Happy New Year my friends. New year resolutions are all around us, but I disagree that a new year should equal a new you, no matter what messages you are seeing on social media or in your email because you are fearfully and wonderfully made. Jesus already made you new when you received Him as your Savior.

While God is big into offering fresh starts, in fact, Lamentations 3:22 reminds us that His mercies are new every day, His gift of turning to a new calendar year doesn’t need to be met with the harsh criticisms and standards we inflict upon ourselves. Whether it’s losing weight, starting an overambitious Bible reading plan, 10 habits we are going to drop or pickup- all of that is too much to handle. Instead of seeing a positive change in our lives, our “resolutions” usually end up as a weight of shame around our necks come February.

On today’s episode we are going to take stock of 2025, rejoice in the things we accomplished, and start the year on a high note. We don’t always give ourselves enough credit, looking only at the things we didn’t accomplish or didn’t do up to our high standards and then comes the new year where we stack even more expectations upon ourselves.

What if, instead of putting more weight and pressure on ourselves to fix each of our flaws and the world at the same time, we set “new intentions” for the new year?

I was listening to the song “Christmas This Year,” by Tobi Mac. It’s a fun upbeat Christmas song that my boys and I like. In the song, the lyrics say, “It’s all love. The season is a gift when love came down to let us live. Let’s open up and let our hearts embrace this moment. For Christmas this year.”

On today’s episode, we’re going to talk about waiting and when Jesus came down to let us live. We are currently in the Advent season. Advent simply means arrival. In different church traditions, advent is usually celebrated on the 4 Sundays leading up to Christmas by lighting another candle each Sunday. When all four are lit on the 4th Sunday that means the celebration of Jesus’ arrival is imminent.

Disclaimer: I will be talking about Santa’s existence in this podcast, just a heads up if you have little ears listening.

Last week we talked about reconnecting with peace, our Savior’s peace. Were you able to feel some peace? When peace is interrupted for me and my boys, we tend to go to thankfulness or breath prayers.

On today’s episode, we are going to keep with our call to peace in this busy season and also remind ourselves that we should not look like the world. This episode is titled "Grow in Grace," because 2 Peter 3: 17-18 says, “You, therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.

Peter reminds us to take care that we are not carried away with the error of lawless people or that we don’t lose our stability. Unfortunately, I feel like even as Christians this can describe our Christmas season, myself included.

Shepherd on the Search

LEGO Star Wars Advent

LEGO City Advent

Nativity Building Advent

Everyone talks about how busy this time of year is, but I want to take a different approach. On today’s episode, I want to talk about peace. And not just any old peace, but peace that belonged to our Savior, the peace He shared it with us.

In John 14, Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit being sent in His name after He is gone. Jesus says, the Holy Spirit will teach believers all things and bring to our remembrance all that he has said to us. He follows this by saying, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”

On this week’s episode we’re going to talk about Thankfulness. It’s very timely as the American Thanksgiving is only 10 days away. Shopping lists are being made, an abundance of food is being purchased, and hopefully families are eager to get together.

I’m grateful for the reminder that Thanksgiving brings each year. It’s a reminder to be grateful, to say what you're thankful for around the family dinner table, but I have started to notice that even Thanksgiving is getting swallowed up in the commercialism of Christmas.

On today’s episode, I’m going to read from new book The Deliverance so that you can hear what Sarah is up to now. The Deliverance Book was released on Nov 7th, 2025, you can grab your copy on my website mindyhite.com or on Amazon!

On today’s episode, we are going to continue talking about barriers between us and God. We will continue with lies and wrong beliefs and then move on to sin and unforgiveness.

Remember when Jesus was being tempted for 40 days in the desert? Satan was there and misquoting scripture to him. Jesus answered back with actual scripture and the enemy was shut down. We need to do the same with the lies that we hear. We need to know scripture so that halve truths can’t slip past us.

We recently talked about going deeper with God and who He is to us, but we can often find that there are issues or barriers standing in the way of our communion and relationship with God. On today’s episode, we’re going to talk about the barriers we put up.

We can put up barriers either consciously or subconsciously. This is to protect ourselves from future hurts.

If it’s conscious we may have said something like this, “No one is safe, I’m the only one who can protect myself.” Someone in your life wasn’t safe and so you either thought or said a statement like this.