12th Day of Christmas Giveaway with Renee Swope
I can’t believe we’ve come to the end of our 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways!
Remember—-if you have missed commenting on any of the days, you may still catch up through the end of the weekend.
And, one gal who comments on all 12 posts will win the grand prize. (You can scroll down below to day one to see it.)
Comment on any of the 12 posts until midnight EST, Sunday December 11th.
All winners announced Monday, December 12th. Then, on Tuesday, December 13th we’ll have one final giveaway based on a Proverbs 31 devotion I will have running.
Oh….I LOVE Christmas!!!!!!
For our final Proverbs 31 guest, we have my all-time favorite friend (:->), (Ahem….that is the last time I give out my password so a guest can “help me out” and load her own post!) national speaker and co-host of Proverbs 31 Ministries radio show, Renee Swope.
Renee’s passion is to encourage women and help them replace self-doubt with lasting confidence in Christ by showing them how to live in the security of God’s promises every day. She’s author of the best-selling book, “A Confident Heart”, and currently serves as Executive Director and Sr. Editor of Radio and Devotions. Renee is also a contributing writer for Encouragement for Today devotions and www.roomag.com.
BUT her greatest joy and favorite titles are wife to J.J. and mom to Joshua (16), Andrew (14) and Aster (3) who they adopted from Ethiopia two years ago.
Renee has a short video message for us about the importance of giving ourselves the gift of grace and receiving God’s gift of rest.
Don’t miss her encouragement!
It is about how God came to us so that we could come to Him- and find rest in His presence, His plans and His promises – at Christmas and all throughout the year!
Renee’s Christmas Give-away
- 3 Copies of her book (for you & two friends)
- 3 Sets of Confident Heart conference calls (optional)
- $10 Starbucks gift card
- Godiva Chocolate Bar
Renee is hosting a FREE online Bible/Book study of A Confident Heart starting January 16th on her website/blog. To find out more and consider being part of it, click here. To hear more from Renee, find some great FREE resources and read a Christmas prayer that will help you prepare your heart from Christmas, visit her website/blog at www.ReneeSwope.com.
OKAY—for our last question: Based on Renee’s message, where do YOU need to give yourself some grace at Christmas?
Me? The infamous full-color, photo-laden, annual Christmas letter.
I have been giving myself grace for four years now on that one. With Facebook and my blog, most of the nearly 100 people that I sent the letter to already know what we’d been up to all year.
So, with that one grace-filled decision, I saved SEVERAL hours time, a lot of stress and envelope-stuffing, and about $75.
And you?
Have a WONDERFUL, grace-filled weekend!
Renee, I read your prayer poem and I Love it. I am praying this for me as well. It is so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of Christmas and wanting to give gifts and got to events, be in events, and get so busy, that we forget, as you said, to unwrap the gift of Jesus to us, the one who brings Peace and is the Reason for the Season. Thanks for the reminder. :)
I just spoke to my grown daughter thus afternoon about neither of us having the time or supplies to do a decent Christmas letter, you know the perfect informative, joyfilled letter complete with the perfect family picture….well that’s not happening and we decided that we won’t linger on that and let it be a sponge that will soak up or joy and and wipe away our confidence!
I give myself grace by telling myself that even if this year’s celebration is not what I hoped for – next year will be better and I have confidence in doing better than the last and looking forward to much more in the future.
I am giving myself grace when it comes to creating traditions. My girls are young and traditions will come naturally.
I’m going to have to say my crazy schedule and trying to fit everything in. It will never be perfect, so I am letting go (or at least trying to let go) of my unreasonably high expectations.
I need Grace at all times in everything,”,
I need to show more grace to my children.
God wants us to give ourselves some “grace” this Christmas. I have always had this problem of being all things to all people, knowing I can’t please everyone, but I love to share His grace and do good. This is the second time today I have read or heard the “all who are weary, I will give you rest”, I believe I may be getting tapped on the noggin’. Thank you, God. You know the struggles of the week. Only His grace is sufficent, I surely can’t handle it. I thank God for P31. You girls are called! I hope to join you soon! Hugs, love and prayers!
GRACE – Yes it is indeed amazing. Thanking our Lord for this great gift of His son, wrapped in a warm blanket of Grace!
I think “keeping up with the Jonses” is probably the greatest area to give myself grace. I don’t need to get my kids Xbox or DSi or Wii in order for them to have a good Christmas. And I don’t need to bake ALL the goodies and put up a ton of decorations like e erybody else. I just need to do a few things we decide as a family should be our own personal traditions :-) Thank you Renee for the wonderful message and Karen for this great blog.
I think the area of keeping my house spotless & having all the right decorations etc-need to let up on that expectation & let up some gift giving expectations.
Thanks for the give away!
~Blessings~
I need to give myself grace in the way of our annual Christmas letter. It is a hit and miss kind of thing. But I haven’t missed a year in sending out Christmas cards. :-)
Baking. so many family members struggling with high cholesterol, diabetes, or just watching the waistline, and the younger ones truly don’t need all that sugar and fat —- why add to the temptation with so much unneeded baking??? Might still do a few decorated Christmas cookies, but that’s it. Like 2 dozen instead of 12 dozen.
Christmas cards are a hard one for me too! My sister is a professional photographer and takes fabulous pictures, but it just became too much stress to get them done and sent each year. Like you said, everyone I’d send them to is already my Facebook friend, so they’re up-to-date on us!
Decorating. We’re doing well to get the tree up most of the time, and this year, with a two-year-old who likes to throw everything he can get his hands on, we opted to just put lights on the tree and nothing else. And sometimes I get all down on my lack of effort in the decorating department when I see how nicely others do their houses, inside and out. I definitely need to allow myself some grace there!
Our tree isn’t up yet. And it might not happen. Everyone seems to be OK with that. That is grace to this mom’s heart.
First of all, Renee, thank you for that beautiful post. I felt refreshed just listening to you! :-D Second, my need for grace this year – expectations. My 3rd baby boy was born 5 weeks ago, and life is a bit busy! So I’ve been praying for the Lord to FOCUS my heart and mind on what is MOST important for each day, each hour, each MINUTE, even! It’s really been helping. My ToDo list is a mile long, but He’s given me peace. All the other stuff doesn’t matter. I want to do what He wants me to do each day. The important things will get taken care of, they will. Praise God for His daily grace!
I am giving my self Grace from my expectations. I always “imagine” how our Christmas should be with extended family, and when it is different, I am disappointed, and I fail to enjoy what is happening!
I need to give myself grace if I do not have the time to send out Christmas Cards, I feel at times it is just a long to do list of people that I really don’t keep in touch with. Instead I rather enjoy time getting together with the family and friends and acquaintances that I see on a daily basis.
Also I feel I need to give myself grace over my schedule. I need to let God take over and show me How to enjoy the season and the pace of my day focusing on Him for guidance.
I need to give myself grace in the area of being more like a “Martha than a Mary” and enjoy the day with my family and friends more. I try to do too much for everyone else sometimes, so I have cut back this year and hopefully will spend more time with God.
Would be wonderful to have the books etc. for my ladies at church Bible Study. Renee is wonderful!
thank you,
in Christ
I withhold grace from myself often. I need to give myself grace in my failures… and instead of focusing on those failures, to focus instead on Him and His undeserved gift.
Thank you for this devotion. I hadn’t thought about grace from this perspective and I really need it this year. I got a late start, so I am still struggling with finding gifts for everyone; I have only decorated a little bit; I still have baking, wrapping, cards, etc., etc. when what I really want to do is spend time with my kids. I want to play games, read a book, watch a Christmas show…time to slow down. I need grace to enjoy the whole season and not just try to survive it. I need to be certain that my agenda is God’s agenda for me.
No Christmas cards will be sent this year from me this year. I am giving myself grace on this to free up more time for more priority time users.I hope to win the give-away. Your book sounds wonderful, “A confident heart” Thanks,Renee I love P31 Ministries!
I am giving myself some grace in the areas of decoration and cards and just doing it all – trying to simplify and do what means the most to our family! Luckily, my 15-year-old son still wants to bake cookies with me (YAY!)… but trying not to put too much importance on the “things” but on people and the love Jesus gives all of us!
Mine would be Christmas cards.