Gratitude, Celebration, and 3 Tips to Survive the Holidays

In this episode:

A little bit of gratitude as we wrap up this podcast season. Plus three tips to keep your sanity over the holidays, and a free bonus. 


(Article contains affiliate links. This means that when you click a link and make a purchase, I might receive a small commission from that purchase.)

Inspired Life

This is the last episode in season 4 of this podcast. Most of this season has been dedicated to featuring the stories from authors in the Life, Repurposed book. This episode drops on Thanksgiving day, so it’s appropriate to take some time to offer gratitude.  

Gratitude: 

  1. Thank you, listeners, for downloading a record number of episodes this year. You have downloaded episodes more than 15,000 times! 
  2. Thank you to all who have joined the Life, Repurposed Facebook community since it launched earlier this year. We’re just starting to grow! 
  3. Thank you to my sister Becki who has been assisting virtually with getting show notes posted and social media posts added.  
  4. Thank you for leaving reviews and sending comments. I do this for you, sweet listener, and hearing from you lets me know I’m hitting the mark and fulfilling my mission. 

Celebrations: 

  • In March, I launched the Life, Repurposed book with 34 stories written by women who have experienced the power of transformation in their lives. These stories of grace, hope, and restored faith are making a difference. The book is available at retailers around the world, and is also on Audible too.  
  • This fall, I won first place in two book awards and placed as a finalist in a third for my book Classic Marriage: Staying in Love as Your Odometer Climbs. I am thankful for this great honor. I’ll be featuring more content from that book in coming episodes.

Life, Repurposed

Opportunities: 

  • I’m looking for episode sponsors for 2022. If you have a brand, business, podcast, book, or product you’d like to feature in a spot, please contact me about sponsorship rates. You can find a link in the show notes to contact me, or go to michellerayburn.com/sponsors 
  • If you’re a friend of the show and would like to offset the cost of weekly production with a donation, you can use the “Buy Me a Coffee” button in the show notes.  
  • With the Life, Repurposed book, I’ve been donating a portion of the royalties to Destiny Rescue to help with rescuing victims of human trafficking. If you’d like to contribute to the fundraiser with more donations, I invite you to check out http://go.destinyrescue.org/liferepurposed. 

3 Tips to Keep Your Sanity Over the Holidays  

This next month is a blur of activity for most of us. We don’t want to lose the momentum we’ve had over the last year, yet when we get busy, many of us tend to coast. And there are so many reasons to feel stressed. This how I plan to keep my sanity during this holiday season. I thought it might help you too. Plus, most of it is good advice for year-round whenever we’re extra challenged.  

  1. Wait to start anything new. A friend shared this advice with a fellow podcaster in a group I’m in, and it is so smart. The end of the year is not a time to begin a new program, launch a product or a book (everyone is Christmas shopping or overloaded with ads already). It isn’t the time to start a major health change or change up a routine. I’ve tried this before, and I run out of steam really fast. Instead of starting something new, focus on how you can do what you’ve been doing even better. Look for unfinished business from the past year and see if you can make it more efficient. Adjust your eating or exercise to something doable rather than an overhaul.  
  2. Focus on relationships. When faced with the choice between tasks and people, you’ll always win with choosing people. Can you let go of being Martha-Overachiever-Stewart and snuggle the little ones with a book? Can you forgo the mall madness and Black Friday frenzy in favor of watching a movie with the family? A Christmas card that has an obligatory signature and a stamp is less meaningful than a voice text or a phone call. Look for ways that your to-dos can be swapped for togetherness.  
  3. Give more grace than gifts. The past year has been hard. Relationships have struggled and tensions are high. Stress makes the fuse a lot shorter. There are empty chairs at the holiday table—more than ever before. We don’t need more gadgets and gift cards. We need grace. Colossians 4:6 in The Passion Translation says, “Let every word you speak be drenched with grace and tempered with truth and clarity. For then you will be prepared to give a respectful answer to anyone who asks about your faith.” There have been times that I’m already pre-planning what offensive thing someone is going to say to me during a gathering and what I’m going to say or do about it. Instead of assuming someone will offend me, I can plan for how I will bless someone with my words. Grace is not always a defensive response but an offensive move. Offer kindness and grace first, before you have to offer it in response to someone’s harsh words.

Recommended Resource

For a resource today, I’ve created a free printable PDF for you here. It says:   

  • I'll wait to start anything new
  • I'll focus on relationships
  • I'll give more grace than gifts 

 There’s a place there for you to print and then sign and hang up somewhere where you’ll see it over the next 5 weeks. PLUS in the Facebook community, I’ll upload a version that can be used as wallpaper on your phone screen to remind yourself of your holiday strategy. 

Download PDF Version 

Other resources for your Christmas shopping: 

Life, Repurposed: Stories of Grace, Hope, and Restored Faith  

Classic Marriage: Staying in Love as Your Odometer Climbs  

Other books 

We’ll be on a little break in December as we get episodes ready for 2022. Plus a new look on the podcast art is coming! 


Episode Sponsor: 

This episode is sponsored by Mission and Media. If you’d like to publish a book and do it professionally without going through a publisher, your first order of business is finding someone who has your back. I help independent publishers with the editing, design, and coaching to publish books on your own and with quality standards and design to match traditional publishing. Mission and Media is not a publisher. Instead, I like to think of myself as a book doula. You’ll put in a lot of hard work, and you’ll need to treat your writing and publishing as a business, but I’ll help you birth the book. If you’re interested in learning more about indie publishing, go to missionandmedia.com and take the free assessment to see if you’re a good fit for doing it yourself. 


Consider joining our Life, Repurposed Facebook community to build connections and engage in conversation about topics from each episode. 


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(Please note: books posted here on my blog are purely because I want to share them. Sometimes I receive free copies for review, and other times I purchase the books. Some I get from the library. Either way, any endorsement I offer here on the blog is simply because I want to talk about the book.)

Michelle Rayburn is the author of The Repurposed and Upcycled Life: When God Turns Trash to Treasure, as well as a small group Bible study to accompany the book. Learn more about these and her other books here. A sample chapter of the book and Bible study are available for free download.

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This post contains affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, if you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a commission. I sell my ebook via Amazon but I’m also a part of their “Associates” (i.e. affiliate) program which pays a commission on books and any other Amazon products people purchase via my links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Posted in Articles, Books & Resources, Podcast Episodes.