Merry Christmas week! We hope you are spending the next few days surrounded by loved ones and celebrating the birth of our Savior. This ultimate gift given to mankind is a beautiful example of unbounded love and exactly the reason we’ve wanted you to embrace reflecting and celebrating this month. God gave you the gift of this year!

The vibe of this season is presents! parties! perfection! It’s fine for those things to be part of our celebration, but it shouldn’t be the focus of our season, as we discussed at the beginning of this month. Focusing on the superficial instead of the supernatural will hold back the true splendor of the Christmas season. It will also leave you with a fleeting sense of joy and peace, and come the day after Christmas, you just might find yourself with a case of the post-holiday blues. Why? Because you did not truly celebrate.

When you reflect and find meaningful things to celebrate, you will see that a heart and mindset of giving is really the best way to honor the accomplishments you’ve been blessed with this year. Dr. Stephanie L. Derrick said it best in this month’s interview: “[W]hen we recognize that much of what we have is a gift, then giving back becomes something we feel obliged to do.” Those who see how much they’ve been blessed with — even if it’s not outwardly impressive — are compelled to reciprocate that blessing on others. 

So how do you find motivation to give back? How are you supposed to review your year in a way that is both constructive and gratifying? Diane wrote about the importance of yearly performance reviews beyond the workplace. Reflect on your life at home and the relationships you have with people in your circle. Review your walk with God and see where enriching your connection with Him has fallen down your priorities list these past twelve months.

“Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,…” – 1 Chronicles 16:11-12

Even the worst year has something to celebrate. God works wonders in our lives every day. You’re alive, you’re breathing, you have the means to be reading this right now. The basic daily facets in our lives lose our appreciation the longer we experience them. It’s just human nature. This leaves us prone to having difficulty finding reasons to celebrate and be grateful. An ungrateful heart is almost never going to feel compelled to be a blessing to others, which leaves that heart shut off from the incredible lightness of joy.

In a season focused on joy and good tidings, one of the best ways to celebrate and ensure you have a full heart at the end of the festivities is to take inspiration from God and give. Give without expectation of receiving something in return. Reflect on what this year brought to you — good and bad — and find something to celebrate. Then, in gratitude, give in the spirit of providing someone else the chance to have their own celebration next year.

At 4word, our mission is to build a global community of Christian women in the workplace so they can reach their God-given potential with confidence. Through this community, we are constantly blessed with stories of changed lives and restored hearts through our Mentor Program, Local Groups, or our regular blogs and podcasts. The 4word team is honored to give of ourselves through 4word, and it’s incredible to see our gifts returned to us in testimonials of God’s hand at work in the lives of Christian women in the workplace everywhere.

Before 2018 comes to a close, we just want to say thank you for letting us into your life this year. We hope you’ve been blessed by our online community! If you feel like God is calling you to give back in celebration of your year, 4word would be honored to be blessed with a financial gift from you to celebrate how far you’ve come in 2018. Click here to give by January 1, and thank you for being a part of God moving through 4word!

Sign up to receive our Weekly Blog Email and get blogs like this delivered right to your inbox!

——