.

2. Rest. Cut down the Christmas clutter and just get away from the typical, if possible.

3. Rearrange furniture to reduce "absence" reminders.

4. Avoid sugar highs and lows because they naturally induce emotional lows.
Also steer clear of over-eating and under-sleeping. Eat well-balanced
diets. Some mood enhancing natural foods include yogurt, kefir, green
tea, omega-3 rich foods (i.e. salmon, cod liver oil, etc.), and lower
sugar dark chocolate. One excellent resource for healthier lifestyles
is First Place 4 Health, founded by the knowledgeable and kind Carole
Lewis: http://www.firstplace4health.com/.

5. Admit grief. Trying
to move forward while denying the reality of grief causes one to fall
face forward. Does your face smile while your heart weeps? Give
yourself permission to cry. Jesus wept. Weeping releases excessive
tension. Address depression. Don't deny it. Pretending the nonexistence
of depression only promotes its growth. (I include a list of counseling
centers on my page for hurting hearts: http://prayingpals.org/linksforhurtinghearts.html.)

6. Forgive and receive forgiveness through Jesus.
Release everything to the Lord -including any so-called regrets about
your departed loved one. In Loved by Rebecca St. James (FaithWords,
2009), the point of God's abiding love encourages us: "He [Jesus] is
ready to…stand in the gap between you and the pain, and to be your
constant companion in the dark hours. He loves you."

7. Reach out to the more burdened and hang around kids this Christmas.
It may not feel easy. It may even feel impossible. Ask Jesus to love
thru you and get your eyes off problems and on to Him and others.

8. Understand the concept of new normalcy. The
onset of new traditions and expectations may seem daunting, but God
gave you your previous normal. Ask Him to give grace/hope in the face
of the new normal. Let Him lead you to a place where you can relax and
let Him beam His light on you.

9. Take a "hands off and hands folded" approach to the holidays.
Reduce activity and increase connectivity through prayer and Christian
companionship. If you're isolated, feel free to join my weekly online
prayer group (www.prayingpals.org). And stay in touch with your local church.

10. Face and treat chronic health issues. If you feel sick, everything feels worse. (One excellent resource for those with chronic health conditions is Rest Ministries.)

11. Reclaim your Heavenly purpose on earth.
Ask Jesus to grant supernaturally His grace, hope, love, peace, and
comfort this holiday season. Then don't fight His help. Be open to His
opening of doors to cope and hope this holiday season. Just receive
Jesus. Ask Jesus to give you a Heavenly perspective on earth. God holds
good things for you! He grants you great purpose for your life
hereafter…and here, too. Embrace His grace and seek His face. He's
there. I know. In the face of grief, I'm with Him right now.

12. Remember: Trials don't indicate a reduction in God's love for you.
He loves you and promises to make things right in the end. Spend time
focusing on His unchanging love for you. "For I am sure that neither
death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to
come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ
Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39, ESV)

Holidays include lots of
grief for relationships/loved ones that left, forsook, or died. But
let's focus on the essence of Christmas: the present of Jesus' presence
in our lives! Wow, may a relationship with Jesus be our miracle and
encouragement this Christmas! "Thanks be to God for his indescribable
gift!" (2 Cor. 9:15)

Could you think of anything greater than receiving God for Christmas?

While
my dream didn't come true today, I know it will: Mary Jo will be
resurrected and we will be reunited. This year, focus on a different
angle of Christmas: Let Christmas remind you of Jesus' birth to banish
death.

After
Stacie Ruth met Jesus, her life blossomed with true joy and purpose!
Life's blows hurt her, but Jesus heals and strengthens her. Now an
author, actress, and recording artist, she laughs at the irony and
praises God, who uses unlikely people…like herself. To find out more
about her ministry visit www.brightlightministries.com.

12 Pearls of Christmas Series and contest sponsored by Pearl Girls®. For more information, please visit www.pearlgirls.info