The Seasons Collection Show with Ruth Chou Simons, Ann Voskamp, TaRanda Greene, and Grace Anne Baker

Welcome to the season's collection show with Anne Boscamp, Ruth Cho, Simons, Tanda Green, and our host Grace and Baker speaking from their unique perspectives in life. They offer us insight into the significant spiritual roles Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter play in our lives. Sharing personal thoughts, holiday memories, and referencing the contents found in Dr.

Jeremiah's the seasons collection. These women of faith challenge us to put Jesus at the center of our celebrations and begin meaningful traditions to pass down to our children and grandchildren. And now let's celebrate the season of gratitude, the season of joy, and the season of hope. Hello and thank you for joining us for this very special season show.

I'm joined by three incredible women, all women of faith, each reaching the world through their own giftedness, whether it be through speaking, teaching, writing, or singing about the God that they serve. Please help me welcome Ruth Toe Simons and Boss Camp and Tanda Green. Ladies, thank you so much for joining me in the studio today for a conversation I know that we're all so excited to have.

But let's start with acknowledging that we all have some commonalities. our faith in Jesus Christ, our passion to share the gospel, our families, and of course, celebrating the seasons. Today, we're going to discuss three seasonal celebrations where we can infuse intentionality and meaning beyond the decorations and the glorious food that comes with holidays.

But we will explore how to infuse spiritual significance into our celebrations, both personally and for our families. And I'd like to start with a season of gratitude, Thanksgiving. So, what is Thanksgiving like at your house? I love Thanksgiving. When we think about those three holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, when we start off with gratitude, that frames up the other holidays.

We always have a Thanksgiving tree, but it's usually just twigs that I put into a pot and we go ahead and we write on leaves what we're grateful for and just keep putting it on the tree. So, when we get to Thanksgiving, we've got this little tree that we can go ahead and say, "Oh, these are all of the things that we're grateful for."

And I think we want to move from Thanksgiving just being a holiday to can it be a lifestyle, the habit that we live day in and day out. So it's a great kickstart for our family to have this annual return to Thanksgiving. Can I move it from a holiday to all of my days >> and then it sets the tone for the rest of the season as opposed to like when I start with Thanksgiving when I move to to Christmas, can I start that with a grateful heart as opposed to like a me me heart? >> What do you guys like to serve during Thanksgiving? >> We always do turkey and ham.

Mhm. >> Landon's family says ham is for Christmas. >> So, we still try to meet with both families. Wednesday night, I cook a full traditional >> um Thanksgiving meal. It's literally the only time of the year I cook. So, it's uh no one ever complains. So, I got that going for me. >> I can testify that I do know how to make a full Thanksgiving meal.

The boys have their favorites and stuff, but I have I'm telling you, >> you know. >> What about you, Ann? Yes, we are turkey people and mashed potatoes and always always always pumpkin pie with whipped cream and maple syrup drizzled over it. We don't have to be great in the kitchen to really embrace holidays.

Like it's not about how good you are over top of the stove, but can we let Jesus kind of stoke our hearts, light our hearts on fire for him? Because I think sometimes we feel like, oh, if I'm not really great cooking, I can't really go ahead and step into the holidays.

And really it's about can I just keep my heart close to Jesus' heart and open up my front door and welcome everybody in to encounter the presence of Jesus. >> Now Ann, we tend to only celebrate God's goodness and blessings during Thanksgiving. Is that a mistake? >> Thanksgiving is like an entry door >> to encounter the presence of God.

Like it's the message Psalm 100. It says answer with a password thank you. Like really to enter into the presence of God. We we come with a posture of gratitude. So, can we see Thanksgiving as kind of like this soul reset that, oh, we will begin this as a holiday, but now can we model this?

Could it can I keep the gratitude journal going? Can we keep this posture of sitting down at the table and saying, "So, what was a hard thing today? And what was something you're really grateful for today?" And let the holidays not be this pressure to perform, but can we see it as is the holiday formative?

Is it spiritually formative such that we become more like Jesus through the holiday? I find it really interesting that, you know, we always think of the what we always have to battle and during the holidays is >> anxiety and stress and for some of us it stirs up sadness and loss.

It reminds us of what we've lost and how we wish it were different. But the holidays, despite all the fun that we talk about, it's just a hard time sometimes. And I think about the Apostle Paul says, "Be anxious for nothing, >> but by prayer and thanksgiving, right?

Thanksgiving and prayer combined >> are what he tells us to do to combat anxious thoughts." And I think about how >> Thanksgiving is actually the kickoff for us realizing this is a season where we can't manufacture >> happy, warm feelings. We can't just be like, I'm going to go to Target and buy that real good attitude.

You know, that's not going to happen. >> Sometimes I wish we could, >> right? I mean, just like Anna is saying, I think instead of going only in this season alone will I by prayer and thanksgiving, you know, kind of offer my cares and concerns back to the Lord.

It's a reset to remember. That's what's available for me all the time, the nearness of God, be able to enter right in with Thanksgiving. And I think, you know, around the holidays, we come with all kinds of expectations of what it should look like, what the meals should look like, how everyone should look and behave. >> But if we can bring aside and say, "Oh, no.

I'm I'm going to approach this with a heart of thanksgiving. Then regardless of something burns, if if there's a little bit of a kurfuffle somewhere in the house between in a relationship, if I come with a heart of gratitude, that changes the temperature in the house, regardless of how the holiday is actually unfolding. >> And that's so important to have that perspective with children as well.

I have four kids. You guys have more than me and way more boys. I don't know what I would do with all the boys, but it's so important if we can teach our kids at an early age to approach daily um with a heart of gratitude, it just changes their entire life as well.

That's difficult to do because they're learning how to grow and they're learning how to re respond. And um one thing I noticed my 17-year-old Josie, she's such a hippie child and I love that about her. She's such a free spirit. She's so influenced by everything around her and coming through social media and other things still um is the one who resets our table and says, "Okay, we haven't seen each other.

What's happened in your life that you're grateful for?" And it really helps all of us um refocus on that throughout the year. It's crazy the little things you you can do with your kids as they're growing up if they latch on to. Right. I love that. Well, Terren, you've known great joy in your family and also loss.

How have you cultivated gratitude throughout so much adversity? My husband passed away in 2010 after I donated a kidney to him. He developed a lung disease his body couldn't fight and my kids at that point were 6 years old and two years old. I became very angry because I felt like I had given up a part of me that didn't work right and should have worked because everyone said it was going to work.

And um so I went through a lot of anger with God just why did we go through this if he was just going to pass a year later? That didn't make sense to me. and had so many questions. And through that process of grief and anger and trying to figure out how to be a single mom again and make a living for my kids and wake up and my best friend's not there beside me and I was 30 years old, which I'm just 25 now.

I don't know how God does that, but I'm so thankful for God's math. It's the best math. Um, I think that particular time in my life is when I became most grateful even in my anger. I could look and see my kids were healthy. And I think the traumatic loss of my husband and it made me so much more thankful for health, good health.

It made me so much more thankful for even taking a good breath. And what I learned from that is when something unexpected happens in your life, you can look around at the things even if you can't feel it yet, your heart will lie to you. Your emotions will trick you.

But if you can look around and even though you're not feeling that gratitude, >> if you can see the sunshine, if you can be grateful for the rain that's going to wash everything away and give you a fresh day tomorrow, if you can remember the grace and the mercifulness of the Lord who is walking with you, by the way, he hasn't left you yet, right?

You just start building on that. You know, that's the main thing is be grateful for each breath and look around and see what you still have. I think sometimes we go ahead and we think that if I have something to be grateful for, then I'll give thanks >> and then I will be joyful. >> Boy, yeah. >> As opposed to we get the order wrong. >> Yeah. >> That if even in the midst of hard things, if I can find just one thing to be grateful for, when I am grateful, then I find out that I'm joyful after the gratitude, we are grateful.

So, we get to be joyful. If we can flip that order around and I will choose gratefulness so that I can experience joyfulness even when it's really really hard. >> And one thing that I'm grateful for are the commas in my life. Not everything is an exclamation point or a period, right?

The commas are so important. I remember my mom, she would say, "Oh, I know this hurts. We're going to take care of it. It's going to be better in no time. But remember, you've got that other knee and it's just fine." My mom found the good and everything.

And those commas, those butts, those howevers >> will lead you to a place of perspective. If you can find a comma and say, "This day is not going well. There's nothing I'm going to be thankful for, but >> God, the sunshine, whatever, whatever it is for you, whatever it is that you find that you love."

I think that's why the Apostle Paul says to speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs because the content of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs is praise. There's so much that happens when we speak gratitude >> audibly. My grandfather, Dr. Jeremiah, has written an inspiring gift book entitled Season of Gratitude, a celebration of thanksgiving.

This is the first book in the season's collection. And in these pages, he provides scripture, a daily devotional, a countdown to thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving University lessons centered around gratitude and your Thanksgiving experience. Ladies, you all have a copy of The Season of Gratitude in front of you, A Celebration of Thanksgiving.

What caught your attention about the book, and how would you suggest women use a resource like this one? This is brilliant and really, really moving when you when you open it up. I mean, not only is it just a beautiful book, but I love this idea of like, thank you.

Like, thankful University. Thank you. It was so clever. I just I really loved it. Receiving your degree from Thanksgiving University. I I love the idea that >> you're going to have to keep practicing and learning gratitude, which is exactly what Paul tells us that I have learned the secret.

You have to practice it over and over again. So, I thought Dr. Jeremiah really ushered us into how am I going to not just make this a one-day event, but how am I going to learn this and practice this? I wanted a a sweatshirt that said thank you on it.

And I I want to graduate from that university. It was really, really powerful. >> This stood out to me. It says thanksgivers attract praise. Thanksgivers deflect praise. And I just circled that and I was like, okay. So, I think it's just a good self assessment to kind of even question your own heart to do a little check like do I deflect praise or I'm always trying to get it like am I am I seeking and trying to go like oh I I need more because really when we're praising and we're really giving thanks you stop thinking about yourself so much the self forgetfulness is an incredible byproduct of gratitude the more you're grateful and if you think about it the more you have awe thought of God more than the more you're thinking about his attributes and you're grateful for it can you can't really entertain thoughts about self constantly while you're thinking about the greatness of God.

I agree and to your point uh one of the things I circled was ingratitude stops us from living the life we were meant to live but gratitude is good for the soul and like to your point anytime you can be grateful for something it can turn your day like this >> and I love like you said the devotions for each day are so sweet and and it's short so if you're like me and your brain skips to other places squirrels everywhere um this was amazing.

I could really get something from it to help encourage me in my day and I loved that. >> Yeah, >> it's a season of gratitude. Put that out in a coffee table and you're preparing your heart all season to give thanks. So, it's not just I'm just decorating the house.

I'm actually preparing my heart. It was very powerful. >> Here's more about the season of gratitude, a celebration of thanksgiving. >> Prepare your heart for the Thanksgiving season with season of gratitude by Dr. David Jeremiah. Grow in gratitude with inspirational devotionals, readings, and scripture that will help you focus on God's blessings to you.

Request yours for a gift of any amount. Plus, get a fourack of season of gratitude or the complete seasons collection boxed set when you call or go online today. And we're back with our lovely guests, Annne Boss Camp, Retro Simons, and Teranda Green. And as you can see, our set has transformed into Christmas.

Ladies, can we all agree that Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year? >> So amazing. >> What makes it so special to me is family. So, we're all spread out around the country now. I'm one of six kids, and so Christmas is one of the only times of the year that we all get to be together.

And it's just so special because it doesn't happen as often anymore. >> Now ladies, is there a Christmas memory from years past that is exceptionally special to you? So co was such a gift to our family um because we were home. We I couldn't travel as much. We loved having that time at home.

We had so many desserts. It was crazy. But also something that I always wanted to do with my kids is start at the beginning of December. You know where you read through Luke, you read a chapter a day. And we did that that year and it was so special to get their perspectives on the Christmas story and just have a great time with my kids.

It was a gift. >> I love that. Ironically, one year, a couple years ago, um we decided to take a trip for Christmas and just said, "We're not going to do presents this year." And we had a friend who at the time lived in Maui and he and his family invited us to come stay with them.

So, it was just such a gift. But that was a Christmas that didn't feel like all the things that you expect to, you know, give you warm fuzzies when instead we were in the sunshine and and we didn't have presents to open, but we had the gift of each other.

And I think what the next year when we were back home and set up the Christmas tree and did all that, we were like, we still want to preserve what we learned in Maui where it was about one another and not so much about all the traditions even because that year we didn't have any of those things. >> Now Ann, you have seven children at home. >> How do you make Christmas uniquely special for each one?

Is that even possible? >> Yeah. uh when our oldest was 5 years old, he said, "Mom, I'm really confused. If if Christmas is Jesus' birthday, why why do I get all the gifts?" >> So, we um we were deeply convicted and really thought through, well, when we give to the least of these, we're giving to Jesus.

So we started this family practice for like the two weeks before Christmas. We would open up the gift cataloges like the compassion gift catalog and world fishing and partners international and food for the hungry and let each of the children either work together or we give them a budget every day.

Where do you want to give a gift? And for so the two weeks before Christmas each of the children would pick out one thing they wanted to go ahead and give back to the least of these. And I think that was part of really grounding the children in the story.

The real story of Christmas is how are we giving back to the one Jesus who came to give us everything. >> So good. >> So we during December we can feel like we're getting pulled in a million different directions. How do you personally stay focused on the Savior? >> You know, I get overwhelmed really easily.

I think some of us are recovering strivvers, recovering perfectionists, those who might go off the rails if things aren't just so. And I have to confess that that's my natural bent. It is a chaotic time. It's a time where all my kids have different kinds of school events or different things that I need to participate in.

I'm usually speaking somewhere. I'm usually serving at some church somewhere my own church locally. One little rhythm every day will make a big difference. And so for me, it's the reminder that Emanuel, God with us, is meant for us to dwell with him forever, all year round, all the time.

And so a lot of times it's me saying, "Okay, fam. We are obviously a little chaotic or a little stressed." And sometimes some of us are running around putting the wrong things first. And so we reset and remember the greatest gift is that God has invited us to dwell with him. and that little reminder every day, even if that's getting together and say, "Let's remember once again it's God with us."

And so, so it's just the little things. >> Thank you so much for sharing, Ruth. I want to take a moment to introduce you to the second book in Dr. Jeremiah's season collection, Season of Joy, a celebration of Christmas. So, how can the season of joy help wives, moms, or even singles do just that? >> There are so many things that as women we experience emotionally during that season.

I start my day with worship every day just to get my day started in the right mind frame. Right? So if I can carry that through Christmas, even if it's not my favorite Christmas carol, if it's the worship songs I listen to every day, that starts that rhythm of my day, just like any other day of the year, and keeps me from getting overwhelmed sometimes in the things that that are thrown at you throughout the day. >> Oh, good.

I think it would be really powerful to start the day off with your soundtrack of of Christmas carols throughout the day and let those let those play when you're when you're doing the laundry and you're doing the dishes and and you're working in the kitchen and then I just was found this really beautiful. >> So many devotionals on those Christmas carols that you could sit down then so good sit down and then read the history and the background around those Christmas carols.

So it's a let the Christmas carols play throughout the day and then just leave this out on the coffee table and ground your day at the end of the day with oh look at the history and the story and you do that day in and day out throughout the I mean that's again it's just one small little thing it just a little adjustment can bring such deeper meaning to the whole season. >> You know I think what's so beautiful about Dr.

Jeremiah's book here is that there are a lot of answers to questions that we sometimes take for granted. I don't know about you, but did you know what gold frankincense myrr represent? Like I kind of assume I know those things. But then I read it and I was like, "Oh, precious metal symbolizing kingship.

Frankincense was used in temple worship to anoint priests and as a praise offering. Myrrh was to embalm dead bodies. And myrrh was valuable but significant because it was given to Jesus who came to die for us." I think it's amazing how sometimes we just go into the season assuming it's all going to just come come together.

But what if we prepared our hearts? What if we made room and then informed our souls what is true and start dwelling on that instead? This helps us do that. >> Yeah. >> It's no accident that that lyric is attached to the song Joy to the World. Let every heart prepare him room. >> Yes.

So good. Yeah. >> It's not an accident. That's how we find joy. And I think sometimes we think, "Oh, I don't have enough time." Like everything is so tight in the calendar. If you can make the non-negotiable, I'm just going to turn off the lights at a certain time.

When I turn off the lights, I don't see all the dust and all the things I need to be doing. Turn off the lights. Light a candle. >> Turn on candle. >> Pick up this book for five minutes and it totally shifts the whole season. >> Yeah. What ways can we use the season of joy in our circle of friends or even in our church community? >> I just thought it made a perfect opportunity for like a hymn sing like to go ahead and sing the carols.

So many of these devotions had insights around the Christmas carols that I had no idea about at all. So I just thought the practice or even as a family going ahead singing the Christmas carol and then go okay let's read this devotional together really meaningful. Did you notice in reading the stories behind so many of these carols, they came from tragedy and such hurt and deep anguish, but celebrating the most wonderful season of all, right? >> Christmas, I don't know about you, it can stir for me all kinds of loss and grief.

I'm missing people that are no longer with us anymore. All kinds of nostalgia, and there's bittersweetness to that. And to see that people in all kinds of tragedy could still sing those Christmas carols, it gave deeper meaning to those Christmas carols. Christmas brings a hope and with every carol and every scripture and every tradition and even the non-traditions you can hold on to that hope.

So if you prepare your heart for it then you just hold on to the hope through the season right and um it makes everything so much more special. >> I personally hope that somebody will take the answers to questions about Christmas and just do one every Sunday with the children.

I think not assuming that everybody knows the answer to these things, right? Why was Mary chosen? >> Why are there Old Testament prophecies about Jesus? These are really good questions. >> Opens up conversations. I think that's a wonderful thing to do with your ladies group or like you said your children. >> It's a great book to tuck into the gift baskets that you're giving to the neighbors.

Like seriously. >> Thank you ladies so much for sharing how you would use the season of joy. Here's more about the season of joy, a celebration of Christmas. Prepare your heart and soul for Christmas with Season of Joy, a celebration of Christmas by Dr. David Jeremiah. This treasury of Advent readings and Christmas scripture is sure to become a cherished volume you'll come back to year after year.

Season of Joy is yours for a gift of any amount in support of Turning Point. Or for a gift of $100 or more, order a fourack of books to give to others. Order yours from Turning Point today. Ladies, look around us. Spring has sprung. And after the long winters comes the beautiful season of spring and of course Easter.

Ruth, Easter can get overshadowed by the eggs and the baskets and the candy. How do we move past all of the fun and focus on the Savior? We are dead and lost without him. We must have the resurrection to have any presence with God. like we really have no hope unless he's risen.

And so I think it's almost like unless you meditate deeply on why you need Jesus, you won't really know the hope. But how can sharing the hope of Christ and the resurrection with family and friends help us walk alongside them in difficult seasons? >> I mean, that's what we have, right? >> Yeah. >> Um what we have in Easter is hope.

You know, when I looked at my kids, when my husband passed and I looked at my kids and I said, "Dad's not coming home ever again." And as that came out of my mouth, I'm like, "That's so odd. That is such a weird thing to say." And it it's so difficult to be in that situation.

And unless you have someone close to you who's passed, maybe this doesn't make sense. But I just kept thinking, "This is so final. I can't text him. >> I can't call him. I can't email him. like it's not going to happen again, >> but my hope is in Jesus. >> And the first Easter after my husband passed, I think that was the most heartwarming just re reality in my face Easter because I just kept thinking how he wasn't here and how much he loved holiday all of the holidays.

But we have hope because of the cross, because of the resurrection. I have hope that not only will I be in the literal presence of Jesus one day, but I'll get to see my husband again because he believed on Jesus. >> And we don't know how the story ends like in our own lives and we we think we understand and we want to fix everything.

But you know, on Good Friday, do you all see sometimes on um social media Good Friday, somebody will post, "But Sunday's coming." And I think about how so often we forget that Easter can be an opportunity for all those who are hurting around us to remind them again and again that just because it feels like all is lost, God has a plan and that Sunday is still coming.

That God actually will finish the story, he will finish what he started. And I think that's all of us. I mean not we, you know, expect something new to happen in 3 days, you know, but that in our lives, what feels like the end is actually so often the beginning of what he is writing in our lives, you know. >> So true.

I'm definitely a living testimony to that. And because of the resurrection, I can look forward from there. And um your story is unwritten, unfinished. If you can believe on the power of Christ and you can accept that for yourself in your everyday walk and you can be grateful and you can be thankful and you can hold on to hope just one day longer, then we're in a new day. >> Amen. >> Cuz every day his mercies are new and Easter is just the most incredible holiday of all.

It's hard to wrap your mind around that man dying and then coming back to life. You baby being born. Yes, everyone can can see that. And um unless you truly accept that, I mean, that's the miracle of salvation. But the hope you hold on to in Easter is going to lead us home, y'all.

And I'm looking forward to that, too. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you so much for sharing that. >> The last book in the seasons collection is a book about a season of hope, a celebration of Easter. Why are reading plans like this so beneficial in preparing our hearts for these sacred holidays?

We need an intentional reminder every day to fix our eyes on Jesus. Like I don't naturally wake up every day thinking the right thoughts or remembering truth. I need help every day to turn my eyes to Jesus. >> I just think it's so powerful. Even when you look at the table of contents, you're going to go on a 25day journey of hope.

I mean, we have Advent, the 25 days bringing me up to Christmas. Do we have this journey that's moving us towards Easter? And it's just so powerful. a promise of Easter, the people of Easter, the places of Easter, and preparing for Easter. I want to go on a journey, pick up my cross, and walk with Jesus towards Calvary and really start to experience that what looks like wreckage in the midst of my life can experience resurrection hope. >> And in true Dr.

Jeremiah fashion, um there's so much teaching in here. I was reading on day seven, the betrayer, right? He writes this thing about Judas. As I was reading this, what uh reminded me of a sermon my pastor back home preached. It was a Wednesday night and he was preaching about how Jesus loved Judas so well that they were having a meal the night before he was betrayed and he said, "One of you will betray me."

And they couldn't even guess which one it was. And they kept saying, "Is it me? Am I the one?" Even Judas was like, "Me?" like and he loved Judah so well >> as much as he loved his friends, right? >> And so there's so much teaching in here on how to love through Easter to people maybe who you aren't on the same side of the aisle or the belief system or whatever, but how to love even people that you may consider opposite of you well enough that if they sat at your table, >> all they would see is your love.

And I've really appreciated day seven for that. >> Dr. Jeremiah writes, "On the end of every single one, something super practical." I'm looking at day 18 and it says, "In the concordance of your Bible, look up the word love. Then read several of I mean, there's like directions, instructions."

And we're starting to live in some pretty scary times. I'm sure it's really hard to watch children, especially as moms, live in a world that's so full of darkness and despair and hatred. How can we instill the hope of the resurrection into our children or maybe even our grandchildren? >> We are in dark times and there are lots of unknowns and we're living into question marks.

It's easy to lose our hope and start to despair. And I have actually a little print that said, "Where is your hope?" Because it's like, "Where did I put my keys? Where did where did I put my keys? What?" You put your hope in something. We're all putting our hope in something.

And it's this daily practice of, oh, I'm going to take my hope, not lose it like I lose my keys. I'm going to take my hope and I'm going to place it into Jesus. What does that look like throughout my day to place my hope in Jesus, the one who crushes death and rises from the grave.

What does that look like? That might look like writing down a verse and going at it and saturating and memorizing that verse. That might actually look like if my hope is in Jesus, I'm not actually stressed about whatever the headlines are. Because when my kids, my community see me stressed, I'm advertising the what I believe is the unreliability of God. >> So am I, if I'm a person of hope and I've placed and I've intentionally put my hope in Jesus, I'm not stressed out about these things.

And when I am, I'm going to preach gospel truth back to my soul. Just as a mama, I find that more is caught than taught, right? And so they are watching all the time. And even if you have adult children, they're still watching. Children, right? >> You're watching because as parents, we're putting on display where we place our hope, right?

We're putting that on display. But what if we choose to say, >> "Hey, I know a God who will make everything right in the end. He will absolutely finish what he starts. That there will be no tears in heaven. That there will be no pain. that he will write every wrong, but and he still holds everything.

He holds all things together. Colossians 1:17. You can recall those things and put that on display and say, "No matter what makes me scared today as your mama or what makes you scared, let's both remember that nothing can happen outside the will of God and the sovereignty of God."

Right? >> Here's more about the season of hope, a celebration of Easter. Prepare your heart for the celebration of Easter with Season of Hope by Dr. David Jeremiah. This treasury of inspirational Easter devotionals, readings, and scripture will take you on a 25-day journey to Easter Sunday and is sure to become a cherished volume you will come back to year after year.

Yours for a gift of any amount or for a gift of $100 or more. Order a fourack to share with others. Order Season of Hope from Turning Point today. And we are back in the studio with Danda Green, Ruth Toe Simons, and Anne Boss Camp. And joining me as we wrap up our wonderful conversation about celebrating seasons is my mother, Cammy Jeremiah.

Mom, first of all, I just want to take a second and say thank you for creating such fun and memorable and lasting holidays with me and all of my siblings. I know it can be crazy at times, but you always do such a good job at creating those intentional moments.

Why was that so important for you as we were growing up? >> Sweet. Thank you. Well, I think I never really grew up. I'm a big kid. I'm just a big kid. And um the way I grew up in my household was very different than what you did.

Um my siblings were 10 and 12 years older than me. And so I was kind of by myself and my mother ran a very tight ship and you did not make a mess. So when I had my own children, I thought, what would I have wanted to do when I was a little girl?

And let me tell you, we did all of it. >> We did all of it. >> I had the absolute time of my life raising my children and we had fun. I get got to be the kid maybe I really never got to be just because I would think, okay, what's the biggest mess and the most fun that we could have?

And people would stop me all the time and say, "What in the world is going on at your house? Our kids were there." And you let them do what? And I really did because I think I had more fun raising you than maybe sometimes you guys had. >> I enjoyed every single moment of being your mother.

No, >> I really did. >> So, our family is continuing to grow. Um, what's the best thing that we can remember as Caleb and I start to begin our own family traditions in our home? Just be intentional with what you do and remember to put Jesus first. You know, at Christmas time, you get so wrapped up with the presents and the trees and all of the things, the materialism, and you know, what am I going to give this person or that person?

And I don't think you probably ever remembered what you got for Christmas, >> but you probably remembered the crazy shenanigans of what we did. And, you know, I didn't always do a great job at balancing everything. You know, I wasn't a perfect mother by any chance, but you know, you just try to do it all and you can't do it all.

You start off on all these traditions and then the kids don't let you forget. >> So remember, whatever you start, no matter how crazy it is, if you put a Christmas tree in every single room, they remember that. >> We do. >> Thank you so much for joining me up here.

Thank you for having me. Thank you guys so much. >> Because we feel celebrating sacred seasons is essential in every home, we've created the seasons collection, a box set of all three of Dr. Jeremiah's gift books. a season of gratitude, a season of joy, and a season of hope.

This is an excellent way to bring spiritual inspiration and prepare your heart for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. The use of this beautiful box set will infuse spiritual insight into your holidays and become a treasured heirloom for generations to come. Ladies, I have so enjoyed our time together. But before we say goodbye, I would love if each of you would just give us a challenge to be better at creating meaningful memories and be more intentional about preparing our hearts for these sacred seasons.

If you have children in your home or children that you haven't spoken to in a long time or maybe someone that you've had a disagreement with or you know at your core you don't agree with them. I would encourage you to go home and reach out. One thing we're not promised is time.

One thing we're not promised is health. But what we do have right now is each other. And the most important thing we can do is love on each other. Reach out to the people who mean something to us and try to be an example for the ones coming up behind because I can look at your faces in this room and see that the generation coming up.

They could really hear from you and learn so much from you. And um so I would just en and challenge you, encourage you through all of the seasons. And even when the seasons are up and we just have a regular Wednesday, invite someone to your house or meet for coffee.

Have a conversation. Keep it open. Keep the communication going and just try to encourage someone today. Even if you're not feeling encouraged yourself, try to do something nice for someone else and show them that they are loved. >> Wow. >> Beautiful. Well, I would say no matter what season you're in, the reality is we go the direction of our gaze.

We are being formed by what we are most captured by. And I think about how we are um day by day allowing a lot of things into our eyes and our hearts and we're consuming much and it really affects how we enter into these seasons, right? We spent a lot of time talking about seasons of celebration and yet it's the everyday ordinary moments that are shaping us as we go to celebrate those things as we go to make things intentional and special.

You can't just wake up one day and be a really intentional person. I think sometimes as women we can feel like we have to perform the holidays. >> We have to make the holidays and ultimately we want a Christmas we can hold. We want to encounter Jesus at Christmas that will actually carry us through.

Jesus that will carry us through. So I think my encouragement to each of you not to feel pressure, refuse the pressure and receive his presence for each of the holidays. in the pressure we can feel culturally to perform the holidays. Can we press pause on that and see the holidays as an invitation to be pressed closer to Jesus not just as commercialized holidays but holy days. >> Thank you so much Ruth.

Would you mind ending our time together in prayer? >> Love that. Father God, you are worthy. You are the reason for every season. You came to dwell among us and you came to win us back to yourself that we might make our home with you. Not just at Christmas, but all year round.

That God with us is the true reality of the resurrection. So Lord, as we prepare our hearts for every season, every celebration, prepare our hearts for the day when we see you face to face and we are forever every single moment in celebration of being in your presence in Jesus name.

Amen. >> Amen. Thank you, Ruth. Please help me thank my special guests, Tanda Green, Annne Boss Camp, Ruth Cho Simons, and Cammy Jeremiah. >> Need renewed gratitude, abundant joy, faithfilled hope? Put more meaning into your holiday celebrations with The Seasons Collection by Dr. David Jeremiah. A stunning collection of books to help you prepare your heart for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter this year and for countless years to come.

Season of gratitude, a celebration of Thanksgiving, immerses your heart in God's countless blessings, helping you to cultivate an attitude of thankfulness that transcends the holiday season. Season of joy, a celebration of Christmas, provides you and your loved ones profound ways to deepen your spiritual connection with Jesus and feel the true spirit of Christmas like never before. and Season of Hope, a celebration of Easter, ushers in a new tradition as you prepare for Resurrection Sunday, illuminating the path to hope and renewal in the days leading to Easter.

Each volume contains devotional readings, selected scripture, teaching, and wisdom from Dr. Jeremiah and more. All to help you prepare your heart for each holiday. These timeless treasures are destined to become beloved classics in your home or the home of those dear to you. Books to be cherished and revisited year after year.

The Seasons Collection by Dr. David Jeremiah. Request yours today.