It's almost Thanksgiving, and maybe this year you're just trying to make it through. Trying to smile through the "fixings" and the feasting while something feels empty inside.

Maybe everything is right on the surface but stress is eating at your inner calm. Or you're grieving a shift, an unwelcome season, a spot empty around your table. Perhaps the budget simply can't cover the holiday spread you envisioned on your table.

Can I reach a hand right through your screen—a hand to steady yours right now?

You might not be able to see how yet, but you will make it through. How do I know? Because I know the God who won't let go of you.

I know that at this very moment, He's giving thanks for you. If Jesus were seated at your table on Thanksgiving, and you were going around saying one thing you're grateful for, He'd lock eyes with you and say, "It's you. It's you I can't stop thinking about. It's you who squeezes My heart. It's you I'd give everything for."

Links mentioned:

1. The Spill-Over Gratitude Challenge
2. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.
3. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

An accessible life is permeable.

God can get in. God can ripple out through us.

A no-place-off-limits openness to God welcomes the tender work through which He frees and heals us. Trust gives God permission to inhabit. He enters where He's invited, never barging through barricades in our hearts, but knocking with patience and persistence.

Openness in our relationships allows the work God is doing inside to show so that others may be drawn to His hope and light. It brings purpose and depth to our friendships: we get to point people to Jesus, as we were created to do, simply by living our learning-to-follow Christ lives in plain sight.

Links mentioned:

1. The Spill-Over Gratitude Challenge
2. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.
3. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

But what if we've tried to keep gratitude too quiet? What if it gets buried in the lines of our journals? What if gratitude is looking for a way to ripple beyond us–spilling over like uncontained laughter?

Links mentioned:

1. The Spill-Over Gratitude Challenge
2. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.
3. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

But what if we've tried to keep gratitude too quiet? What if it gets buried in the lines of our journals? What if gratitude is looking for a way to ripple beyond us–spilling over like uncontained laughter?

Links mentioned:

1. The Spill-Over Gratitude Challenge
2. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.
3. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

Reversing the hurry of the holidays sounds lovely, but let's get practical. Without a plan, I get swept into the busyness of the holiday season. I don't linger. I squeeze in more and move faster and connect less. You too?

Links mentioned:

1. The Spill-Over Gratitude Challenge
2. The Greatest Gift: Unlocking the Full Love Story of Christimas by Ann Voskamp
3. Merry and Bright: Rediscover the Hope, Peace, and Joy of Christamas by One Story Well.
4. The Spirit of Christmas: Discovering His Presence Throughout the Advent Season by Cyntha Ruchti.
5. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.
6. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

You might find yourself in a similar situation, caught between what you think you should be able to do, and what you can, at this moment, achieve. Between the voice in your head that says slowing down is shameful and the kind tone you'd use to encourage anyone besides yourself.

So until you have the courage to tell this to yourself, here is permission to break pace. Do solid B work. Set a boundary. Begin something brand new.

Links mentioned:

1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.
2. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

Perhaps the biggest threat to thriving is apathy.

Have you found this to be true?

Stop reading your Bible and your hunger for it dissipates.

Stop listing gratitude and it's harder to find gift in the hard.

Stop praising God and fear settles in.

Stop praying and God feels farther away.

Stop investing in your marriage and it begins to fray.

Stop your workout rhythm and it's difficult to pick it back up.

Stop your healthy eating habits and old cravings come back.

The law of inertia comes into play when we pause forward momentum in anything. We either keep learning, growing, becoming–or our gains begin to dissolve.

There is no stand-still.

It's forward or backward.

Growth or regression.

Thriving or declining.

Links mentioned:

1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.
2. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

We enter autumn a bit unsteady. Feeling behind but also needing soul stillness. Burning candles as we grasp for inner peace.

So for both you and I, here are ten fall-back-on truths to anchor us this autumn season.

Links mentioned:

1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.
2. Read the written version of this episode HERE.