Brenda Rodgers

Tag: Christmas

  • How We Do Santa Around Here

    How We Do Santa Around Here

    My five-year-old stood in line to see Santa this year, turned around and looked at me perplexed. “But Mama, Santa’s not real!?” she announced in a too-loud voice.

    I stammered to get out the words, “No! Shhhh!”, as I approached her in case she decided to make her case further and I needed to cover her mouth. I darted a wide-eyed glance to my husband before scanning the parents around me to see if anyone was glaring back. No one was, but I still felt the need to say a quiet, “I’m so sorry” just in case.

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  • Are Christmas Cards Worth It?

    As a single woman I always felt silly sending Christmas cards.

    I had a dozen reasons why I shouldn’t – they cost money, they take time, and then of course the reason that was my reason for not doing a lot of other things too – Christmas cards are for people with families.

    Are Christmas Cards Worth It for Single Women

    Today it’s Single Saturdays at Woman to Woman Ministries, and I’m sharing my answer to the question “Are Christmas Cards Worth It for Single Women?” Head over there to read more, and don’t forget to leave a comment. Do you send Christmas cards to your family and friends?

    Single Saturdays Button

  • Why I Never Believed in Santa Claus {and How I Feel about It}

    Growing up we decorated for Christmas the Saturday after Thanksgiving every year. My dad, brother, and I would pile in the car – a burgundy Chevrolet Monte Carlo, mind you – and make the trek to the Christmas tree farm. Having grown up 20 miles outside of Atlanta, my husband doesn’t believe me when I tell him that I never saw pastures of land and farm animals. Well, this was the one day of the year that I may have seen a cow or two.

    My mom didn’t go with us because she said she couldn’t bear walking through a Christmas tree farm bypassing the short, thin Virginia Pines for the tall, beautiful Frasier Firs. “It would break my heart”, as she put it, and she’d want to take all the Charlie Brown Christmas trees home.

    Why I Never Believed in Santa Claus

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  • How to Love the Unlovable at Christmas

    The other day I got a text message. It wasn’t the kind filled with exclamation points and emoticons but with hard periods and imperatives. And it was concerning Christmas.

    The moment I read it I got a knot in my stomach. The knot stayed there for days, and now as I anticipate this week of Christmas I can’t shake the words. You see, this week I’m going to see the family member who sent me that text message. As much as I want to say my thoughts are of compassion and forgiveness and love, they’re really filled with dread. I imagine conversations I’m going to have with her. What I’m going to say if she says this or that. How I’m going to respond to the looks, sighs, and snide comments.

    This isn’t the first time I’ve faced dreadful moments with family members during the holidays. And I’m certain it won’t be the last. Holidays can be messy! What I can do this week and in the future, however, is remember what I’ve learned from times before.

    Today I’m sharing one of those times over at Encouragement Cafe and how we can love the unlovable by being living sacrifices. Join me there, and let’s pray for each other this week that no matter what holiday messiness we find ourselves in, we will be the hands and feet of Jesus – living sacrifices – that point others back to Him.

    Merry Christmas, dear readers!!

    Stirring the Spirit one cup at a time

  • Because Love Came Down at Christmas

    Running is something that I do.  Sometimes for fun but most of the time for necessity.  Every runner has stories of unfortunate moments that only occur when you’re a few miles out from home.  They never happen when you’re almost home.  

    The same is true for me. 
    Because Love Came Down at Christmas

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  • Hope

    Today is the first day of Advent.  For four weeks we will prepare for Jesus’s birthday.  It is easy to prepare the house, buy the presents, and do the baking.  It is much harder to prepare my heart so that I truly understand the significance of what we will celebrate at the end of the month.

    As I opened our Advent devotional tonight to read and pray with John, I was reminded that this first week of Advent is centered around Hope – the very thing that my life has been centered around for the past six months.

    For several months Hope is all that I have had to hold onto.  Without it there would have been no reason to get up every morning.  To lay down my Hope would have been to give up my life.
    However, God continued to remind me daily of the Hope I had in Him.  I had Hope that he would provide for my daily needs and my temporal needs by giving me my husband’s life.  I had Hope that my mom was with Him in Heaven and that I would spend eternity with her.
    That led to my Hope that is beyond this earth – Hope that all of the injustice, sadness, and oppression that I witness each day will one day be no more.  Hope that Jesus will return to save me – us – from the grip that death of life has on this world.
    Tonight John and I read the following words from Jesus, and He reminded us once again of our Hope in Him.
    “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.  If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?   When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going.” John 14:1-4
    I meditate on my eternal life much more now than I ever have in the past.  It gives me peace.  It is my Hope.  Because after all of the heartbreak that I have experienced and will continue to experience throughout this life, to not dwell on God’s gift of Hope to me would be to give up – to deny His words – to not accept His Hope. 
    This first week of Advent I thank God for His Hope through His Son, Jesus.