November with Grace Women
Getting after grateful -- and an Advent invitation!
Fall in Florida is a whole thing.
We don’t get the actual falling leaves, we don’t get the crunchy hiking paths and it’s sort of hard to find a pumpkin patch that you can enjoy without sweating.
Some of us may love it.
Some of us just want a reprieve from the everlasting sameness of warm weather.
But all of us can find ways to get after grateful.
“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!” the scriptures encourage us. Even scientists and secular writers agree that gratitude has a way of —if not healing our hearts— helping orient our perspective back to what is good, rather than what is hard. Gratitude is a good kind of coping skill that many of us employ in a quick pre-bedtime prayer or around a feast table …and in our busyness, forget on the rest of the days.
If we are to be women who are attentive to the presence of God throughout our days, then whatever season we’re in, we get to practice gratitude. We get to look for the good and true and beautiful things in our days, despite warm weather or frustrating work situations or exhaustion and weariness. To be sure, we don’t think it is wise to repress things that need real help and attention — we don’t believe this practice is some sort of toxic way to pretend bad things are good. This practice makes space for us to ask God: Will You help me look through the veil of difficulty to see what You have done? Will You help me see the good? What are You doing in these days? Help me name it and be grateful for it!
Maybe it’s a quick note you open on your phone.
Perhaps a text thread with friends who’ll be willing to practice gratitude with you.
A lovely journal you’ve just been waiting for the right moment to use?
We want to make it easy for you to start practicing gratitude, so we created a printable you can use in your home this month! Click the link below to download these gratitude tags, find a cute little jar or basket or bowl, and spend this month filling UP that container with all the things you are grateful for! We created one page WITH lines for the tidy writers, and one page WITHOUT lines, for those creative types ;)
You’re probably wondering about our winter women’s gathering.
The last three years, we’ve hosted our winter gathering at the end of November, to kick off the Advent season. This year, we’re changing it up with something we’re really excited about! Though we won’t be hosting our typical Advent gathering (*cue sad violin music here*), we are preparing for a winter women’s gathering open to little ladies from fourth grade (think ten-ish years old) through our senior saints!
We are still confirming the January date and location, since we will be welcoming guest speakers. As newsletter subscribers, you’ll be the first to get the date and registration link when they are live. We’re so pleased about this change and excited to finally be creating a gathering where we can invite our young women to see and experience intergenerational worship and encouragement to trust our kind and faithful God through all stages of life!
Okay, so what about Advent?
Ah yes, we haven’t completely abandoned the Advent season! We are just pivoting our approach and producing a four-week Advent podcast and devotional guide for the season!
Oh my gosh, yes, you heard that right!
The Grace Women team has been hard at work creating a digital Advent devotional guide and accompanying podcast for our community.
And what is this? An Advent podcast trailer, perhaps?!
We can’t wait to get this into your hands! If you’ve already subscribed to Where Grace Women Gather, you’ll automatically be subscribed to our Advent series podcast and digital guide when it launches at the first of December. If you aren’t yet a subscriber, well - what are you waiting for?
November is going to be beautiful. We’re going to ready our hearts for Christmas through practicing gratitude and we’re going to be SO READY to welcome Advent because we’re learning to practice the presence of the Good King who came once to a manger, once to die, and was raised to life forevermore that we might know and belong to God’s forever family!
We can’t wait for these holidays, friends!
