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Practical Chats for Intentional Living
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Monday Jan 20, 2025
Monday Jan 20, 2025
251. Wintering and Embracing Holy Hygge with Jamie Erickson
**Transcription Below**
John 14:3 NIV "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."
When she's not curating memories, hoarding vintage books, or homeschooling her five kids, Jamie Erickson can be found encouraging and equipping a growing tribe of mothers all across the globe on the Mom to Mom podcast, through her blog The Unlikely Homeschool, at national conferences, and in her book Homeschool Bravely: How to Squash Doubt, Trust God, and Teach Your Child With Confidence.
Questions and Topics We Discuss:
- What are ways that practicing hygge in our outer life can affect our inner life?
- You’ve given seven broad categories for holy hygge living, but let’s do a deeper dive into just two, specifically: Hospitality and Atmosphere.
- Will you share a sampling of other tips for practical hygge living?
Article Mentioned from The Savvy Sauce Website:
Decluttering Our Homes and Our Minds
Other Episodes Related to This Topic from The Savvy Sauce:
178. Fresh Take on Hospitality with Jaime Farrell
Thank You to Our Sponsor: The Sue Neihouser Team
Gospel Scripture: (all NIV)
Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”
Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”
Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession- to the praise of his glory.”
Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”
Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“
Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“
Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
**Transcription**
**Transcription**
[00:00:00] <music>
Laura Dugger: Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here.
[00:00:18] <music>
Laura Dugger: Thank you to the Sue Neihouser team for sponsoring this episode. If you're looking to buy or sell a home this season, make sure you reach out to Sue at (309) 229-8831. Sue would love to walk alongside you as you unlock new doors.
Before I introduce you to today's guest, I actually have an announcement. Beginning next week, we are going to have video as an option rather than just audio. We're kicking off our video debut with one of my favorite couples of all time to interview. And a little hint is that they are repeat guests. So you'll have to check in next week to hear that conversation with my amazing guests.
Beginning next week, you're going to be able to watch these conversations on YouTube, or you can continue just listening audio only if you would rather. [00:01:21] But if you prefer reading, I also want you to know that we're working on adding transcriptions to every single episode of The Savvy Sauce. So make sure you don't miss out on our show notes where it will contain all of these transcriptions.
You can find our show notes and access our articles and video interviews and audio. And all of this is available at our newly updated website, thesavvysauce.com.
But for today, Jamie Erickson is my guest, and she has authored multiple books. But today we're focusing on insights from her book entitled, Holy Hygge: Creating a Place for People to Gather and the Gospel to Grow.
Here's our chat.
Laura Dugger: Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, Jamie.
Jamie Erickson: I'm so thrilled to be here. Thank you so much for having me.
Laura Dugger: Well, in your book, you share some glimpses of the brokenness that you experienced in childhood. So are you willing to elaborate and tell us more about your upbringing? [00:02:28]
Jamie Erickson: Yeah, you know, I haven't shared publicly a lot of my childhood stories, mostly because they're not just mine to share. And I have to be real cognizant about how vulnerable I am with other people's sides of the story. But I guess I can say this.
If you were to imagine what you think the worst sin is, and I realize that's a human definition of sin, God doesn't category sin in the way that we do. But if you and your humanness were to just think of what are the worst sins imaginable, you might think of things like murder and rape, drug abuse, adultery, maybe homosexuality, abortion.
As a child, I could look around at my Thanksgiving table as my extended family was sitting there, and I could see every single one of those things represented by the family that was gathered there.
Laura Dugger: Thank you for even giving a glimpse into that. I think I appreciated it in your book where you just shared you wanted the lifestyle for your future family to be different. [00:03:36] I'm assuming that was a motivator from coming from a broken past. Is that right?
Jamie Erickson: Right. Yes. I hope that in even just sharing a little glimpse of my story, those who are listening can see that God is a God of redemption and restoration. And the new growth can start with your generation. Even if you didn't come from a household of faith, and faith was not handed to you, and you are the very first generation of Christ followers in your family tree, it can start with you.
Laura Dugger: Amen to that. So now you kind of lead us into wanting to hear more of your redemption story. So when did you surrender your life to Jesus Christ?
Jamie Erickson: Well, I grew up in a home where my father was not at all a believer, and I won't get into too much nitty-gritty with that. But my mother was... I would call her a nominal believer. [00:04:37] Sometime in her life, she had made a profession, and so she did attend a church, but she never brought us children. We were kind of like Christmas, Easter attenders. So we had some idea of church, but it was a religion, not a relationship.
When I was 12 and getting ready to start middle school, I grew up in a very, very crime-ridden neighborhood in the inner city of Phoenix. And I was slotted to go to a particular middle school that just had all kinds of crime in it. You'd have to go through a metal detector just to get into the school. There was tons of drugs, lots of gang-related violence.
So even though he wasn't a believer, my dad was like, "Well, I don't really want that for my two girls." So he took on two extra jobs to be able to afford a local Christian school, it was a very small Christian school, not for the sake of instilling religious training or a belief in Jesus or anything. That wasn't a thought of his. But just he and my mom both wanted us not to have to go to a crime-ridden school. [00:05:40]
And so we began going to this school that was associated with a church. And my mom thought, well, if you're going to this school, you probably, just to hang out with your friends, want to go to the church too. So we began going. My mother and my sisters and I began going to that church.
And it wasn't until I was about 15 that, you know, in those first three years, I began to see such a stark difference in the lives of the other teens around me and the people that went to this church. There was a set-apartness that was so vastly different than the life I knew in my home experience. And it was compelling to me. So I began asking questions as one does.
And it wasn't until I was about 15 that I realized what was missing in my life. It was a relationship with Christ. I realized that I was a sinner in need of saving. I called out to Jesus, asking Him to forgive me, and that I wanted to give my life to Him and dedicate the rest of my life to following Him. [00:06:47]
Laura Dugger: Wow, that is incredible. Then along the journey somewhere, where did you end up meeting your husband?
Jamie Erickson: Well, I ended up at a very small, very conservative Christian school in Florida. I was a year ahead of him because I graduated a year early. So I was a sophomore, he was an incoming freshman. He only stayed at that school that one year. And he often says, well, God led me there just to meet you, because he ended up transferring to a different school after that.
But we met the spring semester. You know, it's one of those love at first sight stories, because I actually was interested in a different guy at the time, and I saw my soon-to-be husband across the cafeteria, and something in me just said, "That's the one. That's the guy I'm going to marry. I don't need to, like, worry about it. I don't even know his name. But sometime we're going to meet, and that's the person I'm going to marry."
I ended up telling that to my roommates, and they, of course, laughed it off, "Oh, Jamie, sure, you're going to marry this guy. You have no idea who he is or where he's from or anything about him. [00:07:48] But, sure, you'll marry him." And they were my bridesmaids. So there you go.
Laura Dugger: Well, you fill in a few more gaps as well and share, how did you go from that moment in the cafeteria to married?
Jamie Erickson: Well, he saw me. I saw him. There's conflicting stories on to who saw who first. But he claims he saw me first. And then he started seeing me around campus, having never saw me before that particular day. And he would wave or smile and say hi.
We ended up having the same lunch hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And so he got to see this regular pattern happening that, oh, she's having lunch in the cafeteria at the same time as I am every Tuesday and Thursday. So he just determined one Tuesday or Thursday that he was just going to walk up to me, introduce himself, and ask me out. And he did. And I said yes. And we went on our first date.
Probably by date number two, he realized that I was the one. [00:08:48] But I knew he was the one way back when I just saw him. And really, I can't explain it other than it was like the Holy Spirit just calming my nerves about my future and just saying, "That's the one I have for you. You don't have to worry about it. You don't have to spin your wheels trying to meet this guy. It's all going to work out." And it surely did.
Laura Dugger: I love that so much. Your husband has a different cultural heritage than you do. And I believe it was through him that you were introduced to Hygge. So will you just give us a Hygge primer, specifically the type that you call Holy Hygge?
Jamie Erickson: Yeah. So when my husband and I met in Florida, I was originally from Phoenix, like I said. But he was from a very, very small town, a Mayberry-esque town in central Minnesota, where Minnesota boasts the largest number of Scandinavians in the entire country, some of which are Danish.
My husband is half Danish, half Norwegian. So he grew up in a home that was just cocooned in this idea of Hygge-ly living. [00:09:54] That was completely unfamiliar to me. But when we got married and I decided to leave my home in Phoenix and move all the way up to Minnesota to follow love, I began to see just how different my Scandinavian relations were, how contented they were.
I'm from a hot environment. Phoenix is very, very hot. And then I move up to the near tundra in Minnesota. And to me, it was like I spent the first year of our marriage freezing cold. It's so dark here and we're covered in snow 90% of the year. And I could not understand how these men and women live so contentedly. And they had such peace and calm.
Even those who didn't have a relationship with Jesus, I noticed this difference, this communal, hospitable living that they had, and this contentedness and this coziness. I eventually learned to attribute that to this Danish lifestyle practice of Hygge. [00:11:00]
As I began learning more about it, because, you know, I needed that... I needed that contentment. I needed that coziness. I needed to like where I was living. And so I began to research heavily, seeing what a stark difference it made in all my family and friends' lives. I began to learn about Hygge.
And what I saw was it really does mimic and parallel the life of Jesus. He did it first. And this was just the Scandinavians or the Danes' way of trying to replicate it, to make a sanctuary or an abundant life for themselves in a place where the temperatures are biting, in a place where it's dark all the time and it's not ideal.
The Danes have this saying, perhaps you've heard it, there is no bad weather, only bad clothing. And that's the idea that, you know, yeah, your circumstances might not be ideal, but if you just learn to put on the right things and prepare yourself and perhaps make some small tweaks to your outward life, you will experience so much more peace and joy. [00:12:10]
That really is at the heart of the Danish concept of Hygge. You can't always change your circumstances, but you can almost always change your perspective about them by just changing a few elements in your outer life that will really have a deep and lasting impact on your inner life.
So I saw so many sort of similar themes in Hygge in the life of Christ. This was just like the Danes' way of living that life without him. And I thought, How much better if you were able to use Hygge as a tool as you lived the abundant life in Christ?
Laura Dugger: I love it. And I think it was on page 17, where you amplify that abundant life offered in Christ that overlaps in this holy Hygge, that the seven tenets you talk about are: hospitality, thriving relationships, well-being, a welcoming atmosphere, comfort, contentment, and rest. [00:13:16] You even point out, these are the qualities that were first seen in the garden home, and all of these qualities were also exhibited by Jesus.
Jamie Erickson: Right, because on this side of the garden, we're all nomads. We're all looking for home. What we have to recognize is, one, this is not our home. Our home is in heaven. God is preparing a place for us.
And so there's this deep soul ache that we all have for home. We have this longing to belong that stems... that's a remnant of Eden, a remnant from the garden when we were fully at home and welcomed by our creator God. And so God did it first. God created the perfect home with hospitable living and thriving relationships, all the seven things that you see in Hygge. And then sin came in and marred all of that. And ever since then, we've been chasing after it. So really, Hygge is the Danes' way of trying to recapture that sanctuary life from the garden. Well, Christ walked it out perfectly. [00:14:22]
Laura Dugger: That's so funny you even say it that way. I was just thinking to myself this morning when there is just a situation and some sadness that arose, and I just thought, this world is not my home. This is not the home we were made for.
And now a brief message from our sponsor.
[00:14:39] <music>
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[00:17:17] <music>
Laura Dugger: Can you also share what are ways that practicing Hygge in our outer life can affect our inner life?
Jamie Erickson: Well, I think of some really simple things that I think will resonate with every listener. You know, when you're sick with a cold or a flu, and somebody brings you a bowl of hot chicken soup or a warm blanket, now that hot chicken soup isn't going to take your cold away, but it is going to bring you comfort. It is going to reorient your feelings about this present moment, just because they took the time to make you a warm, you know, bowl of soup. And it is nourishing, and it does feel good.
So that's just one small little outer tweak that all of a sudden has these waves of inward change, a walk in the woods at the end of a busy day to sort of recalibrate your frame of mind as you spend time in God's creation, maybe taking some time to pray.
This is something really simple, a little Hygge that I give to myself. [00:18:18] I homeschool my kids, and I don't like math. Math and I have had a blood feud my whole life, but I understand that I have to teach math in order to educate my children. And so I make myself a fancy cup of tea every afternoon when I'm looking over math pages because it just sort of is the refreshment and the kindness that I can give to myself to be able to make it through math without, you know, tears and jeers.
Other Hygge-ly things, very simple aesthetic things, is having a warm crackling fire on a cold night. It just changes the atmosphere. So it doesn't have to be anything big, although it certainly can be.
But so much of the Hygge-ly lifestyle is really centered around small changes that you can make in your everyday life to just elevate the ordinary of the everyday. [00:19:18]
Laura Dugger: From your experience, was this something that you just started incorporating right away in marriage and you started noticing a difference, or has this taken years to embrace and understand this lifestyle?
Jamie Erickson: Well, I'm in process. I think that the abundant life in Christ is a process. You know, I'm not the same Christ follower I was yesterday that I am today. I would hope and pray, at least. You know, God is continuing to sanctify me.
So I think in the realm of my relationship or experience with Hygge, it's kind of the same way. The first year of our marriage, like I said, I was kind of bitter about having to live here because I could see no bright spot in this dark and dreary sort of near-tundra land that was so vastly different. I can't even really put into words how different it was.
You know, I went from a place of like 115 degrees where it's always sunny, and it's like, which flip-flops do you want to wear today? All the livelong day, all year long, to where it's so cold I don't want to go outside. I felt isolated. [00:20:26] I was beginning to be depressed.
And so slowly I put some of these small little practices in place, and, you know... I would say I've lived here for about 22 years now, and even in the last year, I think I have come to not just accept certain times of the year, like certain really bitter cold seasons, wet and rainy seasons, but actually anticipating it with delight and not drudgery. So I wrote my book from a place of student and not teacher. I'm still in process.
Laura Dugger: That's such a humble approach. Like I said, you've given us these seven broad categories for holy hygge living, but let's just do a deeper dive into two. Specifically we can talk about hospitality and atmosphere. So if we begin with hospitality, what are some biblical principles that you've learned as it relates to hospitality as a facet of holy hygge? [00:21:34]
Jamie Erickson: Well, one of the first things that you notice as you do a deeper dive into hospitality was that God was the first homemaker, and He made this home, the Garden of Eden, and invited guests. It's easy to think of Eden as Adam and Eve's home, but really they were not. That was not their home. They were the guests that God placed there.
And He made a home, not just a practical place that had all the things they needed, but really He created a place that was really pretty, that would have things that they didn't just need, but they wanted.
And I think that's kind of the difference between hospitality and entertainment. Oftentimes when we think of inviting people to our home, we think of the aesthetics. We think of like, Oh, what can I serve for dinner? How can I make a tablescape that would be really pretty? What should I wear? What kind of playlist should I have wafting in the background? [00:22:34]
Really what that is is it's a very me-centered orientation. Entertainment really does start and end with me, whereas if you look in Scripture and you look to the garden as an example, God created a home that was welcoming to the guests. He didn't need any of that. He made it for them and so that He could share in the delight with them. It would give Him glory for sure, but everything He placed in the garden, He was thinking of Adam and Eve.
I think when we're thinking of hospitality, that really should be others-centered. So I should be not thinking, what should I serve? It should be, what foods would my guests enjoy? How can I orient my tablescape to make them feel welcome, to make them feel seen and known? So hospitality, I think, is more about sacrificial service for the other person, whereas entertainment is more about how can I impress these people who are coming into my home? [00:23:42]
I think the other thing that we can think of and remember as we're kind of trying to lean into this idea of hospitality, it's not really a request by God, it actually is a command. First and foremost, it was a Levitical command. In Leviticus chapter 19, He tells the Israelites that they are to welcome the stranger. Welcome those who are on the outside, the outliers, in the same way that He welcomed them as strangers when they were wandering in the wilderness. Because they were nomads and God gave them a place to belong.
Most of us aren't Jews by birth, we've been grafted in by His Son, but the call for hospitable living still applies to us. I think the Scriptures maybe doesn't give direct, real strict parameters for how best to welcome that stranger, but I do think that there are some principles, at least, in Scripture that we can look to when we're trying to decide how best to be hospitable. [00:24:45]
First and foremost, I think, if you look really closely, you see again and again this theme of breaking bread and sharing a meal. And that's really paramount to His plan, God's plan for hospitable living. Just think about sharing food and how that builds connections in ways that other types of hospitality might not. And I think because that's really central to God's heart.
The table is a really great equalizer. It's the wealthy as well as the poor, the educated versus the uneducated. We're all equal in our desire, in our need to eat. I think it's not by accident, too, that the original sin that separated all of mankind from God was a bite of food.
And as believers, we're to remember Christ's sacrifice on the cross by what? Eating bread and drinking wine. One day, we're going to be welcomed with the best hospitality into our eternal home as Christ's bride, and we're going to sit and partake in this lavish feast that He's right now preparing for us. [00:25:57]
So do you see woven all throughout Scripture is this idea of breaking bread? It symbolizes so many things and really does, I think, echo the heart of God in a unique way. And so if we allow it, a shared meal can really remind us of the full redemptive story of the gospel.
Laura Dugger: Well, I think you draw this out so well in your book. I just remember appreciating the clarity when you wrote, "Preach to my sheep, equip my sheep, or even lead my sheep never left Christ's lips. Food was His rallying cry." So I just appreciate even you boiled it down a few pages before that, and you just said, one universal demand within hospitality is food.
Jamie Erickson: Right. Because again, it is a grand equalizer. I can think back to many times I've had people in my home, and they've shared things, hard things with me, that just having that, like, space between the table and having our hands busy cutting our food and our mouths, my mouth kind of busy chewing, my ears were peaked and listening. [00:27:10]
Just the very aesthetic of eating food and having something to do other than just staring at them allowed for this vulnerability that I don't think could be replicated just, you know, standing in the aisle at church together.
So I have heard the heart cries of so many people and have been able to pray with them and share the gospel truth with them and really help them feel seen and known, even in their toughest, most vulnerable places, because I just served a simple plate of food.
Laura Dugger: I think maybe it's good if we're feeling convicted because you were talking about this is a command. This isn't optional for believers. I think we just miss out on so much joy when we choose to refuse to obey God's command in this area. [00:28:10]
Jamie Erickson: Right. I could say, you know, I'm welcoming people over to my house, and they're going to come away with this great meal. But I feel like I'm always equally blessed in having people over as I hope they would be in being invited over.
Laura Dugger: Well, then, Jamie, how would you inspire us to share hospitality, to give it a try, rather than giving in to the common excuses for neglecting to feed others and maybe neglecting it because we're dwelling on our lack of time or resources or space?
Jamie Erickson: Right. The common excuses that, you know, even I fall prey to a lot is like, My house is not big enough or my house is messy or my house is too loud or I'm not a cook. I could have a list lengthier than the tax code of all the reasons why I shouldn't or can't invite someone over.
I think what helps me is to remember the call to scruffy hospitality. And what I mean by that is just opening my real life up to someone. [00:29:12] I am not a spotted unicorn. So guess what? I have dishes in my sink and there will be maybe crumbs on the floor and maybe there's a laundry basket off to the side with unfolded but clean clothes because that's real life. And I have found that if I welcome people into my real life and show them my real humanity, it sort of frees them up to know, oh, she's like me, and it invites them to declare their real humanity.
I remember I was a new mom and new to a neighborhood and a woman invited me over to her house and I walked in and her kids were running around, you know, probably half clothed and there were dishes in the sink and something was boiling over on the stove. And it was real life. And I instantly exhaled and thought to myself, "She's like me." It gave me the courage then to extend the invitation back and invite her over. [00:30:12]
And that's really what we're after. We're after this reciprocal relation so that you are building basically relational capital with your friends and your family and your neighbors. You're building these deep tap roots of trust so that, and this is where the holy hygge comes in, so that as you share and live life with others, your friends, family, and neighbors, you can then have the authority because you've built their trust to share the good news of Jesus with them. And they're going to receive it so much better knowing you and knowing, oh, she's walked this out in her own life and I can trust her.
So that's really what it's about. Hospitality isn't just so you can have a nice meal with a friend, although that's a fine reason. A holy hospitality, a God-centered hospitality would be, how can I invite someone in and really see them and know them and get to know them so that I can help them get to know my Jesus. [00:31:13]
So, if you think about scruffy hospitality, being able to be vulnerable enough not to sterilize your life so that other people can see your real life and be more apt to share theirs with you. Secondly, I think my wallet always has to reflect what I find the most valuable. Especially in our economy, it's... I don't know about your grocery budget, but mine has ballooned excessively in recent days, but that's okay with me.
I want my wallet to reflect what is important to me. So yes, my grocery bill has expanded, but so have my relationships. So I plan weekly to invite someone over and I make it a line item in the budget that on this day, I'm going to have to double a meal and make it a priority. But that's okay because people really should be our priorities. [00:32:11]
I think it also has helped over the years that I have amassed quite a collection of white dishes. I've purchased them all at thrift shops and tag sales and yard sales. None of them are new. And they're kind of a hodgepodge collection. They don't really match in style. They just match in color. That allows me to have lots of dishes.
It also frees me up to not be concerned about my dishes. You know, I used to have really pretty china sets. And then when one would break, I'd feel miserable about it because how could I replace it? But now if somebody, you know, that toddler happens to drop their plate or an aged grandmother, who's kind of unsteady on her feet, drops her plate and it breaks, who cares? It costs me all of, you know, two, $3 and I can easily replace it.
So just having stuff that I don't care so much about, albeit, you know, I like it to be pretty. So I try to get white dishes and have them all somewhat cohesive. It really frees me up to care more about the people than the stuff, than the possessions. [00:33:16]
Then lastly, if you're really struggling in the area of hospitality, I would say, invite your husband and your children to get on board. I think hospitality is more as caught than taught. So if you are a person who is welcoming others and really welcoming your children to see hospitality as something that they can do, you know, even a little one can take the coat from a guest and put it on a hook or show a guest to the bathroom, or maybe share their toys with a younger guest.
You know, if you can prioritize jobs that your children can do in their hospitable lifestyles, that will become a lifestyle for them and they will carry that over. And I've seen that in my own adult children now. They are very hospitable. My daughter was actually just asked to be the hospitality coordinator at her college dorm room because she just exudes hospitality. But I think it started way back when she was little and I said, your gifts matter. [00:34:18] I need you here at this meal. And here are, you know, one, two, three, four things that you can do throughout the meal to make our guests feel really seen and known.
Laura Dugger: By now I hope you've checked out our updated website, thesavvysauce.com, so that you can have access to all the additional freebies we are offering, including all of our previous articles and all of our previous episodes, which now include transcriptions.
You will be equipped to have your own practical chats for intentional living when you read all the recommended questions in the articles or gain insight from expert guests and past episodes as you read through the transcriptions.
Because many people have shared with us that they want to take notes on previous episodes, or maybe their spouse prefers to read our conversations rather than listen to them, we heard all of that, we now have provided transcripts for all our episodes. Just visit thesavvysauce.com. All of this is conveniently located under the tab "show notes" on our website. [00:35:27] Happy reading.
Another chapter that I just adored was chapter four on atmosphere. So what's the biblical and practical purpose for maintaining an enjoyable home that is what you call meaningfulistic rather than minimalistic?
Jamie Erickson: Well, I look to the Danes for that. The Danes often get a bad rap for being minimalistic, and it's said sort of under your breath and with rolling eyes. Because if you walk into a Danish house, it can seem very stark. There are very few possessions set out.
But it's not that they are minimalist. They really are meaningfulist, meaning they buy items that are maybe perhaps better quality. So that means they might be able to buy less or fewer items, but what they have is better quality that is going to last for generations, as opposed to just filling their spaces with cheap plastic and trinkets. [00:36:30] So they look to natural wood elements, metal. It's all very sturdy in quality. And then they really keep things with value, value to them.
So instead of having every single vase that you received for your wedding still sitting on a shelf collecting dust because you feel too guilty letting some of them go, a Dane would look at that and say, Well, this was a lovely gift. I'm not going to use it. So I'm going to pass it on to somebody who might better value it and use it more. And they have one less thing sitting on the shelf that has to be dusted or cared for or maintained.
So it's not that they just have less for less sake. They're just very mindful in their selection, in what they keep and what they display in their homes.
And a less cluttered space means a less cluttered mind. Like your mind will be less cluttered when you're in a space that is less cluttered. [00:37:32]
Laura Dugger: I completely agree. I'll actually add a link in the show notes back to an article that I wrote about that connection too. But when we consider atmosphere as part of holy hygge, how can our outer behaviors affect and reflect our inner life?
Jamie Erickson: Well, I think if hygge-ly atmosphere reveals anything about design, it's that decor does influence mood. There's so much more to creating a life-giving home though than having that really pricey ottoman or that piece of decorative wall art. So it's acknowledging that yes, decor does reflect our mood, but I can't hold so tightly to my things because, you know, you might love that chenille blanket that you spent tons of money on, but what's going to happen when the cat gets to it and, you know, tears it to shreds? Or that beautiful candlelit tablescape you've prepared then gets tipped and the whole thing goes up in flames. [00:38:33]
So there's this idea of holding tension. Yes, you want to create beautiful, welcoming spaces, but at the end of the day, it is just stuff.
I think the life of Christ shows us that home should provide an atmosphere where heavy-hearted people can just kind of unleash their burdens. It should feel like a refuge and in a space where they can feel fully fueled and supported so that then they could go back out into the fray and do the work that God has called them to.
So home should be what I like to call safe hygge. And I think we do this by creating spaces that welcome the whole lives of the people that live there. Our design should whisper to them, I don't just want you to live here, I actually want you to find life here.
For us, for a time, and I mentioned this in the book, for several years, I had two dining room tables in my dining room. One looked like the typical dining room table, and one was just like this hodgepodge, barely leaning up on itself table with lots of pockmarks and scars and paint chips. [00:39:37] And you can tell, you know, that table had some life. It looked like it had been in a street fight.
You could walk into my dining room and think, well, one of these things doesn't belong here. But it really did belong there. Because I wanted my kids, especially because we homeschool, to be able to have a space where they could be fully free to do that messy project, to start that craft, or to have that hobby.
I wanted them to feel like you don't just live here, you can find life here. So I really had to think about the needs of the individuals that lived in my home and not be so caught up in what my spaces looked like, and more caught up in how people felt when they were in my spaces.
Laura Dugger: Well, and will you just share a sampling of other tips for practical Hygge living?
Jamie Erickson: One of the things that I always... it's like my go-to for Hygge is, and this was something my Danish mother-in-law, Norwegian mother-in-law taught me. [00:40:42] And that is to have a Hygge hobby for every season so that you can step into that season with anticipation.
And what that looks like is I don't maybe do that hobby at any other time of year except that particular season. I'll even go so far as to say there are certain meals that I only cook in certain seasons of the year. I just try to schedule out each of the four seasons in such a way that it is very unique and different from the rest.
And I think that's an example we see in God's creation. No season is quite the same, especially if you live in a place that has four seasons very distinctly. And they're set apart for specific purposes and reasons. And so in mimicking that creator God seasonal living, I want to set apart certain meals, certain music that I listen to, certain hobbies that I have, certain activities that are only for that season so I can step into those seasons with some anticipation and some delight where I could easily, especially leading into winter, I could easily enter it with drudgery. But now I'm not because I'm looking forward to all those things that I really look forward to. [00:41:47]
For me, that's like soup season. Oh, I get to make soups and homemade bread that I don't normally make in the summer, or I get to crochet and do a fun hobby that I really enjoy doing, but not at other times of the year.
I think it's important as women that we wage a one-woman war on our schedule and really carve out a good, healthy balance of work and rest. I know that that's hard to hear as a woman because we're sort of the magic makers of the home, and we hold the schedules. But again, it's not a you can and you might, it's a you should. And it's a command in Scripture that we rest. And that's on purpose, that it's not just good, it's good for us.
I think the key to that comes from Hebrews chapter 4:10-11. It says, "...let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fail by the same sort of disobedience." In other words, we're to actually strive toward Sabbath rest, which means we have to be intentional about living six days of the week differently in order that we can fully enjoy the seventh. [00:42:58]
I might have to say no to certain things on those six other days so that my busyness doesn't then spill over into my day of rest. I think that's something we see in the life of Christ, and I think that the Danes have mirrored that in a Hygge-ly lifestyle. Rest is very paramount to the Danes.
I think it's also helpful to develop some good traditions that reveal your core values to your family and your friends and to the rest of the world. If you think about traditions, by their very nature, they show what you value because they kind of declare, well, this thing right here is worth repeating in my life. This thing can occupy reoccurring space in our calendar. They're nostalgic. They take us back to simpler times. They kind of act as connective tissue between generations. They give us this sense of history and belonging.
And so I think establishing some traditions that really show this is who we are, this is what we're about, is a real connecting, binding way to make those in your home feel comforted and connected and cozy, all the things that we're hoping for for hygge. [00:44:14]
Laura Dugger: Well, and as you talk about that balance between work and rest, I was especially fascinated by the Danes' healthy balance between the two. Can you share a little bit more in detail about even the times that they leave work and how they take time off so that they can focus their energies on their home and communities?
Jamie Erickson: Yeah, they take whole months off. Their work day is significantly shorter than ours, especially in smaller Danish communities they get... What would appear from the outside is very insular, meaning you'll see whole communities just shut down for certain weeks in the year, certain days. But it's not a matter of keeping people out, but it really is to cocoon inward. Because we all need that rest.
I would say within a home, that's the idea of you have to protect your home from overuse. And I know that that seems counterintuitive in a lifestyle that's so hospitable, but sometimes it will be necessary to focus on the hygge right in your home, to cocoon inward, not for the sake of being insular or unwelcoming, but so that your family can feel fully able and refreshed and restored, all those things, to continue providing care for others. [00:45:34]
That really is how the Danes have set up practices in their life to have shorter weekdays. They work far fewer days in the year than we do in our Western culture. And their hours of work each day is shorter. Maybe perhaps they value rest in the same way that they value work. And I think we're really missing that here in the West.
Laura Dugger: Well, I'm just going to read one more quote from page 183. I probably even need this more for myself today. But I love how you write, "Refusing to take on too many additional responsibilities, you are actually going to battle against the enemy."
Jamie Erickson: Right. The enemy wants you to be busy because in your busyness, you are declaring a couple things. You're declaring, I'm important. And we begin to think we are more important than we actually are, and that if we don't hold the whole thing up, it'll all come crumbling down. So it certainly builds this sense of pride in us when we're busy. [00:46:39]
But I also think that, and maybe this is just a woman thing, I'm only a woman, so I can only speak to our gender, but in my busyness as a woman, I can easily begin to turn to the people who are closest to me when I feel overwhelmed in my busyness and begin to spew vitriol at them, the people I love most dear, because I'm overworked, understaffed, underpaid, and I begin to be bitter about all these to-dos, and so I become hypercritical of everyone around me, and it really just takes quite a toll on my relationships. And that's exactly what the enemy wants.
Laura Dugger: I think that's a really important topic, so thank you for sharing. This is completely unrelated, but as our chat is beginning to come to a close, I just have another question I'm curious about. How did you end up choosing to homeschool, and would you recommend it to anyone else? [00:47:38]
Jamie Erickson: Well, I was a trained teacher in the classroom, but my husband was actually homeschooled from about third grade all the way through high school. His mother was one of the homeschool pioneers who was doing it in her small town when no one else was. She was forging the way, and I'm fortunate to be able to stand on her shoulders in that.
But she approached me once — I think my husband and I were just engaged. I don't think we were married yet. I know we didn't have any children yet — and she asked me if I would ever consider homeschooling. I'm pretty sure I laughed and just thought, "Oh, who even does that? Of course, I'm not going to do that." Because I thought as a teacher, I had the very best gig as a mom. You know, I'd have the same weekends off as my kids, the same holidays, the same summertime. It just felt like, on paper, that really was just prime opportunity for a mother to be able to work alongside her children. [00:48:36] But God really did have other plans.
And it wasn't until I did have my first baby, and I looked down at this tiny, cute little bundle, all swathed in pink, and I felt this weight of... you know, as a classroom teacher, I first of all got to kind of see the underbelly of the educational system, and I knew where it was lacking, and I also got to see how as a teacher, I really got the very best hours with the kids.
You know, they'd come to school all fresh. I'd have the peak hours of productivity and relationship building, and then I would send them back home, and their parents would kind of get the leftovers, and they were kind of zombies and overtaxed and tired. I selfishly just didn't want that for my daughter.
I thought she was the most amazing gift that God had ever given me apart from His Son, and I selfishly wanted to squeeze every single moment out of it. And so kind of made that decision basically as I'm lying there in the hospital holding my pink bundle that I had to homeschool. [00:49:41]
Laura Dugger: I love that, that it was such an early decision. Our eldest is 11, and this is our first year in homeschooling, but we felt like God was leading us in that direction, and we were just called to obey. I have to say it's been one of the best family decisions, maybe the best of all time. We've just enjoyed it so much, so I'm glad to hear same is true for you.
Jamie Erickson: And I'm the first one to say I don't believe homeschooling is for everyone, and I don't even believe it's for every believer. But I think we would all be remiss if we did not prayerfully consider it in the same way that we consider every other option. We should always hold those big decisions, and I think education is a huge decision, out to the Lord and say, God, I'm not concerned with what you have for my neighbor, I'm not concerned with what you have for my best friend, I want to know what you have for me and mine. Just be willing to prayerfully consider it. [00:50:41]
Laura Dugger: I could not agree with you more because there are very few things that God says that are a call for all of us. He usually has something more unique. But also to, like you said, bring it to the Lord and not just write it off without praying about it.
But Jamie, this has been such a fascinating conversation. Is there a place that you hang out online where we could easily find you and all you have to offer?
Jamie Erickson: I think the best place is just to find me at JamieErickson.com. That is where I do have an entire series, a podcast series, dedicated to Holy Hygge.
Laura Dugger: Wonderful. I will add the links to the show notes for today's episode. But you may know that our podcast is called The Savvy Sauce because savvy is synonymous with practical knowledge. And so as my final question for you today, Jamie, what is your savvy sauce?
Jamie Erickson: I think I'm the "fix it once eat it twice" kind of mom. [00:51:42] And what I mean by that is I often, probably about two, maybe three times a week, will double a meal that I'm making, whether that's a breakfast meal or a lunch meal or a dinner meal. I'll double it. We'll eat one portion and I'll package the other portion up to freeze so that sometime later on in the month when I feel rushed and it would be real easy to grab something through the fast food line or throw in a frozen pizza, I can actually pull out something really nourishing for my family in a pinch. And so yeah, fix it once, eat it twice.
Laura Dugger: I love it. I've never heard it put that way. That's so good. Jamie, your positivity has just been refreshing. It's been great to spend this hour together. I'm encouraged to embrace this season with gratitude. We know that gratitude glorifies God. So thank you for glorifying God in multiple ways and encouraging us to do the same. It was a joy to get to host you today. So thank you for being my guest. [00:52:43]
Jamie Erickson: My pleasure. It's been a delight.
Laura Dugger: One more thing before you go. Have you heard the term "gospel" before? It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you. But it starts with the bad news. Every single one of us were born sinners, but Christ desires to rescue us from our sin, which is something we cannot do for ourselves.
This means there is absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So, for you and for me, it means we deserve death and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved. We need a Savior.
But God loved us so much, He made a way for His only Son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute. This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with Him. That is good news.
Jesus lived the perfect life we could never live and died in our place for our sin. [00:53:45] This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus. We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished if we choose to receive what He has done for us.
Romans 10:9 says that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
So would you pray with me now? Heavenly Father, thank You for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to You. Will You clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare You as Lord of their life? We trust You to work and change lives now for eternity. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring Him for me, so me for Him. You get the opportunity to live your life for Him. [00:54:44] And at this podcast, we're called The Savvy Sauce for a reason. We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So you ready to get started?
First, tell someone. Say it out loud. Get a Bible. The first day I made this decision, my parents took me to Barnes & Noble and let me choose my own Bible. I selected the Quest NIV Bible, and I love it. You can start by reading the Book of John.
Also, get connected locally, which just means tell someone who's a part of a church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ. I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps, such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you.
We want to celebrate with you too, so feel free to leave a comment for us here if you did make a decision to follow Christ. We also have show notes included where you can read Scripture that describes this process.
Finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, "In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." [00:55:49] The heavens are praising with you for your decision today.
If you've already received this good news, I pray that you have someone else to share it with today. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.
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