Table of contents for December 2016 in Guideposts

A Heaping Helping of Holiday Cheer Actress and singer (and friend of Guideposts) Kristin Chenoweth lets us in on her traditional Christmas feast, right down to her mom’s hearty grits. guideposts.org/gritsrecipe A Christmas Tail Join twins Tianna and Gianna (page 24) as they play with the Christmas gift who changed their lives—a pooch named Carmella. guideposts.org/carmella The Simple Things What’s your favorite thing about Christmas? Check out our list of simple holiday pleasures. guideposts.org/christmasjoys Looking for the Perfect Gift? Browse our inspiring Holiday Gift Guide at guideposts.org/holidaygifts.…

Where did i get the idea of a family Christmas pageant? I don’t really know. All I can say is that when the idea came to me, I felt that I might never see Christmas again. It was June. I’d just gone through major cancer surgery that hadn’t been fully successful. Once a month I would travel 250 miles to Houston for chemotherapy, and returning home I felt sick to death. The days were long. My husband, Gene, is a telephone repairman, and we live on a hilltop in the farm country of central Texas. It’s beautiful country, but I had no energy to go out in it. I’d just sit by the window and watch our horse loping from the barn to the shade of the mulberry tree. I’d…

GIVE A LITTLE I’m a runner and a reader. Earlier this year I saw that some neighbors had put up a Little Free Library in their yard. It looked like a birdhouse filled with books. A sign said to “take a book, leave a book.” I stopped to browse the shelves. I liked the idea of promoting an activity that makes life better. As more and more libraries popped up along my running route, I wondered if the idea could improve lives in other ways. Could it help get food to people who need it, when they need it? Traditional food pantries aren’t open 24/7, and some require income documentation. My church said they’d let me install a box on their property. I stocked the first little pantry, which opened…

I love all the trappings of Christmas. Bing and his tunes, Macy’s balloons, mistletoe kisses, Santa Claus wishes, the tinsel and the clatter and waking up “to see what was the matter.” I don’t even complain about the crowded shops. The flight is full, the restaurant is packed. Well, it’s Christmas! Why do I love it so much? Because someone somewhere will ask the question “What’s the big deal about the baby in the manger?” Christmas is how it all began, the perpetual presence of Christ in our lives. He called himself “Immanuel,” which means “God with us.” God where we are: at the office, in the kitchen, on the plane, around the tree. The manger invites, even dares us to believe that the best is yet to be. And…

“ How are things?” I asked a colleague who had stopped by my office to drop off some paperwork. “Not good,” he replied. “My sister’s cancer has returned. I’m sad and angry. I can’t even find the words to pray.” “Then let me say your prayers for you,” I said. He looked surprised, and I was too. Mark and I weren’t close. He and I had served on committees together and rarely saw eye to eye. “I’ll say prayers for you, Mark,” I said again, “until you can.” “Well, okay,” he replied, a bit awkwardly. So every day I prayed: Comfort Mark’s sister, Lord, and comfort Mark too. Give them a faith that reminds them that even in their sadness and confusion they can look to you for peace and acceptance…

HEALTHY FOOD FOR BODY AND SOUL Candy Cane Mug Cake A fun way to use those Christmas treats 1 candy cane or 4 round peppermint hard candies 4 tablespoons self-rising flour 4 tablespoons sugar 2 tablespoons beaten egg or liquid egg substitute 3 tablespoons milk 2 tablespoons vegetable oil ¼ teaspoon peppermint extract Crush candy into small pieces. Pour flour and sugar into a mug and stir. Add egg or egg substitute, milk, oil and peppermint extract and mix well to combine. Stir in crushed candy. Micro-wave on high for 1 minute or until top is just dry. Makes a one-serving cake. From Best Mug Cakes Ever, by Monica Sweeney (Countryman Press).…

My mom could be quite a handful, which I have come to see as a blessing as the years have gone by but did not always appreciate when she was alive, especially after her Alzheimer’s diagnosis. The news came as no surprise to us kids, of course. We’d seen our tough, sharp-witted mom change. But Mom was not about to take Alzheimer’s lying down. “There’s nothing wrong with me!” she insisted, even after she sideswiped a cop, denied doing it and then blamed it all on him. Eventually my brother and his wife moved Mom to a sweet little house on the property next to theirs so they could keep an eye on her. They built a lighted path between the two houses so Mom could visit when she wanted,…

My husband, casey, was deployed to Afghanistan right after New Year’s. I didn’t want to burden anyone, so I didn’t ask for help, even though I could barely stand the thought of him being gone for seven months. This deployment would be harder than the first. The kids were old enough now to miss their daddy. We didn’t have family here in Maryland. My plan was to hunker down and do everything on my own. Just get through it. My best friend and fellow teacher, Kelly Lagares, had other ideas. “Let’s redo your kitchen!” she said. “We’ll surprise Casey.” She was so enthusiastic I couldn’t say no. Later, I sometimes wished I had. Kelly could host her own DIY show. I didn’t fully grasp how much went into remodeling. Weekends…

Dad was brilliant with his hands. For 23 years he repaired and rebuilt typewriters and copiers for the Remington Rand company in Elmira, New York; even at home he could usually be found putting something broken back together. My four sisters and I had no idea how far his talent went, however, until the Christmas after he retired. He gave each of us a stunning stained-glass ornament he’d made himself— a star of Bethlehem. A friend had taught him the painstaking process. “I can make you anything you want,” Dad said proudly. The stained-glass gifts he produced over the next few years became prized possessions. My favorite was a trivet with four maple leaves, to remind me of the trees in Elmira that changed such vibrant colors in the fall.…

I should have known the idyll couldn’t last. For 10 days, we’d sailed the open sea, sunbathed and snorkeled, swum with dolphins. An adventure beyond anything I could have dreamed of giving our children. Now our Christmas Caribbean cruise was over, and the four of us were waiting in the airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, for our flight home, sitting on the floor because all the seats were taken. My ex-husband, Michael, our daughter, Willow (16), our son, River (12), and me. Michael and I remained friends and took co-parenting seriously. We carpooled to the kids’ school plays and ballgames and spent holidays together. We’d gone on the cruise courtesy of Michael’s parents. It was a big family celebration for their fiftieth wedding anniversary. I hadn’t seen some of…

 “My parents visited me in South Africa for Holy Week,” says Tim Hamlin (The Potato Salad Solution, page 54). “We had a wonderful time together.” The Hamlins observed Palm Sunday in Cape Town at St. George’s Cathedral, which was the seat of the Anglican archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu. They returned to the Mariya uMama weThemba Monastery for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services. “Our Easter Sunday service started at five a.m. in pitch darkness and ended two hours later with the sun shining brightly through the chapel’s east-facing window,” says Tim. “The words ‘the Lord has risen, Alleluia, Alleluia!’ took on an entirely new potency.” Now that Tim’s back in the United States, living in California, he’s practicing what he learned from the brothers. “Being immersed…

“On Christmas Day, when our family gathers around the table, we’ll bow our heads to say grace, thankful for the food before us and for the best gift the Lord ever gave us, each other.” DOLLY PARTON “The great thing about an attitude is that it’s yours and you can change it.” JOYCE MEYER, author and speaker “We need others to need us; that doesn’t make us weak. It makes us human.” TOPHER KEARBY, writer “I think my mistakes became the chemistry for my miracles. I think that my tests became my testimonies.” pastor and author T. D. JAKES “We grow in kindness when our kindness is tested.” ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU “Sharing your blessings helps you make room for more.” actress GINA RODRIGUEZ “The world is full of Scrooge-like people who want us…

I Was All Of Five Years old when I asked my dad why he always wrote a note to God and put it in the offering plate at church. Most everybody else put in money. “That’s a check,” he explained to me. “It’s just like money.” “But what’s the money for?” I asked. “To help people do God’s work,” he replied. That was as good a lesson in giving as anyone has ever given me. I grew up in a family of givers. If someone on our block was sick or otherwise struggling, Mom got busy baking. As soon as I was old enough, I followed her lead, making brownies or muffins or spaghetti dinners. At age 16, I organized my first fundraiser, a swim-a-thon for our local chapter of…

It was 60 years ago that my wife, Tib, and I took on a magazine assignment about giving. “Write about tithing,” our editor said. Tithing? The practice of giving 10 percent of your income to charity, he explained. It was an old religious tradition still practiced by many Jews and Christians today, he said. “It should make an interesting article.” Well, Tib and I set about researching the subject. We visited churches and synagogues where 100 percent of the congregation tithed, others where nobody did. “Taxes today cover much of what the church used to do—schools, caring for the elderly and the indigent,” one pastor told us. “I figure if people give two percent on top of taxes, that’s plenty.” We dug into the biblical precedents and principles, and did…

An empty space not too far from the supermarket. Perfect. I pulled my car in, glad I wouldn’t have to trek all the way across the parking lot in this heartless Texas heat. I’d just gotten out of the car when a big red pickup swerved into the space across from mine and braked hard right close to my front bumper. A young man in jeans and a T-shirt jumped out, his face as red as his truck. “How can I park here when you’re pulled up so far?” he hollered at me. “Back your car up!” I stared in shock. People don’t talk to each other like that here in the South. The man glared until I got in my car and backed up a few feet. He pulled…

TIMELY TREASURE For the past two weeks, I’d been visiting my husband’s parents along with my daughters, Susanna, five, and Caroline, three. The trip was great, but now we were on the way home. The girls had been asleep in the backseat for quite a while when I heard Susanna yawn and stretch. “Know what I want for Christmas?” she asked suddenly, her head popping up between the front seats. Whatever it was, she would probably have to do without. Our family was on a very tight budget. “I want shoes,” she said. “Black shiny ones. Real shiny. With the strap that comes across my foot.” “Patent leather,” I said. Susanna had been admiring her cousin’s. But we couldn’t afford a pair right now. “I want something too,” Caroline piped…