MID WEEK MOTIVATION - November 19, 2025 (Laura Ullrich)

You're listening to the Midweek Motivation Podcast from DeSoto Hills Baptist Church in South David, Mississippi.

Here's your host, Mark Lewis, David Burgess, Laura Ulrich, and Pastor Grant Digall.

Welcome to the Midweek Motivation Podcast for Wednesday, November the 19th, here at DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.

I'm Mark Lewis in the studio with Laura today.

We hope this programming can encourage folks throughout DeSoto County and beyond.

Be sure to subscribe and share our link on social media.

The holiday season is here.

It seems like summer just ended, not but a few weeks ago.

And here we are already talking about Thanksgiving, because today is essentially our Thanksgiving episode because we will not be podcasting next week because of the holidays.

Right.

So tell us about the uh auric house for Thanksgiving.

What's the plan?

Well, we're pretty chill.

Like we'll go to Brandon's family for lunch and then my family for dinner.

And because everybody's in town now.

Everybody's in town.

Um sometimes we go to Oxford to my brothers, but this year they're coming here.

So it'll be fun.

Um we do watch the Thanksgiving Day parade at the Ulrich Home.

Are you a fan?

Yeah.

It doesn't everyone pretty much watch the or at least have it on in the back.

At least on.

Right.

Yeah.

I mean, we start watching it and then, you know, I can't really sit still to watch the whole thing.

So I like get up and cook and do things.

But um it is a tradition that I've had my whole entire life.

I enjoy having tasty treats during uh the breakfast portion of the parade.

Like whether it's sausage muffins or crisp bacon.

I'm a sucker for that.

Some crisp bacon.

Yes.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Okay, moving beyond, have y'all already started decorating for Christmas?

No.

Have you?

Of course you have.

Tree is up.

Tree is up.

Tree is up.

Tree is up.

Tree is up.

Decorated?

Decorated.

Lights uh are on the outside of the house.

I have not lit the outside of the house yet.

I will wait another week or so to do that.

But I wanted the lights on the house during the warm weather because once it snaps really cold, you don't want to be out on the ladder putting lights all the way around the edge of the house.

Well, that's true.

But hey, do you have okay, those Christmas lights are those lights that you can buy and like put on your house like one time a year and then you switch them out to be different colors depending on the holiday?

Uh the people that are doing that are putting those LED strips along the roofs of their house.

Do you have those?

I do not.

We don't either.

I don't know.

They kind of look a little bit uniform and manufactured, and they don't have the same warm feeling that actual string lights do.

I put actual C9, the old C9.

Big bulbs, big bulbs.

I just for whatever reason and I do multicolored because I feel like that's a very 80s and and I and my young childhood was the eighties.

So like it it it carries me back to the 80s.

It helps you reminisce of the 80s.

So then the other one, you know, there is something psychological about remembering that child those childhood moments.

I I put out the little Christmas houses.

I've talked about that on here before.

When I was growing up, my grandmother had one of those little houses, and I still remember how much I loved staring at it.

So of course now I've got way more than one.

Way more.

In fact, so many that uh I have to choose each year which ones are gonna go out because I can't put them.

I can't put them all out.

But uh in fact, I bought one today on eBay,$25.

I'll go and check out the case.

Which village do you have though?

Because there's a plethora of the Peter Well, I the company I use is Lamax.

Like that's one of the more notable companies that makes them.

Uh but I will a lot of times uh Michaels carries Lamax too.

They do, and I really enjoy them.

So I will buy uh I've I've bought plenty of them from Michaels over the years, but they're pricey brand new.

It's funny, if you get on eBay, there are hundreds of them.

And so I will search for what I want.

For instance, last year I wanted a church.

Okay.

So I went on eBay because people sleep on eBay now.

They don't think about eBay anymore.

That's true.

It's kind of funny.

Nobody thinks about eBay, they go on like Facebook Marketplace or something.

Yes.

So I'll go on eBay and I'll type in Lemax Church, and then there will be 12 different ones because over the years they've released them.

So one of them will say the 1985 version, one will say 2005 version, whatever.

And then you can make offers all day long.

So like the one I bought today was a music store because one of my girls said we don't have a music store on there.

And they wanted like sixty something dollars for it, and I offered twenty-five, and they took it.

Like an hour later they said, Your offer has been accepted.

So you know it's so anyway.

Um I'm all into that.

But I said all that to to make the point of the reason I'm into that is because I remember being fascinated with those when I was a kid.

Oh yeah, my mom has we do Snow Village, that's a thing.

And um, oh yes, growing up we gave her one every year for her birthday, and which is right before Christmas.

And so she has quite a collection of them.

They have not made it to my home yet.

Um but one day perhaps.

You've put your name on them?

Uh yes, it's been divided.

It's been divided on.

It's not my brother, it's my sister-in-law.

It's been divided, I do believe.

Yeah.

So um, but yes, like it is all a thing to put that out.

But I think mom's gotten to where now she puts out just bits and pieces and probably talked about this before on here, but what's your favorite part about the holiday season overall?

Um this year I think it will be uh of course, depending on time on my family, but this year um I think it will be a little different, only because I've been so busy over the past a couple of since really January.

Um really since this summer for sure.

Um and I think it'll be nice just to take a break and not have school and internship hours and so much, you know, ministry kind of dies down uh for a little bit during Christmas.

And so I think that will be might be my favorite.

Just to not have a schedule to keep every day.

Yes.

I totally, totally agree.

That's what I got.

So speaking of not keeping schedules, let's get right to the church calendar.

Great.

Let's do that.

Because I'm looking at at least ten items on the church calendar for December.

We will not hit everything today, but we're gonna hit some of the highlights.

Um Carol's by candlelight is going to be December the 7th.

And I I guess I should back up.

Uh the church office is gonna be closed uh the 26th through the 28th of um the holidays.

So that it'll be closed Wednesday, Thursday of Thanksgiving week.

Of course, Fridays, the office is already closed.

So we need to mention that.

Uh and then Carols by Candlelight will be the first main event that we have here at the church, and that's going to be at the 9 and 10 30 services on December 7th.

Regular service times, but the choir will be doing um a Christmas program that we call Carols by Candlelight here at DeSoto Hills.

Uh and then on the 9th of December, we have the TNT Christmas dinner at 6 p.m.

You do have to have advanced tickets for that.

So it's a big deal.

It's a thing.

Make sure you sign up for that.

I'm assuming the welcome desk in the Grand Hall is probably where you're going to register for those tickets.

Of course, you can always call our church office during office hours and they can help you with that as well.

Um We have an event called Loss of a Spouse.

Are you familiar with that one?

Because I'm not familiar with that one.

It's written on this calendar and I have no clue.

I think it's in conjunction with like grief shape.

For those individuals who have lost spouses over the last couple years, and it's kind of tough in the holidays.

Yes.

So that's a December the 10th.

December the 14th, our children are going to be singing in the morning services.

So that's all the children's choirs.

You're not going to want to miss that.

Also on the 14th at night is going to be the caroling at Golton uh living home.

And that's at 5 p.m.

That's going to be uh our families just show up, you show up here at the church, and I think we take buses over to Golden, and uh those people really appreciated it last year.

So uh it was great.

We're gonna do it again.

And you can wear Christmas attire.

Absolutely.

Some Christmas sweaters.

And bring your kids too.

That's who they bring up.

Yeah, it's full.

It's full families.

Full families showed up last year.

It was really, really great.

Um okay.

My favorite event at Christmas.

You're you're gonna laugh at this because I may know what it is, but go ahead.

Oh, you already know what it is.

It is the family gingerbread house decorating party.

And this is the third angle.

Second?

This is only the second time.

This is only the second time.

I thought that was a year I missed it.

Uh and we have a big change on this this year.

Dun dun dun.

And it's a good change.

Uh in the past or last year, it was one per family.

Oh, yes.

Yes, correct.

And it's very problematic.

Well, at least in Lewis, the Lewis household, it is problematic.

We were not the only ones.

I saw many a table around us with some arguing between the siblings.

Trevor Burrus, Jr.

There might have been at the Ulrich table as well.

So how can we mitigate this?

I've been told that we are registering for that now so that we know how many to buy.

Because truthfully, it's not easy for us to say, just show up and we'll make sure everyone has one because we don't know if we need to order 300 or 50.

Right.

So we need you to sign up and register saying, my family is coming, and then how many houses we're going to need.

That's correct.

I don't really, we're not really so much worried about how many people come as we are how many houses we need to have on.

Yes.

So when you register online, there's a form fill out.

It's super, super simple.

It should take no more than three minutes.

And just your family name and how many houses, because we surely do not want any tiffs during the holiday season over gingerbread house decorating.

Parents and orchids.

I may be I may be going overboard with the drama on it.

It was a big deal.

Marshmallows went on, marshmallows came off.

It was it was a to-do, yes.

Chocolate chips went on, chocolate chimps came off.

No Keelin.

No Keelin.

No, don't put that there.

Right.

So uh anyway, that's gonna happen uh it says 6 p.m.

on December the 17th.

And that happens in the multi-purpose room.

So we'll actually be in the regular MPC where we have our regular services.

Uh we just set up a zillion tables.

I'm assuming we have meals that night.

We do have meals.

Register, sign up for meals.

Um I'll get in trouble if I don't tell you that.

So sign up for meals.

And if you're coming to the gingerbread party, you need to sign up by December 7th.

That's coming up.

Yeah.

We gotta get all the houses.

So go ahead and do so.

Go ahead and sign up today, listening to this right now.

We need to make a Sunday morning announcement, by the way, with that.

Um Lottie Moon is coming up on December the 21st.

We did that last year.

It was fantastic.

Our, our, our man, I can't say our goal for that is$15,000 this year.

So uh we want to make sure that we reach that goal.

Grant wanted to mention.

You can give really all of the month of December.

They're gonna have envelopes, so you can give ahead each week.

Uh you can, of course, give online.

You can do it a number of different ways.

Just make sure you notate whenever you're giving that offering that that is what it's for, Lottie Moon.

And then we've got Country Christmas on the 21st, which is has become a staple at DeSota Hills.

I don't even know how many years now we've been doing that.

It's at least 15.

It I've been here 15, so at least that long.

Was it the first year you were here we were already doing it?

Possibly.

Yeah, it's it's it's a big today.

It's the it's become uh a lot of family's favorite gatherings, and it's it's our last really big thing that we do before Christmas.

Right.

So And don't forget the biscuits at the beginning.

Yes.

Uh the biscuit fellowship will be at 4 30.

Um bring your favorite jams.

We will provide the biscuits, hang out, have some fun, and then Country Christmas in the regular MPC at 5 p.m.

The biscuit fellowship will be in the grand hall.

So it's all downstairs.

A lot of fun.

Bring the family.

Uh programming's about 45 minutes.

We will do lots of different Christmas songs this year.

Uh I've been I've been working on that.

Uh we're gonna do lots of just regular secular Christmas songs as well as Christian Christmas uh Christmas songs and some hymns.

Great.

The kids will love it.

They've already got their own little part in there that they get to scream out, so it's gonna be a lot of fun.

Uh and then the office is gonna be closed the 24th, obviously, and the 25th.

Uh, and there will be no Wednesday night activities on Christmas Eve.

No.

Uh no.

So, and then uh regular Sunday schedule will be on the 28th, and that's gonna be a really special um service as well, because I've got my good friend Ellen coming in with a cello.

Everybody loves the cello in this morning.

So that will be December 28th.

And that is some of the highlights of December.

There are other things that um you can pick up the calendar in the grand hall if you want to see a full list of things, and of course, the worship guide will have a lot of information for you as well.

It is now time we're going to shift to our devotion portion of the podcast that we call the midweek moment.

All right, so here we are, Thanksgiving time with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

In fact, this is a little known fact that uh you might not know.

This is the 99th uh Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Did you know that?

I did not, but that means next year's gonna be a really big one.

100.

There's been some talk in the old Racomb about how fun it would be to go to the 100th anniversary of the U.S.

Let me tell you a secret.

Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Every other American will be planning that trip next year, too.

Because you know they're gonna be talking about it non-stop, even this year.

I've already started, I've already heard about it.

I've already heard like some bands that are gonna be there and such.

So, anyway, so Thanksgiving's coming up.

Um, this is not about the parade or the cranberry sauce, by the way.

Do you like the canned cranberry sauce or the real deal or none?

I don't eat cranberry sauce, I don't eat turkey, I don't eat ham, I don't eat dressing.

None of it.

Okay.

I'll listen to a story today.

This is also has nothing to do with the devotion on the YouTube.

It was a children's book about a turkey and Thanksgiving.

And I thought I might use it today, but I'm not.

But it relates to Mark Lewis because the turkey was worried that he was going to be cooked for Thanksgiving dinner by the farmer and his wife.

And at the end of the story, the farmer and his wife are vegetarian, so the turkey was saved because they only eat stuffed pumpkin and pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving.

I wouldn't even eat that.

What do you eat at Thanksgiving?

A lot of times I don't eat.

Last year I I remember cooking myself some squash and some kale.

And I think that's what I ate.

I didn't have any meat.

Once some years I'll take a little skirt steak with us wherever we go and I'll cook a little I'll cook a little skirt steak.

Um Yeah, I don't eat much.

I'll I'll do grilled chicken or something, but mmost people don't even have any of that type of thing.

So we're always with other families.

Like we're always with grandparents or whatever.

If I was at my house, right, I would be on.

I could I could cook all day long.

Absolutely.

Right, like those chocolate chip cookies.

Okay.

Man.

Um, back to my to my devotion.

All right.

So I was thinking about, you know, Thanksgiving, we all know it comes every year.

And if you're like my family growing up, I remember driving to grandparents' or my aunt and uncle's house, and we would take turns in the car, like saying what you're thankful for, right?

And there was four of us, and so we would all go around and say something, but you couldn't repeat what somebody else said.

And so it kind of got tiring and hard, and we just gave up.

So I thought, wouldn't it be interesting?

Like I had this thought today, not when I was a little child, but today um it would be interesting to challenge our people listening, all 35 of them, that they should like go online and like Google interesting table topics for Thanksgiving, right?

It made me think of your cards that you do.

I love it.

Yeah.

And so I was like, that would be a great um like something different to do around the Thanksgiving table.

Like ask different questions besides what you're thankful for because we get tired of the same questions all the time.

Or the kids do anyway.

So um that is that's just an aside.

But I was contemplating Thanksgiving, and I wondered, you know, we all hear the story about the pilgrims and the Indians and the first Thanksgiving and all of those things.

Um, but I was on Google today to look up some interesting facts about Thanksgiving, and probably the most interesting one I saw, and you may not know this, Mark Lewis.

I don't know you may because you're a teacher type, but I did not.

So Thanksgiving was first a holiday by president do you know?

Do you know which president started Thanksgiving?

You cannot Google.

I think it was Woodrow Wilson that did Veterans Day.

I can't remember off the top of my head who it was for Thanksgiving.

I have looked it up before, but it's been years.

I'm gonna tell you, it was Abraham Lincoln.

Even more interesting than that, Thanksgiving became a holiday in 1863.

Now, for all of you history people out there, okay, if my dad's listening, he will know this.

What was happening in 1863 in the United States of America?

Do you know Mark Lewis?

Tell me.

He doesn't know.

The Civil War.

It was between 1861 and 1865.

Okay.

So I thought it interesting that here the president is and the nation is divided in the midst of the Civil War.

And Abraham Lincoln decides to make Thanksgiving a national holiday.

To be thankful.

In fact, this is what he said, quote, he wanted to recognize Thanksgiving as a national holiday, to be thankful for the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies.

And then he went on to say they are glorious gifts of the Most High God.

In the middle of a war.

Like he Right.

In today's political landscape, you'd never be able to do that.

No, no, no, no, no.

You would never that's beside the point.

That would never happen.

But it did in 1863.

And I thought that's very interesting.

I think I'll share with all the 35 people.

How um I didn't I just didn't know that.

And I thought that's kind of ironic that he's celebrating something while the nation is at war with itself.

Um, so I went on and I did some more searching, and I'll have to give this little devotional thought.

Um, it was not all mine, it's kind of a mixture of mine and some other uh articles on the um the internet.

And so I wanted to start with a verse today, um, Psalm 92, verses one through five.

It says, It's good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, to the music of the ten string lyre and the melody of the harp.

For you make me glad by your deeds, O Lord.

I sing for joy at the work of your hands.

How great are your works, O Lord, how profound your thoughts.

And I don't know if it's because it's just this time in my life, this season that I'm in, but um I was thinking, okay, well, what being thankful is what do we get from that?

Like what being thankful to God, yes, that is what God asks of us is to take a moment throughout our day and recognize you know the blessings that He's given us during the hard times, during the good times, during the terrible times, etc.

To to just recognize those things.

But what do we what do we get from that?

And um I have a list.

And so um some things that that I discovered and that I'm I'm borrowing from a couple people, um, are we discover that um our hearts become glad regardless of the circumstances, that we become more open and aware of God's will for us in every situation, that being thankful, praising the Lord gives us an atmosphere of joy and of the spirit.

And I really like this one.

Um it helps us choose a rich relationship with the Father over the pursuits of the world as temptations and situations arise.

And um, you know, right now when I'm doing these these counseling hours that I have to do, um, we focus a lot on feelings and uh being able to identify your feelings.

And I thought, well, f a feeling of gratitude is good, you know, it's something that we all know and we're all aware of, but what other feelings uh does being thankful give us?

You know, and so I I made a list.

Um humility, I think being thankful kind of God can use it more or less to kind of put us in our place, to kind of remind us, hey, I'm the one that's given you all these things, not you.

Like you didn't really deserve any of this, but I'm giving it to you because I love you.

And so, you know, I think for anybody that'll knock you down a few spots to realize, oh yeah, this isn't anything I've done.

This is because of God's love for me.

Um also um some peacefulness, I think being thankful and showing gratitude um does uh bring an inner sense of of peace, um, trusting God for what's next, being thankful allows you or allows me at least to focus on um, okay, God saw me through this and I'm thankful for that.

So I know he's gonna see me through whatever's next.

So just that whole feeling of trust.

And then of course a feeling of love um for for God and a love for others that comes out of that love for God.

Because like I said, God didn't have to do any of this.

God surely did not have to send, you know, Christ to die in our place.

But um He did it because He loves us, and I think that's a very like simple statement, but it carries so much weight.

Um, you know, I tell kids all the time, you know, God loves you and He loves you so much He sent Jesus to die for you.

But uh that is a huge, I mean that's what our whole Christian faith is founded on.

And so to be thankful for that and to be thankful just for the blessings of the Lord does bring about a great sense of love that God has for us.

And so uh Thanksgiving is coming and it's busy and we're all running to and from and here and there, and even if it's in the same town, like the Ulrich's, um, we're still busy.

And I think it would be a great opportunity for you or um as families, for all of us, to just be thankful, yes, for what God has given us as we should be every day.

But also think about because I am thankful, what's next?

Because I am thankful, how does that impact my relationship with God and my relationship with other people?

Thanks so much for listening.

If you don't have a church home, we'd love to see you here Sunday mornings.

You can catch our services online at DeSotoHills.com, our YouTube channel at DeSota Hills Baptist Church.

For all of our church family, we love you.

We'll see you here in two weeks because we are going to be off next week for Thanksgiving.

God bless.

This has been your midweek motivation.

We'd love to have you join us in person on Sunday mornings.

Our services are at 9 and 10 30 a.m.