{"id":23375,"date":"2025-12-08T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=23375"},"modified":"2025-12-08T05:19:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T11:19:39","slug":"the-joy-of-hope-and-a-faith-filled-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=23375","title":{"rendered":"The Joy of Hope and a Faith-Filled Child"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yesterday marked the second Sunday of Advent \u2014 the Sunday of Hope and Faith. Two candles now glow on the Advent wreath, and two themes shine brightly in my heart — because today, December 8th, is the birthday of my hope-filled, faith-brimming baby girl, Staci Michelle.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Fifty-six years ago, God handed me one of His greatest blessings, all wrapped in pink, with a determined spirit and eyes that already sparkled with purpose. And oh my \u2014 that little bundle grew into a woman who still wakes up like spiritual dynamite. I imagine the enemy groans, \u201cShe\u2019s awake\u2026\u201d while her Heavenly Father nudges the angels and says, \u201cWatch what she does today!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She dreams big, believes boldly, prays fiercely, loves deeply, and dances to the rhythm of a heavenly drum. And her name? Staci Michelle: \u201cresurrection life; like God.\u201d Heaven whispered that name to us, and she has spent her whole life living it out: bringing resurrection life into every room, every conversation, every person she touches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As I\u2019ve been reading Isaiah\u2019s promise that \u201ca little child will lead them,\u201d and Jesus\u2019 reminder in Luke 10 about becoming childlike, I can\u2019t help but see my girl. Advent is the season of expectation — wide-eyed, joyful, childlike expectation. The kind children feel on Christmas Eve when they can hardly stay under the covers because morning is just too good to wait for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the spirit Staci carries every day \u2014 and the spirit Advent invites all of us to reclaim.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Because this season is about leaning into the joy of the Savior who came for us — and leaning forward in anticipation of His return. It\u2019s about resurrection life in us — the very Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead living and breathing through us (Romans 8:11).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So \u2014 you\u2019re welcome, world! God blessed me with the privilege of bringing this resurrection-life girl into the world, and we\u2019re all better for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy Birthday, my precious, faith-filled, joy-spilling-over daughter.
I love you more than words, and I thank God every day for the gift of YOU.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday marked the second Sunday of Advent \u2014 the Sunday of Hope and Faith. Two candles now glow on the Advent wreath, and two themes shine brightly in my heart — because today, December 8th, is the birthday of my hope-filled, faith-brimming baby girl, Staci Michelle. Fifty-six years ago, God handed me one of His…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[32935,32936,156,1210,1769,13610,10915,40,19247,9185,4284],"class_list":["post-23375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-56th-birthday","tag-a-little-child-shall-lead","tag-birthday","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-faith-filled-2","tag-gift-from-god","tag-inspiration","tag-joy-filled-2","tag-staci-michelle","tag-staci-wallace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23375","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=23375"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23383,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23375\/revisions\/23383"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}