MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! We here at Anchored Voices hope that this season is filled with joy, even if you are facing deep sorrow, because we know both can exist within one person simultaneously. Our circumstances may be hard, but our souls can be at rest in the truth that our SAVIOR was born! We hope this…
Tag: Christmas
Wisdom’s Doorway
Author: Kimberley Mulder Garland, on a fantastic sale, roped me in. Soon I was deep in the scrolling, pictures of fake evergreen to festoon my doorway flitting before me. Fantasies of sparkling greenery shimmering in new-fallen snow glimmered in my imagination. Until I realized how much time had passed and that I had purposed to…
The Christmas Baby
This Christmas season of tinsel, trees, and treats brings only joy—for some. For others, it feels like a cruel reminder of life’s disappointments or awakens emotions about absent family members. For both, Christmas might be a time when the magic of the manger gets lost in the pressing realities of life. This year for me,…
When Peace on Earth Seems Impossible
I love reading by Christmas tree light. In the faint warmth of its incandescent illumination I feel hope. The gentle radiance enfolds me into a brief retreat during the bustle of the holiday season. The calm soothes in the midst of the distresses of our broken world, and collides with the disquiet hiding in the…
On the Twelfth Day of Christmas (My Single Mother Gave to Me)
When pine trees and baking supplies started making their way into my home as a young child, I, accompanied by my stealth-like snooping skills, made my way to my mother’s best kept hiding places. I was a peeker. A present-peeker to be precise, and Christmas mornings were filled with anticipation not because of the surprise…
Christmas Moments Amongst the Mundane
Last year, when Christmas tunes began to ring out from the radio, our mostly quiet family of three became a raucous party of seven. My husband and I have one teenage daughter and, while we weren’t on the list for emergency foster care, four siblings (ranging in ages from 7-15) were delivered to our home…
Ready or Not
Author: Chara Donahue I was in labor. All day I had paced my new apartment as dear friends helped me unpack boxes and deck the walls with pictures and trinkets. They inquired about where to put things as I kept track of the protracted pains separated by mere minutes. We had just moved to accommodate…
Hope for the Nativity Set
Author: Holly Hawes Shiny lights and glittery things are spilling out of windows around the world as we prepare for Christmas. Even the stingiest of Christmas decor purists have begun to decorate. Others, like me, are turning up the Christmas music with a triumphant cheer because NO ONE can tell us any longer that it…
When Holiday Expectations Go Unfulfilled
Author: Sarah Dohman I was born the day after Christmas. In fact, I was born at 2-something in the wee hours of the morning. Had I come any sooner, I would have been a Christmas baby. Every year growing up, and well into my 20s, my family would sort of roll the celebrations into one…
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