This year, instead of setting traditional goals, I am practicing a fruit of the spirit each month to move closer to the person I hope to be. I explain more here! Friends, thanks for all of your kind thoughts and excitement over this project! I’m excited to walk through it with you all, and see where it takes us. I know you’ll have so many insightful things to share! Hopefully I’ll have a few, too :) And where else to start but love? It’s the bedrock of who we want to be and what we want to have, and it’s the bedrock of what God is about, too. The greatest of these is love! Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind! Love your neighbor as yourself! But where to begin with such an expansive topic? My mind naturally goes to my husband, but while I can always use improvement, loving him well is already at the forefront of my mind. Same with loving God. Loving my neighbor, though – that’s a different story. For a long time, I didn’t dwell too much on the second part of the greatest commandment, because it didn’t seem like something I could really do anything about – I supposed I would just wait till I eventually become a better person, and then naturally I would love my neighbor more. And then I read Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, and he rocked my world with this particular quote: Side note: This was just one of the many lines from this book that significantly altered my thinking and behavior as a Christian. Whether you consider yourself one or not, I CANNOT recommend reading this book strongly enough! Lightning bolt moment! Like most of Lewis&#

Photos of Bucky in full finery were requested — I aim to please. Hello, friends! Some of you may know that John and I are BIG fans of Adam Hamilton. We worship online with Church of the Resurrection every Sunday in addition to our local church, and we never cease to learn from and be inspired by his messages. Last year, I was moved to post 25 acts of kindness after listening to one of his sermons. (Here’s the list — we’ll be doing some of these this year, and I still think it’s a GREAT way to shine a light outward this season!) Last year, COR’s Christmas season campaign encouraged members to give a Christmas Eve offering equal to the amount they spent on Christmas gifts. John and I were inspired by the boldness of this challenge, and ended up making a larger-than-anticipated offering ourselves. (Most churches give away their Christmas Eve offering to a particular cause — for example, COR splits theirs between building wells in Africa and working with low-income schools in Kansas City, and our church gives it to one of our main missions, Zoe.) We eagerly awaited the results of COR’s offering, knowing it was going to be exciting, but we were still blown away when they reported raising $1.2 million in one night — far surpassing the previous year’s amount of $650k. I actually cried when they announced it, I was so moved. Isn’t it amazing what God’s people can do when they lean into what He is calling them to? We immediately set the goal of giving away as much as we spent on Christmas gifts in 2013 (in addition to our normal pledge). There are so many ways to be generous, selfless, and un-materialistic at Christmas, but there are a few reasons