Holiday Archives - Carmen Horne

Hey friends, welcome Ellen Chauvin to our porch. I wrote for her a few weeks ago, Learning to Listen. Hop over there to remind yourself of how Ellen and I met. Ellen has an amazing Christmas e-book that she is gifting to her subscribers and she wants to offer it to Y’all too.

Ellen is a joy to be with and a steady, calm voice to my heart when I need it. Enjoy the words she has written for you today.

You. Hey you! The one with the pumpkin spice candle burning. The one holding a pumpkin spice latte. You in your boots and all your fall colors, and a scarf tied around your neck! Yeah, you.
I have a reality check for you: there are only sixteen more days until DECEMBER! Yes! Only sixteen! You know what that means, don’t you?

Frasier Fir candles and air fresheners! Ummm, they smell so much better than pumpkin spice! Oh, yeah, there’s also this: Christmas pillows EVERYWHERE! Along with holly and pine garland and poinsettia!

Sadly, it also means rushing around. RUSH, RUSH, RUSH from church parties to company parties to family get-togethers. You shop until you drop for just the perfect gift, you bake until you can’t stand to see another dessert in the house. You run, run, run until you can’t go anymore.

I know. I’ve been there. It’s EXHAUSTING!

Matter of fact, I was there last year. I was so frazzled with the frenzied, frantic, fast and furious pace that I made a decision. I would spend a few minutes each morning, quietly reading the scriptures that told the story of Jesus’ birth. I took just a few passages each day and soaked in them. It calmed my heart.

I figured if I needed this slowing and calming, maybe you do too? That’s why I turned all my notes into a 21-day advent devotion called Abiding Joy. My prayer is that it will help YOU slow down and ponder the birth of Jesus.

It will take five minutes or less for each days reading. But DON’T! Don’t rush through it. Ponder what it was like to stand with the shepherds in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks at night. Imagine what a sight it must have been to see the multitude of heavenly hosts and hear them singing “Glory to God in the highest!”

“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Luke 2:13-14 (KJV)

Let your imagination smell the hay in the manger, and watch while Mary and Joseph gaze upon their newborn babe for the very first time! Put yourself in the story. Linger over it!
Ask yourself this: Do I need to slow down this Christmas season? Do I need to get back to the basics of the Christmas story?

If your answer is YES, I believe Abiding Joy will help you do just that. You can click here (Sign Up For Abiding Joy) to receive at no cost, my 21 day PDF devotion in your inbox on December 1. It’s my gift to you. Click here for a sample of Abiding Joy. Just a little bit of Christmas to prepare you for the complete e-book delivery after you sign up. I pray it blesses you tremendously!

Thank you! And (ahem!) may your home be filled with the fragrance of Frasier Fir this Christmas!

Ellen pens her stories from the Bayou Country of South Louisiana, but her heart and birthplace are in Mississippi. She’s a Southern Belle through and through. When not writing and digging into God’s Word, you can find Ellen digging in her flower beds, relaxing on the back porch, hanging out with her grandkids, or traveling with her husband John.

Ellen has loved writing since high school, but this passion lay dormant for many decades. When her mom passed away in 2011, Ellen felt the Lord urging her to write her stories, stories that help her see the story of His faithfulness He is writing in her life.

Ellen has a passion to see women grow in the yearning and thirst for God’s Word. She is passionate about scripture and shares the truths she finds there at Ellen Chauvin (dot) com. Ellen encourages her readers to soak in God’s Word and sprout seeds of faith.

She has contributed to Deeper Waters, Word Nerd Wednesday, The Laundry Moms, Sweet to the Soul, The Consilium and The Message, a study magazine published annually by the women’s department of WEGOM, a non-denominational evangelistic organization in Nigeria.

Follow Ellen on Facebook and Twitter

So, I’ve been in the middle of a whirlwind. My sweet little Momma was diagnosed with cancer just about a month ago and moved in with Jesus three weeks after her diagnosis. As you can imagine, this is a different kind of Mother’s Day for me.

As I type, I still feel a bit breathless from it all. We moved her in to our home and she was here only two weeks before she moved out to live with Jesus.

There are so many things to say. The right things to say. Like how we didn’t lose her, we know where she is. Like God has a perfect timing, His ways are higher, and we trust God’s perfect plan for her and all of us who love her. How we will see her again one day. That she left more memories than we can hardly recount because she lived life. She wasn’t a wall sitter. Mom lived and loved to the fullest. All that good, right, and encouraging stuff.

But friends, I miss my Momma. I type with a lump in my throat as I sit at my desk in “her room” in our home. Her slippers on the floor and her death certificate on the desk.

Momma did what mommas do best. She helped us navigate her last days much easier. She admitted herself to hospice, she made her funeral plans, and spent the rest of her time letting all of us know how much she loved us and how thankful she was for God’s grace and mercy. I kissed her forehead countless times and told her how much I loved her over and over.

She shared her gratitude for a wonderful life. How she had done everything she really ever wanted to do. Talk of heaven and how wonderful it would be was ever-present on her lips.

In her final days she shared how an angel was sleeping with her. She glowed when she talked about how much peace God brought her as her angel snuggled up with her. Y’all, God is so compassionate and kind. He loves us so. Although we could not see her Comforter, she felt Him. She knew He was there and that brought us all comfort.

Iris Marie “Cookie” Daniel Walter July 25, 1941 – May 2, 2018

What will I do about today? I will enjoy every moment with my daughter. I will probably cry a little and try to remember that my Momma is with her Momma for the first time in many years on Mother’s Day. I will live life to its fullest because that’s what she did. Maybe we will tell a funny memory of her, like the time she danced on the table at Joe’s Crab Shack in Destin, FL on her birthday. Or when she asked me “Am I going to have to do homework?” if she attended a study I was leading. When I said there was a workbook she said, “I never did like homework. I like it even less now. I’ll just stay home and read my Bible and you catch me up on what Beth {Moore} says about it.”

We don’t grieve without hope.

The Hope of the Resurrection
13 And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.

15 We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. 17 Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. 18 So encourage each other with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 NLT

I will see my sassy Momma again.

You can read a letter she wrote to her younger self almost three years ago HERE As I re-read it I am amazed at her own gift for writing. I edited it very little when it came to content. Only when she repeated herself. You do that in eight pages! And, to read her replies to the comments. Those are just pure gold to my heart.

Pondering the Birth of Jesus

When Mother’s Day Changes