Preparing your Heart and Home for Advent w/ Lanier Ivester

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What happens when the joy of Christmas becomes a burden rather than a blessing? Author Lanier Ivester joins us to reveal how learning to set priorities can transform your holiday season into a peaceful and purposeful celebration. Reflecting on her own journey from a fervent Christmas enthusiast to someone who practices mindfulness and balance, Lanier shares insights from her book, "Glad and Golden Hours," on cherishing moments that matter most and infusing your celebrations with God's presence and peace.

Lanier and I tackle the challenges of maintaining joyful experiences while dealing with the pressures of social media and hectic schedules. Together, we highlight the importance of creating a margin and stepping away from the digital noise to rejoice in the simple joys of Advent.

Through shared stories of sorrow and joy, we explore the intrinsic ties between these emotions in the Christian faith, echoing the message that our grief can indeed amplify our joy. Lanier opens up about how personal loss deepened her understanding of faith and inspired her writing journey.

Tune in to discover how we can all find peace, purpose, and intentionality in celebrating Christmas and Advent.

Lanier's Favorite's
Book: Glad and Golden Hours
Website: lanierivester.com
Book Website: gladandgolden.com
Go-To Bible: NIV
College Ruled Notebook
The Divine Hours Series
Favorite App/Website: Precept

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If you are a Christian woman seeking to know God deeper, study Scriptures, pray with and for others, strengthen your faith, and support other in doing the same, this is the place for you! 

Chapters

• 0:04 Balancing Rest and Joy in Christmas
• 7:15 Christmas Traditions and Advent Reflections
• 22:53 Embracing Sorrow and Joy in Christmas
• 37:54 Exploring Resources for Intentional Advent

Transcript

Ellen Krause: 0:04

At the Coffee and Bible Time podcast. Our goal is to help you delight in God's Word and thrive in Christian living. Each week we talk to subject matter experts who broaden your biblical understanding, encourage you in hard times and provide life-building tips to enhance your Christian walk. We are so glad you have joined us. Welcome back to the Coffee and Bible Time podcast. This is Ellen, your host.

Ellen Krause: 0:34

The holiday season can be overwhelming, with every moment packed full of parties, decorations and endless to-do lists, and in the rush we can lose sight of what we truly want to celebrate, which is God's presence with us and the peace that Advent brings. And we just crave a season that is both joyful and restful. But finding that balance can feel out of reach at times. Well, with us today, Lanier Ivester. Her approach to Advent and Christmas offers a beautiful alternative. In this episode, she invites us to craft a holiday that honors both the highs and lows, embracing moments of joy and acknowledging sorrows. Her book called Glad and Golden Hours provides gentle guidance on balancing the season's festivity with intentional rest. It shows us how to celebrate in a way that makes space for God's peace. Without this intentional approach, the season can often leave us feeling depleted, feeling as though we missed the meaning that we're searching for, and we may even feel empty, having our calendars filled but not our hearts. So let's take a moment today to consider how we can embrace both rest and joy this season.

Ellen Krause: 2:09

Lanier Iv ester is a homemaker and writer in the beautiful state of Georgia, where she maintains a small farm with her husband, Philip. She studied English literature at the University of Oxford and her special areas of interest include the intersection of Christianity and art, the sacramental nature of everyday life and the truth-bearing witness of the imagination. Lanier's writing has been featured by the Rabbit Room, art House America, the Gospel Coalition and the Cultivating Project, among others. Please welcome, Lanier. Oh, what a delight, I have to say, Lanier. I mean this book is not only filled with so much intentionality about the season, but it's absolutely gorgeous. So it's just such a thrill to have you here.

Ellen Krause: 3:19

Lenire. The thought of the holidays brings an abundance of thoughts and emotions, and I think, even like physical reactions within our bodies. It can. How has your love for the holidays evolved over the years with what you've learned?

Lanier Ivester: 3:40

Well, I have always loved Christmas. I am a self-defined Christmas enthusiast. From the time I was a little girl, christmas was always really special in our home and even before my parents were Christians it was a really special time. But once they became believers when I was about 11, of course the meaning of it all was brought to light and everything just became a million times more special to me, realizing what it meant that God had really come to be with us and his tender mercy.

Lanier Ivester: 4:22

And when I got married and started my own home, I just had all of this pent up excitement, enthusiasm, all the ways that I wanted to acknowledge and celebrate Christmas in my own home. And I realized pretty quickly that I was contending with my excitement and my ideals and my joy and my limitations. And, uh, I, you know, the first year I thought, oh, I can do everything. And then the next year I tried to do everything again and, you know, in criminalized search, you realize like I, I, I can't do it all, I don't need to do it all. Um, but one of the ways that I have learned to kind of balance that tension between my ideals and my actual capacity and my limitations is years ago, and I talk about this in the book, but years ago, two of my best friends and I started meeting together in the very early days of the season, like early, early December, to just kind of talk about what our hopes for the season look like and what we were struggling with that year, and to pray for each other and to just really encourage each other to keep our focus where it needed to be.

Lanier Ivester: 5:46

And one of our little catchphrases was you know, when evaluating whether an opportunity or an idea was something we actually needed to integrate into our celebrations that year was is it making my heart beat faster, you know, and I love how you acknowledge that, like we do feel it in our bodies, and is it making my heartbeat faster? And that's like a really precious signal to me to go wait a minute, is it? It is why, and if it is, why do I need, you know, do I even need to do it? And so you know, I really, really do endeavor to strike a balance between being and doing this time of year, because there is so much that we can bring to our celebrations. But you know, the Lord is always reminding me one thing is needful, you know, and just prioritizing my time with him is is makes a difference for me between the kind of sacramental holiday that I write about in this book and just a round of panting feverishness.

Ellen Krause: 6:58

Right, right, no, and I think we can all easily get sucked into doing too many things. I mean, there's so many wonderful things, right, but too many of them makes none of them wonderful. So well, tell me about one of your most memorable Christmas traditions from your childhood.

Lanier Ivester: 7:24

Well, interestingly enough, it's a tradition that my husband and I have carried over and has become one in our own iteration of it, has become one of our favorite traditions too, but my favorite tradition as a child. So my parents both really loved to cook, but over the years our Christmas Eve dinner evolved into something that was very special but also very simple, and it was the one time of year that my brother and sister and I's children got steak Like Daddy would fix, like really nice steaks for all of us, was the one time of year that my brother and sister and I's children got steak like daddy would fix, like really nice steaks for for all of us. And um, and you know, looking back, I realize now that it was really brilliant on my mother's part because that meant that Christmas Eve dinner was not prepared in the kitchen and she didn't have to prepare it. But, um, but yeah, that that was always my, my, my favorite Christmas tradition.

Lanier Ivester: 8:31

Um, our family Christmas Eve dinner and um, you know, daddy, preparing the steaks and all the anticipation building and we always put the same record on at the same time. And um, just, you know, to the point that even now, like a really good steak and potato like, transport me to Christmas Eve. And so when, when Philip, my husband, and I got married, we were like, okay, we need to establish our own Christmas traditions, like we're setting up our own household and we have so many things from our childhood and our upbringing that we want to bring into that and, of course, continuing to celebrate Christmas with our families. But we want to do something that is unique to us. And so the first Christmas that we were married, our Christmas Eve dinner I made clam chowder, which is hilarious to me because I'd never had clam chowder before. We didn't grow up with clam chowder.

Lanier Ivester: 9:26

We're Southerners but it just seems so different, you know, from from what, um, what, what my family did and I was just like, well, this is good, but it's Christmas Eve, it doesn't taste like Christmas Eve. So, anyway, my husband and I have, um, we have carried that tradition over into our household. So now that's my, my husband and I have. We have carried that tradition over into our household. So now that's, my favorite Christmas tradition here in our home is having that same meal that we had growing up, and it's such a memory bridge, you know it's just kind of gathering up all my holidays.

Ellen Krause: 12:04

Yes, yes, I think those traditions are so, so important for children and and look how it does last our whole lives. It's incredible right was a study that you had that showed nine out of 10 people find the Christmas season to be both joyful but overwhelming, and that can really take a toll and sort of drain the joy out of the season. So how do we go about reducing the stress of the holidays but also preserving and enjoy what's truly meaningful?

Lanier Ivester: 12:47

Yeah, that's such a great question because it is so, it's so true. Like people start, you know, you see the countdowns on social media or different places, like how many days till Christmas, you know, and it's supposed to like stir up panic rather than anticipation. And, for one thing, I think anticipation itself is a key, because we need margin in our lives to anticipate special times, and we also need margin on the other side to to savor them. And so I think that's one thing we can do is to really like scrutinize our calendars and um, and not just um, you know, deciding what we're going to do and what we're not going to do, but asking God for wisdom, because he really does love to come into the details of our lives, and he, you know, he promises that he, he gives wisdom when we ask, and it's tempting to think that that just means like in the big decisions of life, but it's not, it's it's anytime we ask him for wisdom. Um, and so I think that that that is a, that is an important thing. And also, you know, just to um be really, really mindful of the, the voices or the sources of information that are outside of your actual experience and your actual relationships with your real people and to just really guard against, you know, input that is pulling you away from where you actually are in life.

Lanier Ivester: 14:27

And so you know, there's so much pressure to have the Pinterest worthy and Instagram worthy holiday and sometimes the response to that pressure is just to not be on social media during the holidays, you know. But I mean, I'm not I'm not denigrating social media for for itself, but it's just really. It's just really easy to start comparing ourselves, and I think that's where a lot of the stress comes in. And once we kind of step in out of the wind a little bit and realize, hey, you know what, we don't have to do it all. All we need to bring to this holiday is what we have in our hands right now. And you know, we have a saying in our church that we're always talking about, like working from a place of rest, and the place of rest is our acceptance in the beloved. You know it's, it's the resting place that god has given us in christ that we don't have to do at all, and there's a great freedom that comes with that. And then what we do choose to do, we can do with and joy.

Ellen Krause: 15:43

So yeah, that's very important for us to really find that balance, setting aside which parts are worth weeding out and truly getting back to, like you said, jesus, emmanuel, god with us, and remembering the incredible gift that was given to us first, before the whole Christmas season got blown up into what it is today. To what it is today, why don't you tell us a little bit about Advent and a step that people can take towards celebrating Advent and including that as part of their tradition entering into Christmas?

Lanier Ivester: 16:42

Sure, yeah. So Advent as a church season was not part of the tradition that I grew up in. I was raised Baptist and so we didn't as a as a denomination, we didn't necessarily observe Advent, but I noticed the fact that there was just a special and prolonged atmosphere in our home that my mother just did a great job of setting apart, not just Christmas, but like the days leading up to Christmas, like she was so great at anticipating and savoring, like I've said, christmas. Like she was so great at anticipating and savoring, like I've said. But I did not discover Advent as a season until I was an adult, actually, and it it was such a delight to realize there's more going on here than just getting ready for Christmas, you know, or just like packing everything in and all the parties and the you know, what have you um that that Advent truly can be a season of contemplation, of uh, preparation, um, not physically for Christmas, yes, but the, you know, just really preparing our hearts and um. And so, you know, every year I make a point of selecting an Advent devotional that will guide me through um, starting on the first Sunday of Advent, which is um typically that well, not always, no, because our our secular calendar and our church calendar don't always line up, but this year the first Sunday in Advent is December 1st, sometimes it's in November, but anyway, selecting an Advent devotional that is going to carry me through the entire season with readings that my preference is for readings that extend beyond Advent into actual Christmas tide, which is its own season, but so that's one of the ways that I really like to acknowledge the season.

Lanier Ivester: 18:55

My husband and I have an Advent wreath in our home and we have special readings and prayers that we share on the four Sundays of Advent.

Lanier Ivester: 19:06

That kind of mirror what's happening in our church and also just really welcoming Advent as a season to bring our questions and our longings into God's presence, because you know, advent historically has been a season of contemplation, yes, but also penitence. It's been called a little Lent in some cases. And, you know, just realizing and acknowledging and welcoming the fact that Advent is the space that we can really name our longings to the Lord, because Advent is acknowledging our hope and our certain hope in his second coming, like we're acknowledging his coming among us but we're also proclaiming he's coming again and you know, naming that and all of the longings and yearnings and sorrows of our life are really like that certain hope is at their heart, you know, and so it's for that reason that I really firmly believe that Advent is a safe space for our grief, and when we allow ourselves to bring that into God's presence, I feel like it gives us a much richer experience of our joy in his actual coming to us much richer experience of our joy and his actual coming to us.

Ellen Krause: 20:46

Absolutely, you know. I think that's a good lead into dealing with not only the joy of Christmas but the very heavy weight of sorrow that so many people or loneliness that they're facing during this season and I know you've had your own. You know experiences of this. Tell us a little bit about your experience and how you have included both stories of joy and sorrow in what you've written to help our listeners and who are readers of your book navigate this time.

Lanier Ivester: 21:38

Yeah, thank you for asking that, Ellen, because the title of the book comes from a lyric. It's a lesser known lyric and a very well known Christmas hymn. It came up in the Midnight Clear and, if it's okay, I'll just I'll quote it in its entirety, because I feel like it just really gives like the the, the heart of what I'm, what I'm trying to communicate in this book. So Edmund Sears, back in the 19th century, wrote it came from the midnight clear and we rarely sing this verse, but it it runs, oh ye, beneath life's crushing load, whose forms are bending low, who toil along the climbing way with painful steps and slow. Look now for glad and golden hours. Come swiftly on the wing O rest beside the weary road and hear the angels sing. And I love that so much.

Lanier Ivester: 22:42

I've loved it since I was a girl because I just feel like it encompasses both the joy and the sorrow that characterize our lives as believers in this world. And one thing that I've learned through the various sorrows that I have walked through with the Lord is that, contrary to the messages in the world around us, sorrow is not the enemy of joy. You know, it's our nature to flinch away from sorrow and pursue joy or happiness. And you know, joy's um, uh, lesser iteration, Um, but, but the reality is we, we need both. We need sorrow and joy, because sorrow truly can, uh, with the help of the Holy spirit and the you know, our, our, um, dependence on God, can truly lead us into a deeper experience of his love for us, um, which is ultimately going to increase our joy, um, and so the thing I love about, uh, about the season, is that I've already, you know, kind of mentioned the fact that Advent makes room for our grief, but Christmas and Christmastide as a season, makes room for our joy, makes room for our joy.

Lanier Ivester: 24:26

And when we shut ourselves down to the full experience of loss and grief, I believe that diminishes our joy because it diminishes our capacity for joy. But when we open our hearts to, you know, the thorny beauties of this life and the ways that the Lord is using our challenges and our trials and our disappointments to draw us more deeply into our dependence on him, but these things that are just make it unavoidably clear we begin to realize how precious they are, as they, you know, just draw us more deeply into his presence and you know anything that pins us to his feet, as it were, in prayer, is precious. His feet, as it were, in prayer is precious. So, you know, I've definitely seen the Lord show up in very specific ways and in seasons that should have been nothing but sadness, you know, and I've experienced his joy in the midst of of those times, in those places, most notably the year that my mother died, um two years ago, and she actually so so much of of the experience of of her death and my grief um has informed this book because I was halfway through it when she died and I had to take almost a year off from from writing the book, um for the funeral and grief and its aftermath and then for, uh, emptying my childhood home and listing it and selling it. And um, you know, once I came out on the other side of all of that um and kind of started picking up my manuscript again, I realized two things. One, I realized my mother was already all over this book, which was super sweet to me, and I hadn't even realized it. And two, it was going to be an opportunity for me to honor her in a really enduring way, and so returning to the manuscript gave me an opportunity to process my grief in a very sweet way. I felt like I was just keeping company with her, you know, over the remainder of that year as I finished the book. But it also just brought me into this great like, you know, through this valley of grief, into this place of such joy that I was able to share her with the world. You know, um, but anyway, so, so.

Lanier Ivester: 27:24

But the Christmas that she died, I, I, just, I was just going through the motions, which is a whole nother story, because I, I, I believe that our Christmas traditions we don't keep them as much as they keep us, um, but, um, that year, I, I paired things back to the bare minimum. I knew it was still extremely important for us to celebrate and, you know, to acknowledge our joy in Christ coming in his presence in our midst. But, um, it was. You know, there were so many things I didn't do that year.

Lanier Ivester: 27:59

You know I didn't finish my Christmas shopping, but we did, um have a really, really sweet gathering on Christmas night. We had some friends over and some friends from church, and I remember like just being completely taken aback as we were sitting around the table that night looking around at all these precious faces and the joy that was just absolutely palpable in that room and I just thought, lord, how can this be Like? I have it in my, you know, and of course we were all like raising toast to our coming and present King, you know, um, but I realized in that moment what it means for God to set a table for us in the presence of our enemies, because death is the greatest enemy and has been defeated and our hope was present in that room that night and you know it really just it changed everything for me.

Ellen Krause: 29:00

Yeah, it sure sounds like it, and throughout the book, I mean, I was so touched by all of the sweet remembrances that you have and funny things and you know, important things that she laid on your heart when she was young, and I think the other thing that strikes me about what you just said, though, is when there is a death in the family and you're celebrating the holidays, exactly what you said is that, if we can cling on to the fact that Christ came and he conquered death, yes, we are going to experience the sorrow here, and that doesn't diminish whatsoever the pain we feel inside and grief, but we still have our hope, which is one of the important elements of Advent, which is one of, you know, the important elements of Advent, so I also love that.

Ellen Krause: 30:02

You said you know, taking that Advent season to really do a reflection on perhaps you know someone, maybe that you've lost in your life, and acknowledging it, taking the time acknowledging it and then, just like you did, allow God to give you that joy. What a beautiful remembrance that was that you were, even for that Christmas, right after you were able to have the joy, lenire. Why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about some of the really fun things that they're going to get in this book, because you do have, um, the artist jennifer drafton has such beautiful, beautiful artwork and you know, like you mentioned, the hint, the verse of that hymn and so many others. But this includes recipes and decorating tips, like how to make your own advent wreath, which I thought was such a fun idea, and I thought that was such a cute quote where the person had said I just like the candles lit up, I like all four of them lit up and that's what I'm going to do. I thought that was so cute.

Lanier Ivester: 31:25

Yeah, and I'll be honest, that's what I do too, cause I'm just like, I just think it's all so pretty.

Ellen Krause: 31:32

So tell us about you know how you came about picking what you did and including so that you know. As I was going through it too, I was like, oh, I think I might try that. Like I still have my own traditions, but it is also fun to see what other people do and try something new as well.

Lanier Ivester: 31:52

Well, um, so, yes, so you know, at its heart, gl Glad and Golden Hours is a story, but it's a story that is threaded with ways to embody the themes of the story, and so recipes and crafts for each week in Advent and also for the season of Christmastide Christmas Tide and it was so fun to sketch out, like the well, the original idea of the book.

Ellen Krause: 32:33

And then as I worked with my illustrator to see it grow into something that neither one of us really expected.

Lanier Ivester: 32:35

And just a little background the illust of of Gladden Golden Hours. And this book is illustrated on in full color, like I mean, it's just it. I think the illustrations have been called lavishly illustrated, like it's. It's so pretty, but the illustrator is actually one of my best friends and she is my writing partner. She is is a very, very talented author, jennifer Trafton, but she is also an extremely talented artist, and when we hatched this idea, we were both in the middle of other projects and it just felt like this is a resting place for us creatively. I mean, it's an energizing resting place, you know. And so we had a lot of fun um, collaborating over the colors and the craft ideas. Um, you know, I would float things and she would try them, you know, or she would test my recipes or try my crafts, um, and so it was just really fun, you know, to integrate um things, that, that that I don't do everything every single year, but that I love, and and for her to translate them into make sure that people uh see this book.

Lanier Ivester: 34:04

The the subtitle is a companion for advent and christmas tide and I I definitely want it to be a companion in the sense of it being a friend, um, not a textbook or a manual or a bunch more things that you got to add. But hey, here's an idea. This might be fun, or you don't have to do any of it, but I was able to finally, um, for my own sake, compile in one place all of my favorite Christmas recipes, um, because my my Christmas recipe file was getting a little untenable, it was. It was very fun, um to to put them all together in one place and then to see it. You know, come together, as you know, part memoir, part cookbook, part crafts, and so, yes, it just it.

Ellen Krause: 34:58

It's such a beautiful resource and something that, um, I think people will be encouraged by no matter what your area of interest might be, but certainly taking your journey as you tell your own story through the Advent and Christmas season, and then kind of all these other fun, creative elements layered on top of it, make it just such an incredible resource. Lenny, as we start to kind of wrap things up here, what do you hope for readers to experience as they embark on your glad and golden hours? Companion?

Lanier Ivester: 36:07

Well, my dream for this book is that it would be a friend. As I've said, I envision it being just kind of an arm around the shoulder, you know, just a true companion, that, even if my circumstances are very different from those of my readers, that they'll be able to resonate with the fact of God's tender love in the details of our lives and that, even when he doesn't spare us from suffering, he cares for us so tenderly and he wants to interact with us in the details of our lives. And so I really want this book to be an invitation to readers to enter into that very, very personal, very particular relationship with their Lord, who is in our midst and his kingdom is coming.

Ellen Krause: 37:10

Absolutely Well. It certainly does that in such a beautiful way and it also helps you know if you're struggling with perfectionism. I love how you're just so authentic in everything that you share and it really it made me think about myself, you know, like letting some things go but, at the same time, like cherishing some of those traditions that do make the holiday so special, and um, taking the time, like you said, to do that devotional, which really is, is what's going to um give you that peace, think and joy in your heart above all. So where can people go to find out more about you personally and also the book?

Lanier Ivester: 38:02

So you can find me on the web, at my website it's linearivistercom. And also we have a website for the book that Jennifer has uh, she's the brains behind that and she has created so many fun downloads. So there there are moments in the book where we say you know, check the resources section on glad and goldencom. So the name of our website for the book is glad and goldencom, and there's an opportunity there to sign up for our newsletter where we're going to be offering some special fun free downloads in the weeks to come and also announcements about Christmas cards, that Jennifer has created beautiful artwork, that she's made prints from some of the artwork from the book. I mean just a lot of fun stuff. Some of it, um, is, uh, a lot of it's free. So, um, we've got, um, yeah, just a lot of fun stuff. Um, but also on Instagram at, uh, at linearivister no, I think it's just linearivister, sorry Linearivister on Instagram, and then Gladden Golden Hours on Instagram.

Ellen Krause: 39:25

Fabulous. Okay, we will make sure we include all of those links in the show notes so people can find those. Before we go, though, I have to ask you some of our favorite Bible study tool questions. So what Bible is your go-to Bible and what translation is it?

Lanier Ivester: 39:40

So my go-to Bible is a dog-eared NIV that my husband gave me. I think it was the first Christmas we were married. He's read NIV, read NIV for years and, um, I had always read King James, which I still love the King James. I think there's a poetry and a beauty and a depth to that language that we don't need to lose. But, um, when he gave me this NIV, it was like and you know, it's so special to read the word in different translations because it's so fresh, you know, and you know, I've spoken with friends in the past and we said you know, wouldn't it be so great if we could hear these stories again for the first time? You know, that's just that freshness of like first discovery. And you know, reading the NIV really did that for me, as does now the ESV, which is the translation that we use in our church, and I love that one too. So that's what I read.

Ellen Krause: 40:47

All right, those are all excellent, excellent translations. Okay, do you have any favorite journaling supplies that you like to use to enhance your Bible study experience?

Lanier Ivester: 41:00

So I am a very old fashioned girl. My journaling supplies are a college rule notebook and a number two pencil. I love to just copy verses down and just kind of interact with them on paper. I do like to pray through writing and sometimes I just dump my prayers out and in words on a page to interact with the Lord and ever his word is is actually the actual physical. Writing it down and praying through it, oh, how beautiful.

Ellen Krause: 41:40

And then you have those you know to look back on. Yeah Wonderful, all right. Lastly, what is your favorite app or website for Bible study tools?

Lanier Ivester: 41:50

So again I am. I'm such an old fashioned girl I don't use a lot of apps, Um, but in terms of Bible study tools, I am indebted to um Kay Arthur and the um and her ministry, the precept studies, Um, I love those. I just feel like they just have formed me and my approach to scripture. And also, this isn't technically a Bible study tool, but it is another way that I engage with scripture, and it's through Phyllis Tickle's Divine Hours series, and these are actual books that carry you through their readings for every day throughout the entire year, and it's scripture and prayers.

Lanier Ivester: 42:38

And it's just so interesting to me how, even this morning, when I was reading my allotment for the day, the scripture that was highlighted was a scripture. It was Psalm 91. And I woke up in the middle of the night last night and couldn't get back to sleep and that passage was just washing through my mind over and over and over again and I was just really trying to meditate on it. And then I opened up my divine hours this morning and there it is Lord. That's not a coincidence. So those are my go-tos awesome.

Ellen Krause: 43:15

Well, we will include links to those as well in our show notes and you're thank you so much for joining us today and just sharing this beautiful vision of having a more intentional advent in christmas season. I think we can all use a bit more peace and purpose as we approach the holidays.

Lanier Ivester: 43:36

Wow, thank you so much for having me, ellen. It's truly been a privilege.

Ellen Krause: 43:42

You're welcome and thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in. We hope this conversation has inspired you to embrace both the joy and the rest that this season can offer. Be sure to get a copy of Lanier's book Glad and Golden Hours and take time this season to reflect. Take Lanier up on her suggestion of maybe the very beginning of December. Think through and shape your holiday season in a way that will fill your heart and bring you closer to God. We thank you so much for listening. We appreciate you. Have a blessed day.