advent

Advent is one of my favorite seasons. Yesterday marked the beginning of the #advent season. It starts four Sundays before Christmas.🎄This is an evergreen wreath with four candles, sometimes with a fifth, white candle in the center. ‘Beginning with the First Sunday of Advent, the lighting of a candle can be accompanied by a Bible reading, devotional time, and prayers.’ Another candle is lit each Sunday until, by the last Sunday, all four candles have been lit. Some Advent wreaths include a fifth, white candle which is lit on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day (the pink one is for rejoicing on the fourth Sunday).🕯🎄🙏☦️🧑‍🎄🌨❄️ #advent #christmas

About Zina

Zina Hermez has authored the best-selling book “Not Without God: A Story of Survival.” Her stories have been featured in various guest articles, medical journals, magazines, newsletters, and more than 300 of her own blog articles. As an educator for more than twenty years, she’s had the privilege of working with thousands of students from different backgrounds and parts of the world. Her upcoming book, “Not Without God: Hope In the Storm” will be out next year. Her writing endeavors have earned her an invitation to speak at the Harvard Faculty Club’s “Business Expert Forum.” Zina’s goal is to help others overcome adversity, and she strives to do what she longs to–help others. She’s appeared in Christianity Today, the Southern Writers magazine, and the Suite T blog, among other places. Socializing with friends, taking business trips, listening to music, and meeting new people are among her hobbies. She was recently featured on Color Speak (a Grace and Truth Radio World! podcast) and on ESPN’s ‘Solutions from the Huddle’ broadcast. You can connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, or Twitter.

Lately I’ve been thinking of HOW MUCH I am doing and how full my schedule is, but you know what, I wouldn’t have it any other way. The idea of sitting down and doing nothing for gaps of periods in time frightens me. Here is why:

I am in a race. I am aware of that, and there are others running with me. And if I want to be the first to pass the finish line (OR, even get to it!), I have to get up and do something!! Once you slow down, you watch others pass you by. Now how are you going to feel when others are making huge strides?

Life is about more than you realize, we are not only here for ourselves, but we are here for EACH OTHER, also—to give instruction, to be a model, to HELP! Once you give up, the people behind you (that you may not even know pay attention), give up, also! Just like I tell my students: here are the instructions, I am going to give them to you, but I can’t “spoon-feed them.”

You’re going to have to read THE INSTRUCTIONS, you’re going to have to do the research, you’re going to have to work. Run! Each of us has our own race and destiny. NO one can determine the outcome but YOU! What are you going to do, today? Are you going to participate?

I have worked through pain. I have gotten up and showed up. Every. Single. Day. You have one job to do. You either get it, or miss it! Don’t be in the ‘miss it’ category, because you will regret it!

We live in a society where the focus is too much on ourselves; instead of being focused on our OWN needs and what WE want, let’s keep in mind Christ who sacrificed SO MUCH for others (you and I!).

Let’s give this season with Advent right around the corner and remember, this is not the season of burn-out, this is not the season of weariness, this is the season to RUN the RACE and FINISH! And believe, me, you will be restored if your heart is in the right place!

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