The First Sunday of Advent ~ Hope

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Today is the first Sunday of Advent, the start of a season of preparation for Christmas!

This Advent series is in memory of my dear blog friend Susan who gave us Advent inspiration each year. You can read her old Advent blog posts here.

Today we are virtually lighting the candle of Hope:

I have the devotional journal and scripture reading schedule ready for you to download below.

They are available in our new freebies corner of the web. You will need to make an account, but you only have to do that once. After that, you just need to log in to have access to the area and everything that is in it.

What is Hope?

I asked my good friend Chat GPT what hope was, and she came up with this:

Hope is a powerful and uplifting emotion that reflects a sense of expectation and desire for a positive outcome. It can also signify a belief that something good will happen, even in challenging circumstances. Hope gives people the strength to endure difficulties, look forward to the future, and strive for goals or solutions.

No, I don’t talk to Chat very often, although I have friends that do. But I do like to check in sometimes to see how artificial intelligence is coming along.

I think in this case Chat did a pretty good job.

Alice and I use the word “hope” a lot. It is dotted in our frequent conversations.. mostly relating to hoping we will get into the sewing room soon… or hoping that our homes magically stay tidy overnight…. One day we’re planning on doing a “hope block of the month”!

Hope isn’t just a wishful word… it brings with it action. It can help us take steps to make the hopes we have a reality, even if it seems impossible.

In practical terms, our “hope” is that this Christmas will be a lovely, stress-free day… but that doesn’t just happen without some action.

So throughout this series, I’ll also be giving you some worksheets to help you get organized! Let’s make our practical hopes for Christmas come true!

Preparations to do This Week

This week we’re starting with some menu planning… it’s never too early to start planning what we will bake and cook! Also if you still send Christmas cards, now is probably the time to get them done….

And budget… we need to look at that to make sure we stay on track this season!

And last but not least, I’m getting the Christmas decorations up finally!!! You may already have yours up, but otherwise please join me in making our homes look festive!

We will also be starting a special Home Matters Christmas Decor linkup where you can share your photos with us!!!

Other than that you may need some downtime if you’ve just celebrated Thanksgiving! Enjoy the leftovers and rest!

I’ve made some pretty printables for tracking all of the above, so click on the button below to grab them for free:

For those who have joined our brand new membership, I have a big collection of checklists for the holiday season in the portal. They are pretty comprehensive, so go and check them out!

And that is it for today….

Over the next week let’s think about the word “hope” and how it applies to our lives, situations, and beliefs. And of course Christmas…..

Tomorrow we will start stitching a candle for hope….