CHOOSING HOPE
December 2025

In my monthly Newsletter articles I am leaning more and more into applied theology. That is, I’m doing less written reflecting on our monthly ministry themes and instead providing tangible practices which can help us grow spiritually. I hope that these concrete exercises are helpful and engaging.

December’s ministry theme is “Choosing Hope” (you can see all the year’s themes here: soulmatterssharingcircle.com/themes.html). Hope is a feeling of positive anticipation, the idea that a certain thing will come to happen or that the future will be better than the present. A feeling of hope is similar to other mindsets – it can be cultivated and nurtured. The work, then, is to nourish our hopefulness.

The spiritual practice for December is to give yourself daily compliments. Each morning or evening, take a moment and tell yourself something good about yourself. Your compliment can be about your personality, an accomplishment, your physical appearance or a confidence boost. Giving yourself a compliment is one way to increase a sense of hopefulness. You are welcome to go deeper: by journalling, setting goals, sharing with others or getting outside. These and other ideas for increasing a sense of hope can be found here: jedfoundation.org/resource/how-to-feel-more-hopeful/.

Hope can be a choice, in that we can grow our capacity for hope. I will try to engage with being hopeful and I would like to hear how self-complimenting goes with you. Don’t hesitate to reach out. I can be contacted via phone (412-327-3731), e-mail (minister@tpuuf.org) or in person at TPUUF (Thursdays, Sundays I preach & other times by appointment).

With hope,
Rev. Andrew L. Weber