It seems irreverent to combine Advent and sweets into my blog title today, but hear me out! I\u2019m going somewhere with this! I sat by a kind man last Sunday at church. He said “Happy Thanksgiving” to me; I said “Merry Christmas” to him. He patted his tummy and told me he had way too many sweets during Thanksgiving and is calling it quits for a while. I patted my tummy and said “I need my little sweet bit of this or that!\u201d
But, goodness, over the last few weeks my insatiable love for sweets has come out in full array even though I haven\u2019t even started my Christmas baking yet. I made Mom\u2019s (now MY) chocolate cake for our Thanksgiving meal and I\u2019m still nibbling at the pumpkin bread I made. I admit I\u2019m carrying around a few extra pounds because my sweet tooth went out of control. I\u2019m at my children\u2019s home taking care of their younger sons and I just peered into the pantry to find a sweet-something to go with my coffee.
I assure you I\u2019ll get a grip on these eating habits come the new year. I\u2019ll get back to resisting my \u201csweet\u201d cravings and renewing my commitments and cravings for good health for me and my good Lord Who gives me the strength to refrain from those cravings. That\u2019s when life itself gets sweeter and my clothes fit so much better!
Let me reel my sweet “talk” and cravings back in because just a few days ago, Sunday, November 28th, was the First Sunday of Advent! Joy-filled, hope-filled, heaven-and-earth-filled Advent. The wonderful season of waiting and preparing our hearts for the marvelous gift of Emmanuel. This is the season we CRAVE our Lord and King\u2019s presence and when we renew our insatiable love for Him once again. He Who came from perfect heaven to imperfect earth. ALL because His Father loved us so much that He sent His beloved Son to earth to rectify our wrongs and to give us the promise that He is with us as Emmanuel. Our Lord gets us. He gets our cravings and our human nature that falters at times. But, He helps us get the true message \u2013 that He is preparing a place in heaven for us as we prepare for His coming as a baby during Advent.
Speaking of sweets and cravings, there are many scriptures that compare the Word of God to sweetness. When we crave God’s Word and really let it enter us, we will be as insatiable for holiness as we may be for sugar. The Psalmist wrote: \u201cHow sweet your words taste to me; they are sweeter than honey.\u201d (Psalm 119:103)
More than sweets, I purpose to crave the sweetness of Advent and God\u2019s Word. I suggest my plan to you. Beginning today, December 1st, read Luke 1. Then read the next chapter of Luke each day through December 24th. There are 24 chapters. By Christmas Eve, we will have read all 24 chapters \u2013 an entire account of the birth, ministry, sacrifice on the cross, and resurrection of Jesus. We will wake up on Christmas day knowing WHO and WHY we crave Him. May our energy boost come daily from praying and reading God’s Word. May we indulge deeply in what the Lord offers us, focus on Him, and crave He who changed everything when He became one of us. Emmanuel. God with us!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It seems irreverent to combine Advent and sweets into my blog title today, but hear me out! I\u2019m going somewhere with this! I sat by a kind man last Sunday at church. He said “Happy Thanksgiving” to me; I said “Merry Christmas” to him. He patted his tummy and told me he had way too…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15708,22223,13568,22222],"tags":[579,12923,22220,1210,1769,251,2055,22219,22217,4312,3115,39,40,22221,500,22216,22218,19243,19246],"class_list":["post-15224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advent","category-craving","category-hope","category-sweets","tag-advent","tag-baking","tag-bible-reading","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-christmas","tag-commitment","tag-crave-gods-word","tag-cravings","tag-first-sunday-of-advent","tag-good-health","tag-hope","tag-inspiration","tag-luke-1-to-24","tag-merry-christmas","tag-sweet-craving","tag-sweet-talk","tag-sweet-tooth","tag-sweets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15224"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15227,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15224\/revisions\/15227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}