from Comfort & Joy: Readings and Practices for Advent (Herald Press, 2025)
Spend some time reflecting on your own expectations for the holiday season. Since Advent can be especially busy, finding time for reflection might be challenging. However, carving out at least one time during the week when you can be alone and quiet is a meaningful spiritual practice, no matter what your schedule entails or your personality inclines you to prefer.
Before you reflect, take a few deep breaths and settle your body. When you are focused, think or journal about the following questions:
- What are you expecting from yourself this Advent and Christmas?
- What plans for holiday fun are realistic, and what might be better released either to be pursued in another stage of life or set aside permanently as not worth the time and effort?
- Which expectations are ones you can and want to fulfill?
- What (perhaps unrealized) expectations do you have of your family and friends for the holiday season?
- Have you ever been surprised by an unexpected blessing? What was it? Retell the story in your journal or to a friend to solidify the memory.
Now that you have spent time considering the hopes and expectations you are carrying, invite God’s presence into your planning. Consider the people and situations that are difficult for you. Imagine placing them into God’s loving embrace. Invite God’s grace to be your companion in these days of preparation and anticipation.
Consider an Advent devotional as a gentle companion through the month of December.
You may want to check out Comfort & Joy: Readings and Practices for Advent, a nontraditional devotional that includes recipes, practices, reflections and prompts to help you connect with what really matters (to you) in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season.
If you or someone you know is dreading this Christmas, navigating an unchosen journey or difficult circumstances, Unhappy Holidays: Blessings for a Blue Christmas is a daily devotional for the month of December offering reflections and blessing for those looking to recover a sense of hope.
We hope this brings you some comfort and joy! You can spread the joy by liking, commenting and sharing this post with others.
Some Comfort and Joy was developed as a devotional resource that follows the rhythms and seasons of the liturgical year from an Anabaptist-Mennonite perspective.
some comfort and joy 