I made a new friend last weekend – Courtney Joseph, author of Women Living Well: Find Your Joy in God, Your Man, Your Kids and Your Home (tuck a copy in a few stockings this Christmas!) and blogger at Women Living Well and Good Morning Girls. Courtney and I were “neighbors” for a few hours at a Christmas luncheon where she beautifully shared her heart and wisdom about practical ways we can Keep Christ in CHRISTmas.

Just as you would invite a neighbor into your home, Courtney kindly invited me over to her blog this morning. Please pour yourself a cup of coffee and spend a few minutes with my new friend…

Break the Silence

It will be a “Silent Night” in many homes on your street this Christmas. In fact, one in five of your neighbors suffers silently from loneliness.

Nine out of ten elderly people say a simple chat on the phone would alleviate their loneliness, but one in four have no one to talk to. A 2010 AARP study found that 35% of all adults over age 45 are chronically lonely – a 75% increase in just ten years.

One in four of the homes on your street is occupied by a single person living alone, up from one in ten in 1950. Living alone doesn’t automatically make you lonely. You can feel lonely lying in bed with your husband or with a house full of children—you can feel lonely in the midst of a Christmas celebration. You can be a loyal woman of faith and still feel lonely, because as we’re transformed into the image of God we crave the relationships He designed us to enjoy…

• Finish reading at Women Living Well!
• Check out the new resource on our Freebies page to go along with this post