{"id":1027,"date":"2013-12-18T17:14:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-18T17:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/katrina.effexhost.com\/index.php\/2013\/12\/18\/12-pearls-of-christmas-day-5\/"},"modified":"2025-01-09T18:50:33","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T18:50:33","slug":"12-pearls-of-christmas-day-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/2013\/12\/18\/12-pearls-of-christmas-day-5\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Pearls of Christmas: Day 5"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"12pearlsofxmas\"<\/a><\/div>\n

Welcome to the <\/strong>12 Pearls of Christmas blog series<\/strong>!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Merry Christmas from Pearl Girls\u2122<\/a>!<\/strong> We hope you enjoy these Christmas \u201cPearls of Wisdom\u201d from the authors who were so kind to donate their time and talents! If you miss a few posts, you\u2019ll be able go back through and read them on this blog throughout the next few days.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re giving away a pearl necklace in celebration of the holidays, as well as some items from the contributors! <\/strong>Enter now below. The winner will be announced on January 2, 2014, at the Pearl Girls blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you are unfamiliar with Pearl Girls\u2122, please visit www.pearlgirls.info<\/a> and see what we\u2019re all about. In short, we exist to support the work of charities that help women and children in the US and around the globe. Consider purchasing a copy of Mother of Pearl<\/a>,<\/em> Pearl Girls: Encountering Grit, Experiencing Grace<\/em><\/a>, or one of the Pearl Girls products<\/a> (all GREAT gifts!) to help support Pearl Girls.<\/p>\n

***<\/div>\n

My Gift to Him<\/strong>
\nby: Cara Putman<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As Christmas nears, I\u2019m staggering under a year that\u2019s been too full. A fall that\u2019s been too busy. A season of good, but overwhelming days.<\/p>\n

Does anyone else feel the same?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing bad\u2014life is just full. Too full.<\/p>\n

And I feel emptied. So empty.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

It would be easy to enter this season with a sense of exhaustion, feeling like I just want to get through and on to January.<\/p>\n

Instead, I want to offer my life again. May my gift be my life. My dreams. My talents. My all. May I be available to Him to transform from the inside out. I want my life to be lived for His glory.<\/p>\n

Yet I fail. And on the days that I am most tired and overwhelmed I seem to fail more. It is then that I take comfort in the reality that He is the King born in a manager. A King who gave up heaven in order to save me. You. All of us. He has good plans for my life. Plans that exceed my wildest dreams. Plans fit for the daughter of the Most High.<\/p>\n

He has plans like that for you, too. Plans that may be different from your plans, but plans that are wonderful and good.<\/b><\/p>\n

So in this season of busyness, a season when it is easy to focus on things, duties, parties, family and friends, will you join me? I\u2019m offering myself as a gift to Him. Will you?<\/p>\n

\"12pearls-putman\"<\/a><\/div>\n
***<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>Cara Putman is the award-winning author of sixteen novels. You can learn more about her and her books at www.caraputman.com<\/a>. You can read the first chapters of all her books there including her new novel, Shadowed by Grace<\/a><\/i><\/b>, which releases on January 1st just in time for Christmas gift cards. You can connect with Cara on: Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, Pinterest<\/a>, and Goodreads<\/a><\/p>\n

a Rafflecopter giveaway<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Photobucket\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to the 12 Pearls of Christmas blog series! Merry Christmas from Pearl Girls\u2122! We hope you enjoy these Christmas \u201cPearls of Wisdom\u201d from the authors who were so kind…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2015,2019],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcement","category-giveaway"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1027"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2363,"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027\/revisions\/2363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}