Table of contents for Dec/Jan 2026 in Guideposts

When an editor proposed Julia Ubbenga for the cover this issue, I didn’t know who she was. “She’s a minimalist.” “An artist?” I asked, puzzled. The editor gave me an exasperated look. “Today’s minimalism is an intentional lifestyle that emphasizes living with fewer possessions, less clutter physically and mentally. Julia’s an expert. Check it she acquired, the less room story for people seeking a fresh out. It’s a good story for New Year’s.” For Julia, embracing minimalism meant stepping back from materialism. The more stuff there was for God. She needed to declutter her soul as well as her home, and align her priorities with God’s. It was indeed a great New Year’s approach to living, but it struck me as an equally important Christmas story. I found myself asking,…

BOOKS FOR A YEAR As an avid reader, I’m always asking friends and family for book recommendations. I frequently request books as Christmas gifts. Last December, I saw an idea online and knew I had to borrow it. Instead of asking for new books as gifts, I asked 12 of my loved ones to choose a book from their own bookshelf that they enjoyed and thought I might like as well. I asked them towrap the book in plain brown paper and then write their name on the paper. When I received all 12 books—covered so I couldn’t see the titles—I wrote down a month next to each giver’s name. On January 1, I unwrapped the first book, a romance novel from my college-age daughter. A few chapters in, I…

One afternoon two weeks before Christmas, the first guests arrived at our Hurricane, West Virginia, home for the annual family get-together, stomping their snow-covered boots on my freshly mopped hardwood floors. I put on my holiday game face and nudged my husband, Roger, and my daughter, Lindsay, to flash their most welcoming smiles. After all, some of our relatives had driven more than an hour from Charleston for the party. Aunt Frieda sashayed in with the same outrageous pronouncement she made every year: “Jesus couldn’t be here, so I came in his place.” My young cousin, Mary Beth, rolled her eyes, and Uncle June huffed with impatience at the time it took the other dozen family members to wrangle off their boots. Now it begins, I thought. Only a few…

My five-year-old, Richie, wandered into the kitchen that December morning dragging along his favorite possession, his white baby blanket. “I asked Santa for a lotta toys this year,” he said, “and I’m gonna add more to my list.” Oh, boy! I thought. With Christmas around the corner, Santa and presents were all Richie talked about. I loved his enthusiasm, but my husband, John, and I had taught his older brothers, eleven-year-old Chris and seven-year-old Will, that although presents were nice, the real celebration was the birth of Jesus. I wanted Richie to understand that too. But was he too young? That afternoon, I sat Richie down for a heart-to-heart. He settled beside me and arranged his blanket on his lap. “What does having a birthday mean to you?” I asked…

“Faith is in our nature, like an appetite, or an instinct.… Faith in the day gets us up in the morning. It’s that basic.”SAM WATERSTON, actor “In my prayer life, I kept thinking, God, why do you keep doing this? Everything I’m afraid of, you make me do it. Then I saw it was because God wanted to build my confidence…. I had prayed years ago to be brave, and God is answering my prayers.”SISTER MONICA CLARE, TikTok influencer who left a career as a stand-up comic to become an Episcopal nun “A friend’s mom recently passed away and he gave me for Christmas a loaf of deli-cious bread made from her prized recipe. I sat imagining the love she put into it and the desire to have it shared…

Every morning, I sit at my kitchen table with a cup of coffee and take a deep breath of gratitude. I look around at the open, airy spaces. The clean counters and floors. Even with a full house—Justin and I have five children—there’s no mess, no clutter. Everything has breathing room, especially me. It’s not because I’m an amazing housekeeper or a perfect wife and mom. I feel at peace because our house wasn’t always like this…. I wasn’t always like this. It took getting rid of 75 percent of our belongings. And more important, letting go of what was cluttering my soul so I could clear space for God. I grew up in small-town Pella, Iowa. My mom stayed home with my two brothers and me, and my dad…

I sat at the dining room table, surrounded by craft supplies, putting the finishing touches on my mom’s Christmas gift—an ornament that opened like a jar and held slips of paper with handwritten memories of the year. Every Christmas, our family holds a special gift exchange. Instead of shopping from wish lists, we each tear a picture from a catalog or print something from an online store—an item we’d like that can be handmade. Around Thanksgiving, we gather, put our folded pages into a bowl and pass it around, each of us drawing one. This year, I picked Mom’s. Fortunately, her gift wasn’t difficult to make. I found a clear, hollow ornament at a discount store for a dollar, decoupaged vintage Christmas images to the surface and hot-glued the lid…

Six years. It had been six years since my son, Russell, died in a car fire. He was only 27. My grief was more manageable than it had been at six days, six weeks, six months. I had accepted that there would always be an empty spot in my heart. My husband, John; my daughter, Allison; and my work as a high school English teacher gave meaning to my life. I’d even been able to find moments of joy again. Still, joy and grief can coexist, and the pain of missing my son never let up. I tried to keep busy. Otherwise, I got lost in my regrets. I’d scolded Russell so often for his love for video games and demanded that he focus on his schoolwork. Why hadn’t I…

FAITH MEETS FUN ACROSS 1 What an angel gets when a bell rings, according to Itʼs a Wonderful Life 5 Beloved Guideposts devotional Walking in––––– 9 What the bride and groom say at a wedding 10 “May the God of–––– fill you with all joy and peace in believing…ˮ (ROMANS 15:13) 11 Friend 12 Itsy-bitsy 14 Gives off, as the Christmas star does light 16 Follows “faˮ eight times in “Deck the Hallsˮ 17 Actor Asner who played Santa in Elf 18 “Up __ the Housetopˮ 20 Tiny boy from A Christmas Carol 21 “Heʼs making a list, checking it twice, gonna find out whoʼs naughty __ niceˮ 23 Initials of The Power of Positive Thinking author and cofounder of Guideposts 24 Shortened title for a church leader 25 Exists…

In October 1962, the U.S. and the Soviet Union were embroiled in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Noël Regney could feel the fear and despair as he walked New York City. A producer had tasked him with creating a Christmas song, but how could Regney focus on peace and goodwill when the world hovered on the brink of nuclear disaster? He knew first hand the horrors of war. Like many Frenchmen during WWII, he’d been forced into the Nazi army, and he’d been shot before deserting to join the French Resistance. Near his apartment, Regney passed two mothers with smiling babies in strollers. His mood lifted. The babies reminded him of innocent lambs, and the words came to him: “Said the night wind to the little lamb…” He rushed home to…

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” —LUKE 11:9–10 (NIV) Ours was not a musical family. Dad had a guitar he never played. We kids plucked at the strings, but none of us thought to learn to play it ourselves. As part of a music program in school, I took up the recorder. The hope was to graduate to clarinet and join the band. I liked the recorder and practiced regularly. But my family could not afford a clarinet, and I stopped. Social media algorithms must have sensed this…

“MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM HEAVENˮ Four nights before Christmas, and my tree was bare. No ornaments. No garland. No twinkle lights. I stood in my living room, storage boxes of decorations surrounding me, but nothing, not even the Christmas music marathon on the radio, could get me into the holiday spirit. It was my first Christmas without Mom. This was her favorite holiday. Mine too. And, boy, did we both love trimming our trees! She and I lived just 15 minutes apart, but we’d get so excited to see each other’s trees that we would text photos the minute we finished—no matter how late it was. One year, my husband and our four kids had enough of decorating, and they were fast asleep by the time I finished up, just before…

Sewing and crafting aren’t the only hobbies Janice Polmatier enjoys (Stitched with Love, page 40). She’s a gifted gardener too. Her yard has an array of hydrangeas, azaleas and potted plants. “I’ve been gardening for nearly 50 years,” Janice says. “Several of the Sewing Group gals and I trade plants. I love clipping the hydrangeas, drying them, tying them in pretty bunches and gifting them to people.” Janice is also active at her church. “We’re a tight-knit parish,” she says. “Over the years, I’ve been a Sunday school teacher, a senior warden (someone who works closely with the rector) and a lay eucharistic minister, which means I can help serve communion.” Nothing slows down this octogenarian. Janice regularly competes in 5K walks and has a basket full of medals. “I…

LESSONS IN CARE I connected with Gloria Joyce’s April/May 2025 story, Ana’s Peace, about her worries over her teenage daughter’s spinal fusion surgery. At age 21, one month after graduating from nursing school and taking my state board examination, I had a spinal fusion with an iliac crest graft. After three months in a body cast, I had to learn to balance and walk again. My successful surgery enabled me to have a wonderful career as a home care and hospice nurse. I celebrated my 70-year nursing anniversary in 2024. My experience as a patient helped me in my professional and spiritual life. I learned the importance of the little things: A glass of water or box of tissues out of reach is of no value. I also learned that…

Change your mindset. Itʼs hard to let go of possessions. After all, youʼve spent money and time on them. But, really, everything we have comes from God; we are simply stewards. Give the Lord ownership of it all: the stuff youʼll declutter and the stuff youʼll keep. Start viewing possessions as transient objects like a bubble, fireworks or an ocean wave—something you observe and enjoy, then let go. The best time to start is now. What would your life be like with less stuff? Grab a laundry basket and walk through your main living spaces. Extend your arm over cluttered areas such as counters and tops of furniture and sweep all that stuff into the basket. Continue until surfaces are clutterfree. Sort through the basket while youʼre doing something enjoyable…

My dad and I sat on the edge of our seats, our eyes fixed on the TV. Game 6 of the 1974 Stanley Cup Finals. Our Philadelphia Flyers up one goal, versus Bobby Orr and the Boston Bruins, defending champs. Boston fired off shot after shot, trying to even the score in the waning minutes. Our hero, goalie Bernie Parent, was a brick wall. “Only the Lord saves more than Bernie Parent” was the catchphrase for the playoffs. The final seconds ticked away; my father and I jumped up, whooping and hollering. “Ladies and gentlemen, the Flyers…are going to win… the Stanley Cup!” the announcer shouted. “The Flyers win the Stanley Cup! The Flyers win the Stanley Cup! The Flyers have won the Stanley Cup!” It was the Flyers’ first…

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