Alva Review-Courier -

My church and I have recently celebrated the Advent season in preparation for the Christmas celebration. If you don’t know what Advent is, that’s all right; that shouldn’t matter. To put it simply, it’s an ancient church tradition that believers engage in to prepare our hearts, minds and attitudes to properly appreciate and celebrate the birth of our Savior. We do that by focusing on a different word every Sunday. The first Sunday was the word “HOPE” and while the celebration is now behind us, our need for hope in this world is as prevalent as ever.

Hope is that element in our lives that gives...