Hi, and welcome to the Five Word Prayers Daily, a five-day-a-week daily devotional where we share the word, prayers, in our heart.

I'm Lisa Whittle, and I welcome you to just five minutes with me, which I trust and pray will be five minutes well spent.

Christmas, lights, candy canes, and tree-scented candles. December brings us all the good stuff, doesn't it?

What do you have planned this

month? A lot, I'm sure, like all of us, and I'm determined to savor it as much as I can, and

remember that what it's really about is the divine savior of the universe coming to Earth to live

among us. That story, my friends, must never get old. We've got a great month plan for you on the show,

a big announcement about what is coming up here next year. Oh, I can't wait. And we'll get into

the three big G words of the holidays in different theme words on the five word prayers daily, grieving,

glorifying, God, of course, and giving. You knew that one had to be in there. And we'll also

feature the best shows of 2018 on the Five Word Prayers Daily, the ones most listened to that you

might have missed and you'll want to go back in here. Just a jam-packed awesome month. But besides

all the hooplawn beautiful things, another thing the holidays bring for so many of us is something

a little more tender, a little harder to talk about, but very real for a lot of listeners out there.

And it's what we'll be talking about all week, and that is grief. This time of year stirs up a lot of

memories, happy ones, sad ones, and ones of great longing for someone we desperately miss or something we

desperately want. I've talked on here about my father going to heaven and I miss him every single day.

But holidays bring back a lot of things like food he loved and things he said and things we did

and that sweatshirt we bought him that last year he was with us for Christmas that I never

saw him get to wear. I want to talk about what I've learned this year about grieving in the hopes

that it may also help you. Be right back. I got a message not long ago from a sweet listener

who said that she listens to one of my past shows on grieving multiple times during the week as she's mourning so deeply the loss of her mom.

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