Hey y’all, and welcome to Monday Manna!
In the summer of 2025, we were visiting family in Michigan and had plans to spend the day with some close friends who live about two hours away.
We were already on the road when they canceled at the last minute, because they had gotten the dates mixed up. Just like that, the day we had planned was gone.
We had a choice to make in that car, and it’s the same choice every family faces more than once between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve.
And this week, we’re turning to a habit that changes how the rest of the season feels…
Joy Isn’t Seasonal
In the summer of 2025… while visiting our family in Michigan, we made plans to see some close friends and while we were driving to their home two hours away, they canceled at the last minute because they got their dates mixed up. So we took a turn north, and made the best out of the situation…
That’s the Mackinac Bridge behind us. We ended up enjoying the Great Lakes, had a wonderful picnic under the bridge, went swimming, and found joy in a moment…
We could have turned the car around and spent the afternoon disappointed. Instead, we turned north, toward a day none of us had planned.
The joy that day didn’t depend on our plans working out. It came when we stopped grieving the day we lost and started receiving the day God gave us.
We’re telling you this now because the holidays are full of canceled plans. Here are a few you might see before January:
A flight gets delayed, or a snowstorm closes the road to Grandma’s house
Someone runs a fever on Thanksgiving morning
The relatives you hoped would come can’t make it, or the ones you didn’t expect show up
The turkey takes two hours longer than the recipe promised
Most of us treat joy like the weather. When the forecast is good we’re happy, and when the plan falls apart, our mood falls apart with it.
The Bible calls us to something sturdier than that:
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” — Philippians 4:4
Paul wrote those words while he was in chains (Philippians 1:13), with every travel plan he had made out of his hands. He commands joy twice in one sentence anyway, because his joy was anchored in the Lord and not in his circumstances.
In our last Manna we told you we’re done just surviving the holidays, and over the past week we started living that out, in our homes and in our marriages.
First we published Holiday Stress and the Bible, which lays out the conviction behind everything we’ll publish through New Year’s Eve: the holidays are something to enjoy with God, not something to survive without Him.
Then we turned to marriage, because the holidays put extra pressure on a husband and wife, and we shared the 11 lessons we learned almost too late.
Underneath all of it is one simple truth, and it’s the reason we can celebrate at all. Joy isn’t seasonal, because the One who gives it isn’t:
“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” — John 15:11
Jesus said those words on the night He was betrayed, with the cross only hours away. Notice He calls it My joy, a joy that held on the hardest night any man has ever faced.
If His joy could hold that night, it can hold through a canceled flight and a crowded table. And He wants that joy in you, full, not rationed out for the good days.
So how do you get that kind of joy to hold? Scripture keeps pointing to the same doorway:
“Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! Give thanks to Him; bless His name!” — Psalm 100:4
Thanksgiving is the gate, and joy is what you find on the other side, in His presence (Psalm 16:11). Give thanks first, even on a day when the plans fall apart, and the joy follows.
So this week, with Thanksgiving almost here, we’re turning to thankfulness.
And we’ll close the Holiday season together with a prayer for a grateful heart.
YOUR DAILY MANNA
“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.” — Psalm 103:1-2
Notice who David is talking to, because he isn’t preaching to a crowd here, he’s preaching to his own soul.
The Hebrew word for bless, barak, shares its root with the word for knee. To bless the Lord is to bow before Him with everything you’ve got, in worship and in thanks.
And David holds nothing back: all that is within me. That’s his mind, his emotions, his will, and yes, his body, all of it bowing before the God who made it.
And he has to, because forgetting is our default. We remember the burned rolls and the hard conversation, and we forget the quiet mercies God gave us the very same day.
Israel had the same problem. They watched God part the Red Sea, and here’s how the psalmist sums up what came next:
“But they soon forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel.” — Psalm 106:13
That word soon is the warning, because three days after crossing the sea they were grumbling about water (Exodus 15:22-24). So David doesn’t leave it vague; he names what God has done:
“…who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” — Psalm 103:3-5
Look at that list: forgiveness for your soul, healing for your body, rescue for your life, and good things that renew your strength. David painted a whole-person picture of health thousands of years before anyone called it wellness.
Gratitude starts with remembering, and sometimes you have to tell your own soul to do it.
So here is your one thing this week.
Every night at dinner, have each person name one of God’s benefits from that day. Write them on a list and keep it on the fridge, so by Thanksgiving your family has a page full of reasons to give thanks.
Your soul forgets what your mouth never says.
What We’re Loving This Week
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Bible Health Daily
Every morning, Bible Health Daily gives you one verse and a few minutes with Dr. Z, so the Word gets into your heart before the world gets into your feed.
Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or right here on Substack. And if it blesses you, would you take ten seconds to rate and review it on Apple Podcasts?
It helps more people find it.
Here are a few of our latest episodes:
Featured Posts
Everything we’ve published since Manna #27, all four pieces, right here. We’re wrapping up our marriage series and starting a new one for the holidays…
Inner Circle
Founding & Inner Circle Members: we’re on our holiday break from live studies, but every replay from the 41-Day Nervous System Reset is waiting for you in your Bible Health Vault.
If you missed the final live day, you can catch it below.
We’ll keep checking in with you this season, and our Home & Body Detox study kicks off in early January.
![[LIVE] Day 41 Nervous System Reset — The Commissioning](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!qGlN!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-video.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fvideo_upload%2Fpost%2F223220318%2Fcd18804c-70fb-40e7-aafe-a9cc36d1d8ab%2Ftranscoded-00001.png)
From Natural Living Family
Bible Health is where we teach the why. Over on Natural Living Family this week we taught the how. Here are three favorites worth your five minutes…
DIY Hand Soap + Burn Cream + Cassava Root + Energy Protein Smoothie
DIY Pain Roll-On + Oils for Inflammation + Sciatica Relief + Gluten-Free Dinner Rolls
Want more from our Natural Living Family Substack?
The world will keep knocking. Let’s make sure the Word answers the door.
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As always, our hope and prayer is that you experience the abundant life.
~ Dr. Z & Mama Z