I hope you have had an amazing holiday season filled with love, laughter, joy and family.  By now you’ve hopefully had time to decorate the house, put up the Christmas tree, bake cookies, drink hot chocolate, gaze at your neighbors holiday lights, and most importantly spend time with those you love. Yes, the Christmas spirit is all around us.
In the spirit of the season, let’s just see what that really means. In a two-part blog, we’re going to explore the word spirit in a special edition of the Weekend Word.
 
spir·it
ˈspirit
noun
 
1. the nonphysical part of a person that is the seat of emotions and character; the soul.
 
2. those qualities regarded as forming the definitive or typical elements in the character of a person, nation, or group or in the thought and attitudes of a particular period.
Oftentimes we refer to the spirit as if it’s inherently a good thing. Just like the old cheer goes “We’ve go spirit, yes we do. we’ve got spirit how about you?” Nobody says what kind of spirit they have, we all assume based on social cues it’s a good spirit based on bonding by a group or nation. But that same bonding can be used for bad as well. There are 15 types of spirits in the Bible, some bad and some good; but at the end of the day, everyone has a spirit.
If everyone on Earth has a spirit, then I believe it’s our job to make those spirits whole, and filled with as much happiness and light as possible. Outside factors may bring us down and break our spirits quite a bit, but as the old motivational saying goes “Whatever doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.” It means that in the face of adversity, our spirits may be down in the dumps, some might say broken. When we face a struggle we can and must do whatever it takes to heal our spirit and let our true light shine.
At Hope for Hearts we certainly have spirit. We are warriors of the soul. Helping children at the worst times in their lives work hard to battle their physical and emotional wounds. heal their own soul, and lift themselves from poverty to prosperity. We do this so that one child at a time, we can help lift the spirits of an entire nation.
To Be Continued…
Cristen