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I think this is more of a prevalent thing that comes up from time to time when working with Christian women in the counseling room or in coaching type things. And that is that they are the exception, that they are an exception to the way God works, that they are the exception to how things go or what they can trust in.

They are the exception as far as not being good enough. And so that lie keeps them from stepping into all of the power that's there for them. It's like being in a candy shop as a kid and someone says, go wild. It's all yours. And we just leave all the candy. Like, oh, no, I've got to go home. And we just leave all of the things there in this candy shop, and there's so much power. We have power in gumballs.

We have power in those cinnamon hard candies. We have power in chewing gum and whatever else you could think of. Twizzlers and Twix and Hershey bars. Whatever. Okay? There's power in this metaphor. If each of those candy bars had a power, then you'd get something good from each one of them, right?

So in the Bible, there are promises, and each one of them has something good for you. But if you don't pick it up and you don't chew on it and you don't claim it as yours, and you don't use it for what it's intended to be used for, you're letting power just kind of be left on the table, left in the candy store, left not impacting your life. It's like walking out of that candy store.

It's walking away from this power that's already yours. And that is such a common misconception of how it works. We have to be good enough for God to approve of us. We are not good enough. We're faulty. We are less than. Those are the things that a lot of times Christian women come into care for, and they're so not based on truth or reality. I just talked to a woman this morning who was saying that she was hoping she made some sort of impact in the world.

Well, how could she not? Like, you don't have to hope for it. Just do it. It's already something you do. Every time you do something, you're making an impact, right? If I hold the door open for somebody, I'm making an impact. Don't qualify those things as whether they're big enough or good enough or whether they're too bad stuff does make an impact. It might be neutral impact. It might be a positive impact might be a negative impact. You're making an impact.

But the better question would be what am I going to do today to intentionally take steps to make an impact in an area that God's calling me to or in an area I'd like to? What would that be? I will make an impact. I do make an impact and I can choose to do that even more. I can choose to do that more times. I can choose to do that more broadly. Maybe the impact is I buy back to school supplies for a kid or I could fill a bus or I could ask a bus rental company, hey, would you come here and then put out flyers and all the community can come and fill a bus. Fill a bus with school supplies. Okay? Whatever level you do, whatever you do on is fine. You're having an impact.

Don't let the lies of the enemy minimize. Don't let the way you feel about your capabilities minimize. God is not a God who didn't equip you, who messed up, who didn't make you right. Jesus is not a savior whose blood didn't cover it all. It covered all. And if you accept Jesus as your savior and live with Him as your savior, it is a done deal. You are good enough because He is good enough. And God made you!

So you've got things good going for you. Don't believe the lies. You already are saved. You already are valuable. You already are enough as the beautiful human creation that God poured into you and the fact that you've chosen God and He is in you and greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world and God's got you. So you can definitely say I am enough because you were purchased with a valuable price.

When people think those promises in the Bible don't apply to me, yes they do. They may not be helpful to you if you don't believe them, if you don't let them apply to you, but they are there for the taking. Just like the candy. Only this is like a refillable candy store, right? You can take and it'll just keep replenishing. You can go back for more. You can ask your heavenly Father for what you need more of. You have resources and power and knowing that you're not going to use it up. It's an endless supply from God. You can get the things that you need to do, the things that you're doing, things that you're called to. And the way you get that is by believing in God's Word and His truth.

I encourage you to go take a look at scripture. It's important to know the tools in your toolbox. Truth, power, substance those already are things you can bring to the table because they've already been given to you.  If you doubt yourself, please stop. That doesn't do anybody any favors. That's like saying, oh, the enemy is a bully, and, well, the bully said mean things, so now I can't have fun playing.

Oh, what do you do with a bully? You tell your daddy. You tell a teacher, get the big guy in charge. And you say, I don't like that bully. And then what's? The parents say, don't let him bully you. Okay? Right. I don't have to stay to be bullied. I don't have to engage with fights that I'm not a part of, that God has already won. I can be powerful. I can make an impact. I can be free in Christ because of who God is. And make those affirmations and those declarations in your life. 

Go take on the day.

You know the concept of "both, and?" It's something I talk with clients a lot about, but it's also something I live. Things can be hard and good at the same time. Things can be bitter and sweet at the same time. Things can be, well, things can be rough sometimes, and yet they can still be something that God is using in our lives for good. Romans 8:28 says that all things work together for good. To those who love God and are called according to his purpose, and that is a promise. That is a truth, and sometimes that's hard to see.

Sometimes life is just clipping along wonderfully, and things are great. And sometimes there are just things, just things: job stressors, medical issues, bills, seasonal affective disorder, winter. Some people love winter. Some people love spring. It's "both, and." It can both be great and be Christmas time and be joyful, and it can be hard, emotional, stressful, sad, glorious, wonderful, fabulous, exciting. It can be "both, and."

I want to give you permission to just give yourself permission. You don't need my permission, but if you need a permission slip to give yourself permission, to be okay with "both, and" which doesn't mean you love the feelings that aren't pleasant or that the stressors are fabulous, but the "both, and" can sometimes make things a bit more manageable. It's like an acceptance that, okay, right now, there's more than one thing that I'm feeling, and there's more than one thing that is contributing to this. We have physical bodies. We have relationships. We have things we have to work towards, or performances, maybe, that you're giving for the holidays or hosting. There's a lot that goes into this time of year, but honestly, there's a lot that goes into being a human, and it's a "both, and" experience as a human. We all want the good stuff, and sometimes the way we appreciate the good stuff is because we've been through the bad, so we know how good the good is, and we want to hold on to that.

I want to just give you that reframe; that good is coming. Good is God. Good is what we can trust in. If it's not good, it's not over yet. We can see good in the land of the living, and also on the other side, when we get to heaven, we can see good there. So, either way, it turns out good for us. So, if it's not good, good still coming. The story is not over yet.

Now, today, my husband and I made a decision, because as much as we have a lot of blessings that we're thrilled about and a lot of things that are going well for us, it's also been a little bit stressful. We've each had a bunch of different things that are, like, nothing life shattering, but just enough things in different areas that are making the "both, and" something very apparent right now, and we're trying to embrace the really good. But we also know that, yeah, there have been some really stressful stressors.

So, I want to play a game with you and encourage you to maybe play a game with us. The game we are playing is basically the Pollyanna game. The Pollyanna game, if, you know, the old Disney movie, is where Haley Mills' character is so positive, like, she even breaks her legs and she's like, still, everything turns out positive for her.

So, I said to my husband this morning, "What if we just don't say anything negative today? What if we don't do any negative sounds? We don't say anything negative. We just focus on the positive, turn things towards good, and just put that energy out there, right. And just say good things and speak joy, speak light, speak energy."

This past weekend I was speaking a lot of, "Oh, I'm exhausted," and I decided today to say, " Well, it's okay because I'm getting my energy back." That type of thing. That's not exactly what happened this morning, but that's the kind of reframe that I'm giving you as an example. I'm still working on getting my energy back. So, it may not be something that I am fully feeling, but it is something that I feel a whole lot more when I speak it in truth and faith and in a good, positive way rather than, "oh, my gosh, I think I'm dying. I don't have any energy to get out of bed." It's a lot better to go, "You know what? I've gotten some really good rest because I've allowed myself to take that time and just have some good snuggle downtime. And I'm taking care of myself and I'm going to get back to 100% even better, 2024. I'm going to be really healthy because I'm doing the right things now and I know everything's going to be energized and be better." That gives me a lot more oomph than focusing on I don't feel so good there.

When I stood up, I was wearing these shoes for Christmas service last night and they kind of hurt my legs. It's a lot better to say, "Wow. Christmas service last night was amazing. We had a great time. It was our middle child, our 22-year-old daughter, my husband, and myself, and we went to Christmas Eve service, even though it wasn't Christmas Eve. It was wonderful and it was beautiful. We did candlelight singing of 'Silent Night,' and it was just joyful. Then we went out to eat, and we had great time together!"

Now, I could have been, "Oh, my other kids aren't here. My son's doing some stuff with his fiancé's family. My daughter is with some friends. My other daughter is with some friends on a trip right now." It was us and one of our kids, and it was wonderful. It made possible for our middle kid to have some only child time, even though she's an adult. We had a really great time. In fact, we recorded a jokes episode for Christmas, corny jokes that's coming up on Thursday that you may want to tune in for.

If you have kids, young kids especially, you may want to have them listen in because there's just a bunch of cute corny jokes that we just share. We did this last year, and this year, I wanted to do it again. So, Thursday, you can get some happy, corny jokes if you would like to. We did that after the church service, and then we had a nice dinner and such. I could have been, "oh, but the other kids aren't here. Oh, but I miss them." which are true. They weren't there, and I do miss them when they're not here, but that doesn't mean I wasn't enjoying fully the time we had with our other daughter and fully the experience and fully the blessings and what that made possible. It made possible for us to just focus on her and for us to really hear her and for us to all have a really nice memory building time together.

Whether it's everyday life or special holiday seasons, where there is a lot going on, whether you're going through a stressful time in life, you can choose what energy you bring to it. Sometimes we forget that. Sometimes we're like, oh, this is just really hard, and that may be very, very true, but if you play the Pollyanna game, it could be, "This is really hard, but what does this make possible? But what will we get here that we didn't otherwise?"

So maybe you're making Christmas dinner, and you burn the green bean casserole. Hey, what a great memory. Remember the year that mom burned the green bean casserole, and the fire department came? Right? Or, oh, wow, I did a horrible job on wrapping these gifts. But you know what? It's the thought that counts, and I never said I was an artist, and I hope you like it anyhow. And maybe it gives you some laughs, because I really don't do so hot at how I wrap things, and they're kind of comical looking, right? So maybe it's just okay.

Maybe everything has a silver lining, or many things have a silver lining. And I think that it's up to us to look for the silver lining, to speak the silver lining, to be energized by the hope and the silver lining of knowing that if it's not good, it's not over, that we can find humor and we can find good things, and we can appreciate simply by refining our focus on what's good, pure, lovely, and true.

So, while I may be tired today, I'm excited, because today I happen to have the day off to relax or to work or to clear my head and pray it's okay to put energy out there, take care of yourself, and realize that in the "both, and," we still have a choice of where we focus, what we speak and how we let the positive energy be a light instead of letting the darkness be the focus. It doesn't mean that there aren't some shades of darkness; it means that the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.

So, if you want to play the Pollyanna game with my husband and me today, or through the Christmas season or for as long as you like, that's what we're doing right now. If I end up burning something or don't get enough of something for the holidays, for the company that's coming or whatever, it's no big deal. No one's going to remember next year at this time anyhow, unless it's a great memory. Like I burned the green bean casserole!