Christmas Foolery: Creating Christmas Wonder

Good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning! I'm doing the most today. Good morning! Hi! I'll wait for all the girls to tell me, give me a thumbs up that you can hear me. And see me okay so that I don't start rambling and doing fun and foolery things, and then y'all are mad because you couldn't hear me. And every now and then I, uh, do not have my act together. Good morning, Merry Christmas. That's what I was saying. Merry Christmas. That's very good, Chrystal. Very good. Listen, I love how you girls who are in the Inner Circle know how we do it. You know how we do it, y'all. You know I'm still in Mic Land playing around, you know. So there's a— another mic we have this morning if I want to be all video podcast-ish. Oh, I can't make up my mind. Do we want beauty? Do we want primary effectiveness? Or do we want out of the shot? Mostly out of the shot. I cannot, y'all, make up my doggone mind. Anyway, um, good morning! It is Monday, the week of Christmas for 20 20— what is it? 2021. And ready or not, here we come. I'm gonna be nice this morning and get my Instagram girls. I had some people email me. They were like, ma'am, what is up? Why aren't you being nice to us? Let me fix my camera here. So I'll do it. Can't do it forever. I can't promise that, but because then they miss the— they miss if I show pictures, they miss that because I can't— I mean, I'll do all the techie things, but if you stack Facebook and YouTube and Instagram, I have to add a third software, a third one. So I have 3 places to go to make sure everything is working like it's supposed to work., and then it just makes it a lot. It's just a lot. And then Instagram is only going to show this much right here. So then if I put anything on the frame, then Instagram can't see it anyway. Good morning, Instagram. Somebody messaged me and said, like, straight up emailed me and said, ma'am, we know you're on YouTube and Facebook every week, but we're still here. So I was explaining that I'm not trying to leave y'all out. I just— I'm trying. It's just the tech. So what you really need to do— I'm gonna do— I'm gonna be here today, okay? I'll be here today. I went live last Monday, YouTube and Facebook, and I told y'all I was going live, but then I didn't go live here. I just told you to come over there. So today and next Monday I'll be here, um, because I love y'all. But you can't see the pictures, so if you want to see the— get the full experience of the foolery You have to watch on YouTube and Facebook. Good morning, good morning. Okay, so this is what I want to know. Tell me in the comments if you are done, like D-O-N-E, with your Christmas shopping. Like you don't have not nary another thing to get. Not a stuffer, not a box, not a present, not a wrapping, not a nothing. Like done with gifts, if you're even doing gifts, um, let me know if you're done because we want to applaud you. We want to applaud you. That's what we want to do. My goal right now is to stay out the store. That's my whole situation, my whole situation. I'm trying to stay— I had to go somewhere yesterday and, um, on my way there I had to pass by a Target., and I passed by the Target parking lot. Y'all, Jesus is not in that Target parking lot. I was like, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, no, no. That whole Instagram thing, real thing. I was like, oh Jesus, be a fence, stay out of that situation at all costs, stay out. It's just like, I can't, I can't do it. Anyway, I see lots of y'all are done. Jacqueline Moore is done. Lynn Cutter is done. Charlene is done. Cynthia said she's done. Come on, girl, you said it's your first year ever that you're done. 100. Okay. Yeah, Robin, I'm with you. I applaud the people that are done. Mm-hmm. Listen, done, done, done. You can't even enter it. Yeah, you can't. It's like stupid. Okay, yeah, done, done, done, done, done, done, done. Come on, Sassy, done. Bates, done. Kimberly, done. Quinta, done, done. Sophia, nope, nope, nope. And see, the problem now is— see, the problem now is we're entering that week where you can still get your online shopping done, but you're going to start running into to issues because people are sold out of things, or you don't want a chance that it's not going to get to you. You know, I had a friend who shared on Instagram that, um, she, uh, she saw two broke-down Amazon trucks in the— in her neighborhood, like on the way to her neighborhood, and she just had a panic attack. Like, is that my truck? Is that my truck with my stuff on it? And I'm not gonna lie, I got a notification, uh, from Amazon that something that was supposed to be delivered, it said, we ran into an issue delivering your, your goods. And I was like, what, what issue? What, when are you coming back? I mean, I low-key had a slight panic attack because it was one of my larger orders, like one of the ones that had more stuff in it. And I was like, oh no, no, no, you can't have a problem with that order. Like, oh no, no, oh no, oh no, oh no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, y'all, it has just And the thing is, the thing is, is we're at that stage where really with my teenagers, I'm starting to run into walls. Uh, the first issue is that they really don't want anything, um, either that I want to buy them, uh, that I am going to buy them, or that they need. Uh, I mean, we're just running into walls all the way around. Or, or that they want that I would love to buy them, but I can't afford it. I'm not doing that, you know what I mean? It's just like, I'm not, I'm not— some of the stuff they have brought to me, I'm like, oh, I'm not doing that. Like, I'm done with video games. I'm like, you are more than welcome to go buy more games. Y'all can put your money together and get a new system. Y'all can do whatever you want to. I am done. I'm not feeding that habit any longer. That's it. Done. I'm not. Well, once you take out video games, and my boys are not like super big clothes people, so, um, once you take out video games, it's like, what else do the boys want? Nothing. I mean, I'm still gonna get them a puzzle. They don't want that. I'm still gonna get us a family game. They don't want that. I'm still gonna get them some clothes. They could care less about that. I mean, you know, and I'm not— I just refuse. I refuse to put a bunch of gift cards under the tree because that's not what we're doing. That's, that's not what we're doing. That's not what the holiday is about, is me just passing along the funds. Just not doing that. So anyway, we still trying to figure— still trying to figure some stuff out. Butter, I'm, um It is what it is. I have pretty much done my other shopping, so things for my family and my dad and stuff. But the kids, the grandkids, no problem. And the great thing with the grandkids is that they don't know about the toys that I know about. Like, like, okay, like Spirograph. Does anybody remember the Spirograph? You would get these little circles and put the little pen in it and you would do a circle. And you could make designs. They don't know about that. Hasbro is not advertising that. That's an old toy, you see what I'm saying? And the old toys are still the good toys. They're still the good toys. So I can give my grandkids cheap old toys and they don't know any different, and they are excited. They're just gonna be like, what is this, Simon? What is this? So yeah, yeah. Hi, Cilla Wills. Cilla is on Instagram jumping in, doing her thing. What's going on here? For those of you who do not know, we apparently had a battle of the voices on Instagram because Jonathan challenged Anthony to the Can We Talk Challenge, and then Jonathan charged me up. Now I was just playing. And then Priscilla took me very, very seriously. So if you have not yet watched that, I mean, I mean, if you watch my video, you see Jonathan behind me, like egging me on. He was like, you should do it. You should do it and tell the world she could preach, but she can't sing. Like, get her to do it. Get her to do it. He's just charging me up. So I'm all hype and I start singing and then she gets on her, her situation and just lays it. I mean, she just lays it out there. She's like, don't come for me. And I was like, oh, was I supposed to practice? I feel like I was supposed to. I went back and listened to the song. I was like, I didn't even, I didn't do it at the right pace. I didn't do all my riffs. I didn't, I didn't, I was, I was playing. And then Priscilla came back, oh no, you challenged my singing and you pitched my singing against my preaching. So let me, let me do the thing then. Let me, let me do the thing. So anyway, that was our situation this weekend. The #CanWeTalk challenge, y'all. And then, you know, I didn't even look, like, I didn't even like search the hashtag. So then after I did it, then I searched the hashtag and I was like, people are out here in these streets and they're serious. Like, they're like, I mean, people, you know. And then Anthony had to bring back his version, which he kind of cheated because when he did his years ago, like, this wasn't recent. He pulled up a video from when he had a whole band. He had a whole band. I was like, I don't understand what is happening right now. He— I was like, did you just do that? And then I looked at him, I was like, oh no, that's an old video you pulled out. You pulled out the— you pulled out the archives to let us know that you actually can do it better than all of us. It's like, okay. I was like, never mind. You know how you ever like play with somebody and then like you're playing and then they get serious on you and you're like, oh, oh, never mind, never mind, it's okay, it's all right, I was just playing. Yeah, Priscilla was straight R&B, straight R&B, 100. Okay, this is, this is back from the days, y'all, when I wasn't supposed to be listening to K104. If you're from Dallas, you know what that is. This was back in the day when I had to get in the car and turn on the radio station because I wasn't supposed to be listening to that secular music. The secular music. And then I had to turn the station back so my daddy got in the car, he wouldn't know. Yes. So then I, you know, this was the whole situation where I had to make tapes. Does anybody remember making tapes? I am totally sharing my age right now, but I would put my tape in my boombox. See, that's what I ought to get my boys, get them a boombox. They won't know what to do with that. And do you know right now— sorry, sidebar, total tangent— Boomboxes, there's a ripoff of boomboxes because they know that some people, hello, have cassette tapes. Yes, I still have my cassette tapes. Uh, it's a whole project. I need to listen to them one at a time to make sure there's nothing on the cassette tape before I toss them out. But the thing is, y'all, they know like people like me still have cassette tapes, and so they are like gouging the prices on the little boomboxes. With the, with the CD player on the top and the cassette. Anyway, y'all, back in the day I had to listen to the radio and then run across the room when my song came on and press record and let it record. And then I had to press the pause button when that song was over so that I could be ready when the next song came on. The worst thing in the world was realizing that your song came on and you couldn't get to press the record button on time. Or unpress the pause button. Listen, I'm not mad at y'all. Now, you know, I always do this. Who in here are my Gen Zers or my Millennials? Okay, I don't even know what the age is because there's a mix— there's a— there's misnomers about where Millennial begins and ends. I'm a Millennial in my heart. Anybody Millennial in their heart? But I really want to know, fist bump, if you are a Millennial or a Gen Zer and you're here, and if you even know what I speak of. Now, I know here's what y'all— a lot of y'all really don't know about What y'all really don't know about is the, um, are the 8-tracks. My daddy used to have not just an 8-track player, but a car that he could play his 8-tracks in. And I'll never forget, we had to get the cassette tape adapter so that you could still play your, uh, your, your, your, your 8-track tapes. I'm sorry, you had to get the, you had to get the 8-track adapter and it would go in the 8-track in the car, and then you could put your cassette thing in there because your, your car, the, the technology had changed to cassette tapes, and then you had, you, you had an 8-track in your car. Listen, y'all, they are doing that to us. Do you hear me? They are doing that to us. Let me tell you what, let me just give you, let me just give you the inside scoop. I see y'all millennials and Gen Zers, Michelle, uh, Millie, Laron. Uh-huh, I see y'all. Jillian, there you are, for all the foolery and the fun. I'm glad that you're joining us. Desiree, y'all are fun. Okay, so then this is the problem, y'all. Let me tell you what they're doing. They keep changing the technology and we, like dummies, keep buying it. We keep buying it. So then all of your stuff, like, in an instant is like ancient. Right? So I have my CDs in my— but, but don't sleep though, don't sleep. There is a remnant, okay? There is a remnant. I went into Target and they had CDs of Adele. So I was like, oh, y'all are not going that far away. Y'all are not, y'all are not pulling back that far because y'all still put, y'all still put Adele on some, on some, on some material. Um, it's like records, they're vintage, right? Like you can get a record player, it's a vintage thing. I still have records. Um, some of my uh, my records from back in the day. So I still keep hard copy, because let me tell you what happens if you don't have a hard copy, okay? So what happens if you don't have hard copy? Let your internet go down. Let your internet go down, and you will be musicless. Musicless. See, you can't live in this world and not have any music on hard copy, because if the interwebs disappear If somebody hits a cell tower and you cannot get to music on your phone, on in your home, on your device, whether you got it coming through your Bose or your receiver. I mean, listen, y'all, I'm a geeky girl. I am wired to the hilt in the house, and my family knows. She gets out her phone in the morning, and my baby son's chore is to light a candle, and then he gets my phone and he flips on the Bose player in the living room, and it attaches to the Bose speaker in the other room, and my house is filled with music. And I can choose from Pandora or Spotify or all the things. But I'm telling you, when the interwebs disappear, I still got music. You hear me? Number one, I can sing. Number two, I got a piano. And number three, I got CDs. You hear me? CDs and some tapes. So I just want y'all to know, the, the, the Spotify is what I used to dream of when I was making my cassette tapes. I was like, why can't someone figure out how to help me download individual songs so that I don't have to burn up a tape, you know. Then you have— then you'd have to, like, you know, on a tape you would look at it and be like, there's not enough room left for another song, right? So then you'd have to stop it before it gets to the end and flip it over. Then you flip it over, which meant that you still had that room left at the beginning. Like, making tapes was the worst because then you'd have to fast forward it, like, through, like you know, 3 minutes of blank space to get to the song that you want to— like, it was a hassle. It was a hassle. So I'm not mad at Spotify and all the people in the world. I still have not committed to Apple Music. I just— I love all of my Apple products, y'all. I love— I'm Apple to the core, do you hear me? But Apple, when they suck you into their infrastructure, you can't get out. And I just— I don't know if I want my music locked in. I already have my photos locked in. I'm already It's already an issue. Photo organization is an issue, and Apple does not make that simple. But I just, I don't know if I want my music locked in the Apple ecosphere. I just don't know, as Apple as I am. So anyway, welcome to Fun and Foolery Christmas week. I have absolutely nothing to talk about. That's not true. I have some things to talk about, but I don't have anything deep today. I'm just gonna ramble a bit and have some fun because we need a little levity in our lives. I do have a couple of deep thoughts. See, I was in church yesterday thinking about what I was going to say to y'all. See if y'all can even see that. See, I was thinking on the next page, I was taking notes, and then when I had a thought, when God visited me with a thought, I flipped back and wrote, wrote a thought down. Every now and then I do try to think ahead about what y'all are doing. Listen, Inner Circle, if you're here, let me see it. Give me— drop me a yellow circle. I'd love to know that you're here. Y'all, I am here going live, doing what I do every Monday morning, because this is what I do every Monday morning. Somebody from the Inner Circle want to drop the link in the chat? Or I think one of our girls from the Sister Circle Online is there. If you want to drop the link in the chat, that'd be great, because I can't show it on Instagram. Oh yes, I said apple to the core. That was a great pun. I didn't even realize I did that. You see what I did there on accident? Yes, um, Wickline— Wicklined Niecy said I— no, no, no, not you. Retired Inspired Mama said I lost all my music, I was crushed. I don't know if you lost it digitally or if you lost it like your tapes got burned up. Let's talk about your earrings. Okay, these were a gift. Most of the jewelry that I get are gifts because I don't like to shop. I really believe in being comfortable and I value comfort over couture. So Priscilla will tell you, she has to help me a lot, a lot. We are just now getting around to cleaning out my mother's closet. And she has to say to me, Chrystal, you should, you should take that. And I'm looking at that like, I don't, I don't think I'd ever wear that. And she's like, you should take it. It's really nice. It's good quality. You can wear it. Um, we are getting around to cleaning out my mother's closet. It's been 2 years. Mostly my family has been waiting on me. I'm a slow processor, very slow. So I'm very grateful that they have been patient. So we're slowly making our way through her beautiful things, beautiful things, y'all, because Lois believed in the couture. You better believe it. She believed in the couture. So, um, so yeah, so we are going through and here's what we're really excited about. We're, we have a thrift store at our church. So the majority of the things that she has, we're going to, um, put there at the beginning of the year and y'all, Lois did not play with her closet. Okay. She did not play. There are names of things of which I don't understand. Priscilla understands. I'm just like, what is this? She's like, oh, Oh, she took the First Lady dressing for reals for reals. Um, anyway, and then the other thing is that we're going to save some things that are very, very clearly, clearly you need to be somebody's pastor's wife in order to wear this. And we are going to, um, work on a way to make her very clear pastor's wife attire available to pastors' wives. And then whatever is left over, we're going to take to the seminary where my parents spent so many of their younger years and make sure that some women who would not have the opportunity to get really, really nice things who are in ministry, who would love to have nice things. So we have a whole plan in action, but my family has been waiting on me. So we're taking our time going through Patricia said, thank you for sharing with us about your journey. It helps me. I'm not ready to part with my husband's things. Well, see, here's the thing. She told us about how she used to stop shop at thrift stores. Um, she used to shop at thrift stores and, um, she didn't have money, but my mother and my grandmother too, my mom's mom, they always, as my grandmother would say, would look like a million bucks. A million bucks. That's what— those are my grandmother's words. You need to look like a million bucks. I have a letter from my grandmother in her handwriting, my mom's mom. And I was in college and I guess I had told her I was having a hard time. And her note to me was, well, get up, wash your face, do your hair, put on nice clothes. It'll make you feel better. Go out into the world looking like you believe that you're worth something and then act like you are because you are. Pull yourself together. And so because my mother has told us so many stories, y'all, I remember— I'm totally off task here. Let me get the tea ready. Let me— it's time for morning tea. I remember getting on the bus, okay, so when I was 17 First of all, I cannot believe that when I was 16, my parents let me drive downtown. I had a job. My first job was at Target, and then I got a job at a chiropractor office, and that chiropractor office had a location downtown. So one time they had somebody absent downtown and they said, can you fill in? And I said, Mom, Dad, can they fill in? They said, sure. Please, I would never let my kids drive downtown. They wouldn't make it. They would not, they would not make it. Not— I mean, my parents trusted me. But in addition to that, they understood that I had a good sense of direction. These kids today, they can't find themselves anywhere, anywhere without Google Maps. I'm just, I'm just like, y'all lift up your head, oh ye gates, and pay attention to the scenery. Learn your way around Dallas. I'm like, Dallas is a loop followed by these branches. Learn the branches, learn the loop, you can find yourself anywhere. And they're like, why would I do that if I could just use Google Maps? 'Cause dummy, the interwebs might go away one day. That's why. Anyway, I'm off topic. What I was supposed to say, I had a whole string of thoughts and I just skipped through them. The first thing is, y'all, this is what we do every morning. I'm telling you that the Inner Circle is opening on January 1st. It closes 3 days later and it will be closed for the rest of the, of the quarter. So if you have ever thought, I want to jump in there and do this every morning with Chrystal, Every Monday Morning with Chrystal, or you want to do some work on you, we are getting ready for our next 90-day. Every spring, every January, February, and March, uh, for the last 3 years now, we have done 90-day journeys. It is a journey to help you set your goals and intentions for the year, to have community so that there's accountability, so that there is, um, connection as you work through your goals. And then we always have a topic on top of that. That. So you're always learning and growing while you're working on your goals. And we've done different things over the years, but this year we're going to be talking about maturing in your faith. So y'all know I love Jesus, I'm all about Jesus. However, I realize— and I love to have fun, I love to have fun— and every conversation I have does not need to have— does not need to be a sermon. That's what the freedom I give myself. But I'm not lying that— I mean, do I write Bible studies? Yes. Do I teach in my church? Absolutely. Do I love to have fun and foolery and listen to the secular station when my daddy's not looking when I was growing up? Ha ha! Don't tell him, he still may not know I did it. Good morning, whoever just walked in. So anyway, hey, so yeah, so anyway, this is the Inner Circle, is, is for women who want to, yes, have fun and foolery, but also who want to do the work on themselves and want to do it in community. So it's always content that is faith-based, but it is practical. I want to help you practically get your stuff together, okay? I want you to snatch your stuff. So in general, um, this 90-day will be working on goals. And when we do a 90-day, I also have, in addition to the content, which this content Again, it's going and growing and maturing in your faith. I am in there, but I also invite friends from my Sister Circle, other women who love to encourage you. So you get to hear from me, you get to hear from a bunch of other women. And what I have, what I, what I love every stinking single time, every time we do something, whether it's a 90-day experience, we do 21-day journeys, we do pathways, we give you self-paced content and courses. And once you come in, if you're at the coaching level or higher, you get access to everything before. But here's what I love, and this is because sometimes— have you ever just wondered, God, like, the thing I think you told me to do, like, does it matter? Like, does it help anybody? Like, why— have you ever wondered to yourself, why am I doing this? Has that ever been a thing that you've said? What makes my soul— what sets my soul on fire is when women tell me, I did the thing, girl. Like, in the 90-day, I said I was gonna finish my book and I finished it. In the 90-day, I said I was going to start walking and lose weight and I did it. Or in the 21-day, I said I was going to do this and I did it. Or I, you know, I started my podcast, I revamped my resume, I got a new job, I started homeschooling my kids, I stopped homeschooling my kids, I cleaned out the room in my house, I was able to memorize that scripture. Like, it doesn't really matter to me what your goals are. Doesn't really matter. But here's what I think we don't realize, whether it is Inner Circle, this online community, or whether it's your own sister circle in your real life, because you should have one in your real life if you don't. Um, regardless of what that is, you should have people who are charging you up and challenging you and encouraging you to live your life. And I think that's going to segue into what I actually want to talk about because I because here's the thing, there are reasons why we do stuff. Like, we do things because we really want our lives to count. We don't want to waste time. We don't want to have regrets. We don't want to have desires in our heart that we didn't actually, um, that we didn't actually move forward in. So my job— this is my job on planet Earth— my job is to help you connect with what God has already put in you and light a fire under your behind to get the thing done. Like, to stop languishing, to stop making excuses, to stop crying about it, to stop, uh, you know, talking about it, but to actually do the thing. And then if you didn't do the thing, to give you a little grace, because I believe that we all need grace too. There are plenty of things in my life that I haven't done that I've said I was going to do, that I had the capacity to do, that I was too lazy to do. So listen, I get I totally get it. But I really believe that often, often what we need is someone that just says, you can do it. Like Home Depot says, you can do it. We can help. Okay. So that's what we're here for. Okay. We are actually really excited. I know that one of the interns I just saw last night that she sent a notice to us in Asana. We use Asana as our team communication software. That she has worked on an outline, because what we want to create and make available is a Sister Circle guide, basically how to create your own. Because we realize that— and I realize this from you telling me— that many of you are like, I don't have that and I need it. And listen, I'm here. I want to create the content to help you individually, you know, but I want to help you create your people. I want to help you create your people. So, um, Zipporah said in the Inner Circle, I started my business in 2020 because of you, which is why I've been MIA in the Inner Circle group. You did that for me, Chrystal Hurst. Thank you. I love it. I love it. Let me put that comment on screen. Listen, love it. Love it. Love it. Yay. I love it. Okay. And here's the reality. See, I see Cynthia's here. She said, I lost my way raising family and working, and now I need to find me again. Yay. Yeah. So here's, here's the deal. Whether you are 65 or 25, doesn't matter. If you're 65 and you have a new lease on life because your people are grown and have left, or maybe you're just retired. Or maybe you just didn't do it. Whatever you meant to do, you didn't do it. We're here for you. And if you're 25 and if you want to avoid wasting time and be intentionally focused on what God has put in you and get busy about living out you in this world, you're not too early. Okay, so right now if you go to that website, you're only going to see one level open. Only one, because the doors to all the levels don't open until January 1st. But on January 1st, if you want to do the work for you, then you jump into the $25 level or higher. The $5 level gets extra, you get extra fun things. You're kind of basically saying, hey Chrystal Hurst, I'm here to support what you do. It's kind of a tip jar and you get a little extra stuff from the podcast and bonus episodes and all that. But if you want to do the work, you want to see transformation in your life, then you jump into coaching. Okay? So I just don't want anybody to say, Chrystal, you didn't tell us. We didn't know. I didn't know. Mark your calendar. Don't forget. It's January 1st. And if you're on my email list, I will remind you. I don't mind reminding you. I just have to, I just have to tell you now. So you'll be ready. You'll be ready. And so this Monday and the next Monday, I am live with you. And then, um, we're gonna have Coffee with Chrystal on January the 2nd, Sunday night. Okay. You will have to get the specific login for that. I'm not gonna go live everywhere. And that is where I kind of talk about what my thoughts are for the year. It is a clear teaching. And if you're on my email list, you'll find out about it. So that's the main thing. Make sure you're on my email list, chrystalevanshurst.com. Um, and then you'll see it right below my picture. Millie Rue says, can you join from outside America? 100%, 100%. The things that are hard outside of America are shipping things, but joining the Inner Circle, it's mostly digital. Um, so now if you're in the Inner Circle, y'all, don't forget we have a pajama party tomorrow night. Our Christmas party is tomorrow night. Okay. For those of y'all who are coaching and higher, grab your warm drink, grab your fuzzy socks. My brother Anthony will be joining us. I mean, it's a for real Christmas party, plenty of giveaways, and I have giveaways this morning, by the way. Hang in there because I got some fun things for you. The other thing I want to tell you about— let's see here, I need to show you this. Can I show you this? Oh, okay. No, that's not what I wanted to do. Also, the other thing that I want to tell you about, y'all, is I have been asked multiple times by more than a few people to teach a workshop live, okay? And I'm going to do that. Now, it is on January 8th. If you are in the Inner Circle or on my email list currently right now, there's a discount waiting for you in your email, okay? If you're not, then I want to tell you about this. It is— let me share my screen on YouTube and Facebook, okay? It's called Reinventing a Life You Love. It is an interactive workshop. So I'm taking the content from a course I taught a few years ago, Live a Life You Love, and I'm teaching it live. Um, that was a self-paced course, but there are so many things, you know, once you teach something, it's like being a teacher, you get better and better at teaching it. Um, you learn new ways to make the information, um, connect. And so, um, not only am I going to be teaching it after having taught it multiple times and talking about it in books, I will also be I'm teaching it live and it will be interactive. So let me give you an example. Instead of telling you, hey, you need to know who you are. You need to know how to describe yourself with words. You need to be able to communicate to the people in your life who you are and what you need. And if you don't know how to do that, you should take personality tests like ABNC. What we're gonna do in the workshop is give you links to the personality test so that you can take it while you're in class. Okay. Then we're going to bring you back, break you up into little groups and give you an assignment to review what the personality test said about you and to pick your words. Because here's what I know, y'all. It's like my kids going to school in an online environment. You have a different experience when you sit in class, right? The teacher right then and there says, do this work right now. There's accountability for you doing it. I also know that there is beauty in community. So the goal is for you to not only get the content— you can get the content and buy the course— but to engage with the content, engage with community, and when you're done, to have something that you can take with you to say, this is what I did. So that's January 8th. It's not cheap, and the reason why it's not cheap is because, number one, I'm there all day, y'all. The second one is because we're mailing you a box of swag and things, and the reason why we're mailing you a The box is expensive. And the reason why we're mailing you a box is because we're going to vision board together, okay? Like live together virtually. And we're sending you everything you need for the vision board. And you get the value of the— you get access to the course I taught. So we're basically giving you in exchange for you being there, the value, a great value for your time and investment. If you're interested in doing that, that's January 8th. At December 31st, registration doesn't end, but you don't want to register after January 31st because then the price goes up because now we have to ship your box 2-day or overnight to get it to you, and you have to pay extra for shipping. So through December 31st, you can sign up. If you're in the Inner Circle or on my email list, use the code we sent you for the discount. And then after December 31st, the discounts go away and it costs you extra because now we have to ship you your box pretty fast. Past. So I just want to make sure you know about that. Okay, all right, so y'all are fully informed. And it's Reinventing— whoever's on the Sister Circle— Reinventing. Don't forget the -ing. All right, so I have pictures to show you. Let's get back to foolery. I do have some things to show you. Okay, first and foremost, y'all, let me tell you what I'm gonna be giving away today. On today, y'all are not ready. I have a Divine Disruption book that is signed by all of us. I have a Divine Disruption book that is signed by all of us. This Divine Disruption book will go to someone in the Inner Circle. Okay? So when I ask you the question in just a moment, when you answer, if you're in the Inner Circle, and we will double-check, make sure you put your yellow circle so that we can see you. Okay? I haven't asked you yet, but I will. Now I do have other ones, and everyone that I have is signed by Tony Evans. Okay, signed by Tony Evans. You probably can't see that that well, but it is, it is signed by Tony Evans. I might even sign my name too. All right, so I have a few that I'll be giving away on today. Where's my phone? Oh, I'm on my phone. With the thing over here. Okay. All right. So, and the yellow circles start appearing. All right. All right. So let me show you some, some pictures because I like sharing what's been going on in my week. And I'd love to know, how do you get the yellow circle? Well, if you're in the yellow circle, don't use it if you're not in it, but it's, it's one, it's an emoji. So if you type, at least on an Apple phone, If you type in yellow circle, it just magically appears. All right, let me— nope, I don't want to do that. All right, let's see here. Overlays, that's what I want. And I want— okay, am I in the right spot? Yes, I'm in the right spot. All right, so Friday night, the whole fam went to go see a Christmas play. There is a church on the north side of town— hi, Alfreda— that, um, that has a humongous, well-done, like 1,200-volunteer Christmas play every year. And so we loaded up and went down to visit. And so you can see me in the middle in blue because I didn't get the memo that we were supposed to wear red. You can see all the babies on the front row, my brother and his wife back there, my cousin Sean and his wife My son is next to my cousin Sean. He's home for college. Standing next to me holding Josie is my son-in-law's mother. So she came down. My dad there standing in front of him is my 90-year-old aunt who is living her— y'all can't see the pictures. You have to be on YouTube to see the pictures. To see, she's living her best life in Dallas. Next to her is my aunt from London who finally after years has gotten the opportunity to come to Dallas because of COVID It's awesome. It's awesome. So that is our family picture. Y'all, listen, this show, no joke. Listen, you see that situation in there? No stinking joke. I have a video that I want to share with you to show you how no joke it was. And I'm not going to play the sound because, y'all, the sound— YouTube, if there's anything that YouTube recognizes as a, uh, as a sound, then, you know, then it shuts me down, y'all. So I'm— see, they're on YouTube or Facebook, so if you can't go over there, that's fine. I'll come back to you in a minute, but I can't— that's the problem with stacking the whole thing. I can't do that well on Instagram, which is why I normally don't go live on Instagram, because then y'all can't see all the things. Okay, so Aroma So let me show you this video. I think this is the right video. Where are you, video? Okay, you're not— oh, oh, oh, oh, no, no, no. Oh no, oh no. Let's, let's try this again. Let's try this again. Let me get rid of this picture. All right, now let's try the video. Listen, Santa Claus, he's lifting up into the air. Did you see Ellie right here? And they said, 'Wave, Santa Claus!' And she's like, 'Oh my gosh, Santa Claus is flying!' Okay, listen, y'all are not ready for this. Look, Santa Claus is lifted up into the air and then he flies off. What kind of a Christmas play is this? Do you see this? It's amazing. I'll be back in just a minute for those of y'all who can't switch over from Instagram, but I had to show the YouTube and Facebook fam this situation. Listen, and he flies up and over your heads. Okay, so it's not just a Santa situation. Then we also have angels Listen, that are floating around in the air. Look, look at this. What kind of a Christmas play is this? Like magical, magical for the babies. Hey, those of y'all who are joining on Instagram, glad you're here. Look at that, look at that. And then the angels fly. Hey, look at that. Stupid, stupid. So we took the babies to see that play, and when I tell you that they were mesmerized, of course, that is, that is an understatement. It is a total understatement. Let me get this here, back here. There we go. Get all my stuff. All right, a couple of other pictures I want to show you. This is Ellie living her best life. They had Drummer Boys in the sky that were playing the drums, but they were like lifted above you playing the Drummer Boy song. I mean, stupid, stupid. So this is me and, well, my dad and Josie. So sitting next to my dad at the play My dad came and loved, loved, loved, loved seeing the kids enjoy themselves. Son is home from college. We're obviously passing Josie around. Me and my grandkids, because I have 3 grandchildren. What? What? Okay, so then y'all, let me just tell you this, and then I'm going to say a couple of meaningful things, and then I'm going to jump up and run because I got somewhere I got to be this All right. Um, so I am not a natural hostess. I love people feeling at home. Um, you're always going to feel at home when you come over. I'm always going to have fuzzy socks and a blanket for you. I'm always going to have some good food in the fridge. But in terms of the hospitality thing, like the charger plates and the nice dishes and the china and all that. Like, that's very stressful for me, like the decor part. But I wanted to continue a tradition that my mother had with the pastors' wives of our church and the elders' wives where she took them out. And the place where she took them out, um, like everybody else on the planet, is short-staffed. So they were extremely hard to get into. So I decided to host them in my home and recruited some help, um, from one of the girls who helps me out to make it beautiful. I also recruited a gentleman who makes great food to come and help. So I wouldn't be totally stressed doing all the things, but this is the win, y'all. I just want to say I have officially done my first charcuterie board. Hello to the people in the back. I, and I say I, I didn't put it together, but I, I, it was my charcuterie board. That's how you say it, right? Charcuterie. I think that was just the thing. That was the best. And then, y'all, there was so much food. Look at this. We had waffles, we had chicken, we had chicken sausage, we had eggs, we had shrimp and grits, we had fruit, we had pastries, we had sparkling cider, we had coffee, we had a juice mix. I mean, we had maple syrup with butter in it, we had French toast. I mean, all the most, just went all the way in. So I was very proud of myself for hosting. I was very happy to host these ladies. And then later on, or earlier, we actually had our office Christmas party with the white elephant gift exchange. So that was fun, y'all. It's the season of Christmas parties. But here's the thing I want to tell you about, and then I'm going to chat and do a couple of giveaways, y'all. Here's the thing I want to tell you about. I know, I'm so sorry, I can't do it. On Instagram I can't do it, so you can go over and watch the YouTube later. Okay, yes. Or like God Girl Gifts did, she got two devices going, so she's chatting here and watching on YouTube. Here's the thing, y'all, y'all not ready. So I've been doing podcasts in preparation for the new year, releasing podcasts and also recording new ones. Guess who I interviewed? Guess who will be on the podcast in early January? Guess who we will have bonus content for that only the Inner Circle will get? Y'all not ready. You're not— just guess, just guess. Guess who did I have on my podcast? I'm just going to wait. I'm just going to wait until y'all tell me who you think I had on my podcast. Some of y'all already know because you're in the inner circle and I already told you. It was so much fun. It was so much fun. I literally got a chance to cackle it up with Tabitha Brown. It was so much fun, so much fun. So I'm really excited about that. Hercules, Hercules! Yay! So she'll be coming early in January. So very excited about that. Okay, so here's what I wanted to— here's what I wanted to tell y'all. This is what I'm gonna straighten up and fly right and tell y'all something that's encouraging and a ministry to the body of Christ, because why? That's what I do. Okay, there's 3 words I want you to remember. Okay, let me take off my inner circle thing. Y'all got the message. Y'all have been told. You have been served. Okay. Wonder, work, and worth. Wonder, worth, work, and worth. This is my Christmas week— see what I did there— message for you. When I was growing up, my mom had a tree, and I don't remember much about the tree, but I remember there was this birdhouse and it didn't hang from the tree. You just had to put it in the branches, and it was a little birdhouse, and you could see this little fake bird. But the thing is, is it whistled like the bird sang. It had this bird noise. So you would go up to the tree and it would just be like, I can't do it. It was like that, you know, that thing. Okay. And I would just stare. At that fake bird making real bird sounds. As a child, that was mesmerizing to me. My daughter would later say, why can't our house be decorated like Nani's house? Because Nani's house is the most. Now my experience with the bird and the tree was a different experience than what my daughter got as a grandchild and in a season of my life, in my mother's life, my parents' life, when they were no longer raising children. They had more disposable income and she did all the things. Even now, as you turn the corner down their neighborhood, there are lighted reindeer in the yard and icicles dripping from the house. She turned into Mrs. Claus. But when I was growing up, what I got was her Mrs. Claus spirit and the amount of money that her, her finances would allow her to bring that spirit into the house. We had music playing all the time. The house always smelled good with all the smells of Christmas. And we had a bird. In our tree, a fake bird that whistled. When I look back at Christmas pictures of time gone by, the tree wasn't all that great, y'all. The tree was not fancy. It had the cheap, uh, ornaments on it, and, um, some of the ornaments, you know, they were just hodgepodge. That's not what her tree looked like in latter years. In latter years, she had people come in and design the tree. In latter years, she didn't put those reindeer up outside. People did that. In latter years, it just magically appeared. But in my years, even though she did it her way, she still held the wonder of Christmas for me. And it didn't matter what was on that tree. I remember the bird. I remember the sights. I remember the sounds. I remember the smell of the kitchen. I remember her Christmas apron, and I remember her Christmas spirit. My grandchildren came into my home the other day, and y'all, I am not in a lowest season. I still have children at home. We still don't have furniture in our house. I still have holes in my walls from snowvid because I'm fighting with the insurance company. Still, the wood floors are warped. Still. But you know what I did? I put up my tree with my cheap Walmart ornaments. Some of them are scuffed to the brink because I bought the cheap ones knowing that I had small children who are gonna destroy them when they are growing up. My children are older now, but now my grandkids are gonna destroy them. So no, I haven't, my tree is not a designer tree. And no, I don't have icicles dripping from the house. And no, there are no reindeer when you turn the corner around my front door. But what I do have is Christmas spirit. And my grandchildren walked in having been at my house a few days before, and I heard them say, "Wow!" because for them it's the same thing. It's the wonder, it's the spirit, it's the smells, it's the sights, and it doesn't have to be immaculately designed in order to achieve that. Y'all, I've had the same old tired garland that I put on my fireplace for the last 10 years, the same little, um, pine cones and gold cut— gold-coated flowers that I was stressing out about buying. They were $1.99 a piece 10 years ago in Michaels, and I didn't have the extra money for decor. And I'm sticking them still. They're falling apart now. I'm just trying to spread them out and make it look whatever I can do, y'all. I have— and, and here's the thing, when I take out my Christmas bins, my boys can put Christmas together. I took Melanie Walker's advice and, uh, she, she reminded me that my boys decorated for me last time because, y'all, we don't have that much. They took everything out of the bins because I made them. They didn't want to this time. I made them. They took everything out of the bins and they put it up, and they are not disappointed with what we have. They are not frustrated with what we don't have in comparison. Now, they notice if we go to some other people's houses that they know of, they'll be like, well, their tree was really large. Church, or they had all this stuff, or look at the lights on their house. And I quiet my spirit and I say, they noticed, but that's not home. The wonder of Christmas is what I can provide at home. It doesn't matter if we have the couture hot chocolate from Williams-Sonoma, or if it's Nesquik with the milk that I boiled on the stove, that I spilled on the stove, with the marshmallows that we put in there. It doesn't matter. What they know is Mom reads to us. Mom makes hot chocolate. Mom makes us watch these corny, uh, Christmas movies while she makes popcorn. That's what they know. It's the wonder. And my grandchildren reminded me of that. Whoa! Look at the tree! It is all about the wonder. And I don't want you to forget that. I don't want you to forget that whatever it looks like in this season of your life, for you to create wonder in your home, wonder with your people, you know, for you to do that, I don't want you to forget that you have the power to do that with whatever you have, because it's not about what you have, it's about who you are. It's about who you are and the joy that you bring into your space. You can bring this into work, you can bring this into your church, you can bring this into your neighborhood. You never know. When we moved into our neighborhood, I got cookies and I delivered them to all of our neighbors with— I love chocolate chip cookies, I love sweet tea, so I put 2 Pure Leaf sweet teas in a bag with a couple of chocolate chip cookies that came from a store because COVID, so they were pre-wrapped. What if in your neighborhood this Christmas you got out of your comfort zone and brought a little wonder to somebody that you've never met, but maybe they're in their house alone and you would never know that? How can you overflow wonder into your world? Now here's the work part. Wonder takes work. My mother cooked her brains out. It does take effort to leave your neighbors some goodies. It does take the initial— the initiation of saving money so that you have money to do special things during the holidays. Whether you get gifts or not. It is work. It is a lot of work for all these doggone celebrations and making sure that we are treating the kids evenly with their gifts. It is work to host the women in my church to come over to celebrate them. But oh my goodness, it is— you already know where I'm going— it is worth it. At the end of your life, what do you have except how you poured yourself out to other people feel, the memories that you made, how you made other people feel, and the deposits that you've made in eternity, for eternity. If there's any other time of year for you to get out of your comfort zone— and I'm not just talking about more money, I'm not— I'm talking about you overflowing. That's what my mother used to say, the overflow of you into the season, into your world. So if you love hosting, do more of that. And if you can't have people into your home because of COVID bring the hosting to them, bring little bags and say, this is what I wish I could do in my home for you. If you're, you know, compromised or they are. Listen, my mother used to bake everybody a pumpkin bread. Oh my gosh. She was baking pumpkin bread for 3 months and she would make, give everybody whole pumpkin loaves. I don't have that time. So you know what I did? I made pumpkin muffins. So with the— with less amount of work, I can get more. And then I put them in little muffin cups and put them in little muffin bags. And the women who came to my house, I gave them a gift with the Refresh body butter that we have, that I have for sale in my store. I gave them that, and I gave them some pumpkin— a pumpkin muffin, and sent them on their way. That is the overflow of me. It does take work and energy to budget. It takes work and energy to decorate. It takes work and energy to create the memories. And I know you don't feel like reading to your kids. And I know that you may not feel like wrapping the presents and just putting them in gift bags, and there's nothing wrong with that. But do you know how much wonder there is for the kids who can just shake a box and listen to it, and tearing that paper on Christmas morning? Wrap a few gifts, don't put them all in bags. It's too easy for them to sneak and peek. It takes work, but it is worth the wonder. When Jesus came, there was so much wonder. In a manger, the wise men are following the star. The story is just— it almost is too intricately designed to be true, but we serve a God like that. A baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, which are clothes that are designed for death, death. It's what you got wrapped in. You wrapped mummies in swaddling clothes, foreshadowing the fact that he was born to die. Born in a manger with animals, the lowest of the low, telling us that he was in truth the most humble servant who ever lived because he was willing to give his life. But extravagant gifts. The wise men brought extravagant gifts to even the lowest of the low. And so the most humble met the Most High. So what I'm trying to tell you is bring what you got, because whether it's the most extravagant of things or whether it's the most humble and simple of things, it is the spirit in which you're done and in which they're done, and the fact that it's the overflow of the best of what you have. Joseph and Mary, that was the best that they had. My parents, when they were young and married, they did the best that they had and they put a little bird in the tree. And you know what that brought for me? Wonder. And then later when my daughter would come to my mother's house for Christmas and the tree was designed to the hilt, and it wasn't one tree, y'all, it was three. It was the front tree for the neighborhood, the tree that we used on Christmas Day, and the tree for the grandkids with all the fun stuff on it. Moment. 3, with all the icicles dripping. You know what that was? Wonder. That was her version of it then, different than her version of it early on. You know what I'm doing? I'm doing right now what is an overflow of me, and I'm saying, what would bring the wonder? What is my most high right now? And some of you all are going to bring the frankincense and the myrrh and all the gold and the glitter and all the things, and some of you are going to barely eke it But if it's the best of what you have to give in honor of the best that he gave you, so be it. Be satisfied with your wonder. Be satisfied with the work of your hands and know that when you pour in your best to a season that is designed to honor a Jesus who gave you his best, it's worth it. So for all of you who are killing yourself trying to make the holidays happen, don't go further than what you can. Don't spend more money than what you have, and don't let Christmas be defined what other— by what other people are doing in their worlds. You do you. Do you. All right, here's what I want you to do in the comments. Okay, so this applies for sure for YouTube and maybe for Facebook. We'll see how many books we have because I have these Divine Disruption books, some signed by Tony Evans right here in the inside cover, and then I've got at least one that's signed by all the people. So I'm going to give away multiples, but we all signed the COVID of a few. Don't forget, if you are an Inner Circle member, to put your yellow circle there, because I want to make sure we give away the one signed by all of us to Inner Circle peeps. Here's what I want you to tell me. I want you to tell me what has been your— what is the greatest work for you this season? What's the hard part? And then I want you to tell me what makes it worth it. Whatever you're doing in this season to bring the joy of Christmas, the joy of Christ Mass— don't let them change it to holidays, y'all. You walk around and you say Merry Christmas, okay? It's not his actual birthday, but it's the day we choose to celebrate, so let's bring it all in. Christmas. That's what I'm gonna say. Um, and I can wish and happy holidays because I know that everybody doesn't love Jesus. And if it's the Hanukkah for you, and if it's the Kwanzaa for you, I can celebrate with you, but I'm not going to change my celebration for you. Nobody else is changing their celebrations for me, so I'm not going to change this one for them. But we can be inclusive. I know diversity and inclusion is a huge thing right now. So not in the live chat, don't tell me in the live chat. After this is done on YouTube You have to go back to— in Facebook it works as you're live chatting, you're in the comments, but on YouTube you gotta go back. You tell me what's the work of Christmas right now and what makes it worth it. And then you have until, hmm, I'll say Tuesday night at midnight so that we can get these in the mail because maybe they'd be a good Christmas gift for you. So you've got a little less than 48 hours to drop your comment on Facebook or YouTube. And then share this video with a friend. Okay. I feel like there's something else I wanted to tell you about, but I think I covered it all. Wonder in your life. Live with wonder. It's worth your work. It is work, but it's worth it. And stop comparing yourself. Stop comparing to what, what other people are doing or what they have the capacity to do. Stop, stop. Do you. The overflow of you. That's what my mother taught me. So even as we go through her things, continue to do that. How we even give her things away is an overflow of her. Where did she shop when she had no money? What passions, what, what causes was she committed to? Who did she want to serve? It's an overflow. When you act out of an overflow of you, let me tell you what happens. You will give gifts that just keep on giving because you didn't just give the gift, you gave you. And do you know how you create legacy in your life? You give you. So as we go into this Christmas holiday weekend, as we go into a season of celebration even more, I want you to take a deep breath and just ask yourself, what is an overflow of me that would bring, bring wonder into someone else's world? I know it'll take some work, but I believe it will be worth it. And then take a deep breath and do you. Everything I remember that brings me joy as we go into my mother's favorite month, or as we are in and continue in my mother's favorite month, is because she enjoyed it. And what the gift is to me is not the dinner, and it's not the actual food, and it's not the actual smell. It's that they remind me of her, her joy at Christmastime. I blast the Christmas music because I remember the impression that that made on me as a teenager. So guess what my teenage boys are gonna get? Whether they like it or not. Lots of dancing, lots of music, lots of hot chocolate, and lots of fun. Merry Christmas, y'all. I'll see you next Monday.