12th Day of Christmas Giveaway with Wendy Pope
Christmas Sale: If you’d like info on getting any of my books (tax-free & with no shipping costs!) for you or as a personalized gift for someone, click here.
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Welcome to our 12th and final Day of Christmas Giveaway!!
Each day for the past week and a half, I have featured a fellow Proverbs 31 sister and an aspect of Christmas. If you are just joining us, catch up on the posts. You’ll get to know each gal and she, in turn, will offer a fabulous giveaway! Simply leave a comment on her post to be entered in the drawing.
And, one soon-to-be-very-giddy gal who comments on all 12 posts will win the GRAND PRIZE! You may comment on all posts until Monday, December 13th at 5:00 pm EST when the winners will be announced. (to see the grand prize and get caught up on the posts click here)
Now, for our last P31 sister, the Jesus-loving Wendy Pope!
All About Wendy, In Her Own Words…
I am Wendy Pope: wife to Scott, mother to Blaire and Griffin. My passion and deepest love besides my family and God is His amazing Word. I love to read, study, and teach it.
Currently I am leading a year long on-line Bible class where we are reading and studying the One Year Chronological Bible. I speak and work in development with Proverbs 31 Ministries. My hobby is studying the Bible.
I love park my car toward the sun, letting its rays warm me, while I read and study the Bible. I also love to spend time hanging out at home in my bed pants. (Which does not happen too often.)
One of my favorite pastimes is family movie night and game night. My favorite television shows, if I get to watch, is Criminal Minds and CSI-Vegas. (Not the real gruesome episodes.)
Two things that I would love to do in my life is hold the hush board at The Masters at hole 16 and be a dead body on CSI, with my clothes on! Again, nothing gruesome, I just want them to solve my murder. Weird I know!
Favorite Christmas Tradition
My favorite tradition is choosing a Hallmark Christmas ornament for each child that represents something about them for the year. I include in the box a note telling why I choose the ornament. Each year as we hang the ornaments we read the cards and stroll down memory lane.
Wendy’s Giveaway
Wendy’s passion is to guide women through daily reading the Bible and thereby discovering a deep, personal relationship with God.
So, naturally she is giving away a copy of the Bible she uses as she walks women through the word on a daily basis, the One Year Chronological Bible. You can learn more about journeying with her here.
A Word From Karen
I have so enjoyed these last 11 days reading your favorite Christmas recipes, memories and musings. Now, before jumping to the comments for this last post in our giveaway series, I want to tie up our 12 days with a memory from my past.
Not too long ago, my mother brought over a box of items that had been mine growing up. In it, I discovered my diary from sixth grade. I both chuckled and cried as I read my entries from three decades ago.
As I perused its pages, I happened upon an entry that read:
If on Christmas morning I find under the tree Love’s Baby Soft Perfume, gaucho pants and a pair of white go-go boots, then I’ll be happy.
I smiled as I thought back on my sixth grade self. Why did I want these treasures?
Because other girls had them.
Girls whom I thought were pretty.
And popular.
And who had happy home lives with both parents still in the picture.
Maybe, just maybe, if I could look like them, and smell like them, then I could be happy like them too.
However, smelling like Love’s Baby Soft and wearing the snappiest, latest fashions was not the remedy for my aching heart. Nor was it the solution to my sadness.
So, I tried other remedies.
Perfect grades.
A slew of extra-curricular activities.
Cheerleading.
Student government.
And boys……
Lots of boys.
But what I finally found was missing from my life was not an activity, nor a person.
It wasn’t even my father.
It was my Creator.
A Creator whom I was told one day, when I was a 16 year-old lonely teen, could actually be a father to the fatherless.
A God who created me.
Who loved me.
And who had a plan for me that included hope and a future.
So one chilly night, I turned off my Michael Jackson record. I didn’t turn on the Facts of Life TV show. I didn’t hit the books hard so I could get the best grade of the class in Biology.
Instead, I got down on my knees.
I asked the God of the universe to forgive me for looking for love in all the wrong places.
I begged Him to prove to me that He was real and that He really did love me and had a plan for my life.
And then, something happened.
No, there was no audible voice.
I didn’t get a warm sensation running up my spine.
I didn’t hear angels singing.
But something very real changed for me.
My heart no longer felt a sense of dread.
You see, I always had a feeling of fear. An indescribable sense that my life was not going to end well. That I’d never know real peace or discover true happiness; what I thought most of my classmates had with their nice clothes, fancy homes and in-tact families.
But that night, in an instant once I arose from my knees, the dread was gone.
Instead a sweet sense of peace rushed over my mind and penetrated my soul.
Although since that night 30 years ago, my life has still been at times filled with turmoil and trouble, I have never again felt that dread. And, my life with God has been an incredible journey, one that I know will never end.
My companion, keeping me close to Jesus, has been the Bible; the same Bible Wendy wants to give to one of you.
As my daughter Kenna wrote in her baby brother’s Bible when we gave it to him a few years ago:
“Spencer, This book will keep you from sin. Or, sin will keep you from this book.”
Its your choice.
I hope, if you haven’t already, that you choose the Book.
And the Baby.
The Baby who grew up and willingly gave His life as a ransom so you will not have to face eternal punishment, but can have a glorious, eternal life.
If you want to know more about this life-changing decision, click here.
And, if you decide you want more for Christmas than any of the great giveaways you’ve been seeing here for these past 12 days and instead you want the assurance of an eternal life with God, please email me at [email protected]. I’d love to know and to pray for you.
And now, to be entered in our final giveaway, please leave a comment today on any gift you remember wanting sooooo badly as a child.
Maybe there are some other white go-go boot lovin’ gals out there!
And be sure to come back Monday at 5:00 pm EST when all 12 winners and the grand prize gal will be announced.
Christmas Blessings!!
Ohhh to have that Easy-Bake Oven…35 yrs later, I’m sure if I’d had it my cooking today would be way different.
I wanted one of those glamour heads. I don’t remember now what they were called but they came with a brush and makeup and you could do their hair & makeup.
I wanted an Easy Bake Oven more than anything. I asked for one for my birthday, and asked for one for Christmas, to no avail. Imagine my horror when my little sister got one from our grandparents! Pure jealousy! She let me use it, but it just wasn’t the same. Fast forward 20-some years, and I found one at a garage sale, and bought it for myself. I should probably get it out of the box, dust it off, and actually use it!
I wanted a playhouse as a child, but I would love that Bible as a mom. :)
Ah yes, on the Love’s Baby Soft and white go-go boots. My heart’s desire was however, the Barbie with growing hair. I’d never had a real Barbie. Mom always thought the cheapie knock-offs were sufficient, so to that point I had an ugly “Polly” doll. When I was 12 or 13 I received my Barbie with growing hair. I guarded her carefully. She was my treasured doll. Until.I. babysat. and. the. little.girl.sneaked.to.play.with.my.doll.and.broke.her.leg.
My daddy was a real fix-it man, but never a surgeon. He, bless his heart, screwed Barbie’s leg back on with a real screw. My father is now incapacitated with some sort of parkinsons or aftermath from his brain aneurysm, and my Barbie is more precious to me now than ever. She will always have on her leg, the ‘kiss of a hero’.
Oh I so wanted a Cabbage Patch Kid! But my parents couldn’t afford it. Instead I got a handsewn doll that looked exactly like me and I cherish it to this day!
A Cabbage Patch. I named her Heather Jean.
I can remember when I was about 7 wanting a Baby Beansie for Christmas. I still have a picture of me wearing a pink flannel nightgown and holding my pink baby:)
Bicycles… My older brother and I wanted bicycles…. and that is exactly what we got! Many hours were spent riding those bikes around and around the country block pretending to be all kinds of people and going all kinds of places…
Merry Christmas!!
Remember – The Greatest Gift is JESUS!
I so wanted an American Girl Doll. My girls are now getting them and I’m going to brush their hair till I can’t brush anymore!
I once had a Mrs. Beasley doll when I was a kid. Somewhere through all those years I lost her and dreamed of having another. I never did get her until I was married and my mother went to a big antique shop and found the doll I had been wanting all that time. I would love to have the bible to be able to give to someone who has wanted one so bad but has yet to recieve one, my brother. God Bless You and Keep You!!! :)
I wanted a playhouse for years. I asked Santa for it and I prayed for it. Several years in a row. I never got one though. When my Paw Paw made one for my cousins for Christmas I was so jealous on the inside but trying to be happy for them and share in their excitement on the outside. Still don’t know to this day why I never got one except for the fact that they are so expensive. It was my first real lesson and understanding of “Sometimes God doesn’t answer our prayers the way we want Him to and He doesn’t always give us what we want, but He does give us what we need.” I am still asking for “Playhouses” but I am learning to understand, accept and know that God loves me anyway even if I don’t get it :)
I remember as a young girl wanting “Baby Alive” and then as a preteen wanting a walkman cassett player. My folks knew me well, I got both in the years that they were on my wish list :-) Baby Alive came from Santa and I was one excited little girl. Now, I am having fun making my girls’ wishes come true, they are 11, 5 and 3 1/2 years old and Christmas is a magical time of hearing the story of Jesus’s amazing birth and celebrating His gift by sharing our gifts with each other.
I have been wanting a really good study Bible. Karen I actually don’t remember a lot of my childhood. Maybe it was because I was sexually molested by my babysitters husband, who were also church members. My parents figured they could trust them. I see pictures in the family albums of our childhood Christmas’s I looked happy but I honestly have no memories of them.
My mom always bought me a pomergrants, and made me parsnips (fried toasty in butter)….now in her memory I do two things….we always said she came back as a squirrel, so I have a squirrel on the tree ( i actually have a collection of squirrels) and a home made centerpiece made out of Maine Birch…I decorate it every year with tree trimmings and little Christmas items….
All I want for Chrismas is that my family can be reunited in LoVe and be at peace!
Miss my mom! God Bless everyone this Christmas, and may the Joy, Peace, and Love of Jesus fill your hearts!
I loved everything about Christmas. That is what my mom and dad instilled in me all those years ago. With them gone, I get a little sad and nostalgic. I remember wanting a ping pong table. I was a daddy’s girl so I knew he would come through. Somehow, he got it set up in the basement without me knowing, but couldn’t keep it a secret and told me way before Christmas.
Something that I wanted for Christmas when I was a child was a horse for my Barbie doll. I did get it. I honestly wasn’t a child who wanted a lot of stuff. I enjoyed just spending time with my family. I still enjoy this today.
jenbrandes(at)frontiernet(dot)net
I was such a tomboy.. I remember wanting a Stretch Armstrong doll.. one of those things filled with gel that you pulled the arms on and such. I think I got it and promptly stuck my finger through it to see what was inside.
I remember wanting and receiving the Easy bake oven and also the Creepy Crawlers thingmaker where you made the insects with the Plastic goop stuff. I think I also got Beatles #6 album around the same Christmas, 1965-66 or so.
Later when I was 12, I got Chicago’s album that had “Color My World” on it, and also Emaurade cologne!
I would love to win the chronological Bible!
thanks,
Kelly
All I wanted as a child for Christmas was my family to get along, and not fight all the time. I am not saying we did not have some good times, but they were far and in between. As the downside of this was my parents divored in 1965, and I was a uncontralble teen, end up in girls school. So all I wished for and wanted was a peaceful Christmas.
the gift I wanted so badly for Christmas was a desk and a chalkboard to play school with. I loved to play school. thank you for the giveaway. Merry Christmas!
[email protected]
I wanted a barbie dream house… I never got it though. My mom couldn’t afford it. I had everything I needed even if I did’t have everything I wanted.
I remember wanting and receiving a musical teddy bear. I slept with him for many years even after the wind up musical part didn’t work any more and he no longer had eyes.
I remember wearing that perfume!! I wanted a Nintendo so bad for christmas one year, you remember the one that had the “stick” with the firing button on it. Got it and had blisters from playing it so much.
I actually already have this Bible – it was a birthday gift from my sister this past year – and I do plan on starting with Wendy’s blog in January. But I also know my mom would love to have this Bible as well so if I am lucky enough to win, I’ll be giving the Bible to her.
As for a gift I desperately wanted growing up…I can’t think of one particular thing that stands out from the others but I do remember the Christmas I thought my bicycle had been stolen. I was probably around 7 years old and I was using my sister’s hand-me-down bike. I thought I left it out one night and that it had been stolen so on my Christmas list that year I wanted a new bike. Much to my amazement on Christmas morning was my “old” bike but completely fixed up – new paint, new tires, new flower basket on front and streamers hanging from my handle bars. My daddy told me Santa’s elves must have taken my bike the night I left it out so they could take it to Santa’s workshop to fix it up. :)