As we approach this joyous, but often stressful, season where we await the coming of Jesus, we worry. Will we have the right gift for everyone? Will the food we provide be plentiful and delicious? And even will our decorations set the right tone?  Perhaps the first question we should be asking ourselves is if we are making enough time to care for ourselves.

Spiritual Practices for Soul Care: 40 Ways to Deepen Your Faith by Barbara Peacock (on our 2025 reading list), and Sacred Self-Care: Daily Practices for Nurturing Our Whole Selves by Dr. Chanequa Walker-Barnes (on our 2026 reading list) both emphasize the need for self-care as part of soul care.

Spiritual Practices for Soul Care has forty chapters. Each chapter explains one discipline and includes a scripture passage, an example of a leader whose spiritual journey exemplifies the spiritual practice, a poem, and ways to apply the discipline.  Dr. Peacock states

“I often say that you can have self-care without having soul care, but you cannot have soul care without self-care. Soul care is a holistic approach that seeks to spiritually nurture and cultivate the whole person and recognizes God as the ultimate soul caretaker.  Self-care is centered on a person’s physical body.  Both caring and nurturing are necessary.  Because God cares about every part of us, we all need to be good stewards of our whole being.”  

Sacred Self-Care is a 49-day program of a scripture reading, a devotional, and a practice for the day.  Dr. Walker-Barnes states that

“Just as wellness is wholistic, self-care is, too.  Sacred self-care, then, integrates our spiritual, physical, emotional, mental, and relational well-being.” 

I encourage you to take a look at both of these books and to consider taking a little time each day for rest and self-care.  From Good Enough by Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie

“So, dear body, let us quiet ourselves and look to God who made us in all our imperfections and in our total dependence. Through God, in God, we live and move and find our being (Acts 17:28). Let us be more awake, more alive, more drawn together body and soul into that single purpose – to love and be loved by a God who calls us God’s own.”

I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving where you have time to remember all you have to be thankful for, a Merry Christmas where you have time to wait and watch in awe for the coming of the Messiah, and a happy start to 2026.  I am looking forward to being in-person with you for our Spiritual Life Soul Care retreat April 17-19 in Ruckersville, VA.  Registration information is coming shortly.