5 Minutes with Jesus is a daily devotional series for people in the midst of real life, whether facing anxiety, grief, questions of purpose, or simply needing encouragement and connection. Hosted by Sheila Walsh, each five-minute episode offers Biblical truth, honest reflections on faith and emotions, and closes with a moment of prayer.
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| Sheila Walsh: Let Christ Shine Through You | 5 Minutes with Jesus | December 22, 2025
- I believe that
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- God is calling us to a higher standard.
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- To let our lives be the fragrance of christ.
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- To a world that is falling apart.
- 00:00:06.429 --> 00:00:08.832
- Wouldn't it be wonderful if this season we shared
- 00:00:08.832 --> 00:00:11.434
- Something of the life of christ with everyone we encountered?
- 00:00:11.434 --> 00:00:15.138
- I don't mean we should go around
- 00:00:15.772 --> 00:00:17.373
- Beating people over the head with our bibles, but rather
- 00:00:17.373 --> 00:00:20.410
- That we let the radiance of christ shine through us.
- 00:00:20.410 --> 00:00:27.217
- Christian and i call it black tuesday.
- 00:00:28.017 --> 00:00:31.187
- No idea why barry settled on a tuesday,
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- But he did, and we dread it every year.
- 00:00:33.089 --> 00:00:35.658
- It's the day of the christmas photo.
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- I didn't grow up
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- Sending out a family photo at christmas time, and honestly,
- 00:00:40.163 --> 00:00:43.032
- It still seems a little strange to me.
- 00:00:43.032 --> 00:00:44.834
- After all, we sing joy to the world.
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- The lord has come.
- 00:00:47.370 --> 00:00:48.905
- Not the walsh family has come,
- 00:00:48.905 --> 00:00:51.074
- But it means a lot to barry, though.
- 00:00:51.074 --> 00:00:52.675
- So we show up.
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- It started the first christmas that we were married.
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- Back then it was just
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- A simple photo of barry and me and our dog bentley.
- 00:00:57.380 --> 00:01:00.617
- Bentley didn't seem to mind.
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- And once christian arrived, things
- 00:01:02.185 --> 00:01:03.620
- Became, well, a little more complicated.
- 00:01:03.620 --> 00:01:06.189
- Our first christmas was a piece of cake.
- 00:01:06.189 --> 00:01:08.124
- He's a tiny baby, so i just held him.
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- We all smiled and we were good.
- 00:01:09.792 --> 00:01:12.462
- By the following christmas, the wheels were already starting
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- To come off the bus.
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- Barry wanted it to be a perfect picture.
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- Christian was a year old and not fond of being still.
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- We struggled through and then came two
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- And three by the time christian was four.
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- It had officially earned the title black tuesday.
- 00:01:29.045 --> 00:01:32.982
- Barry wanted us all in matching outfits that year.
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- I can hardly think about that without cringing.
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- He laid out
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- White shirts for the two of us in a white linen suit
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- For christian. yes, linen.
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- Now i realize it.
- 00:01:45.728 --> 00:01:46.829
- To some of you, that sounds just perfectly lovely.
- 00:01:46.829 --> 00:01:49.065
- But to christian, however, not so much.
- 00:01:49.065 --> 00:01:52.402
- By the time we were at the photographer's studio.
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- Yes, i said studio.
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- This was a polaroid in the backyard kind of thing by now.
- 00:01:55.939 --> 00:02:00.210
- Or christian was in tears and i was close to it.
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- Eventually i was able to help him calm down
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- And get him into a white
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- T shirt that i'd brought, just in case.
- 00:02:07.183 --> 00:02:10.053
- And once the photographer was finished, i felt we were done.
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- I hadn't counted on the viewing.
- 00:02:13.890 --> 00:02:16.926
- The following week we were back at the studio
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- Looking at all the photos he'd taken.
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- Now looks fine to me.
- 00:02:21.197 --> 00:02:22.599
- Let's just say it's a long day.
- 00:02:22.599 --> 00:02:25.435
- I came across a box of those photos not so long ago.
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- I didn't realize barry has kept one from all 2930 years.
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- I made myself a cup of tea and i sat down to look at them,
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- And honestly, it brought tears to my eyes.
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- My mom's in one of them,
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- As she'd been spending christmas with us that year
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- And got drawn in.
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- William, my father in law, as in a couple
- 00:02:43.786 --> 00:02:45.688
- As he moved in with us after my mother in law's death.
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- What i saw as i looked at these photographs
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- Was god's faithfulness through the years.
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- I mean, just like you,
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- Our family has walked through some tough seasons.
- 00:02:55.131 --> 00:02:57.900
- It was a year when we thought christian had leukemia, only
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- To discover the wonderful news that he was simply anemic,
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- Which was very treatable.
- 00:03:03.773 --> 00:03:05.708
- Then there was the first
- 00:03:05.708 --> 00:03:06.909
- Photograph with barry's dad, william, after barry's mom died.
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- Eleanor had struggled with cancer for some time
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- And longed to be healed.
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- Jesus took her home just before christmas.
- 00:03:15.351 --> 00:03:17.954
- She'd honestly never liked me until the last few months
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- Before she died.
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- I think she saw me as competition
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- For the affection of her only son.
- 00:03:24.193 --> 00:03:26.129
- But in our last days,
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- I was given the
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- Privilege of caring for her, and we became very close.
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- I loved her.
- 00:03:32.068 --> 00:03:33.603
- I wonder if we someday struggle with the word peace
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- At christmas because of that other word family.
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- If you have a wonderful trauma free extended family,
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- I genuinely celebrate with you.
- 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:46.449
- But it's not always that way though, is it?
- 00:03:46.449 --> 00:03:48.785
- I believe that god is calling us to a higher standard,
- 00:03:48.785 --> 00:03:52.088
- To let our lives
- 00:03:52.455 --> 00:03:53.823
- Be the fragrance of christ to a world that is falling apart.
- 00:03:53.823 --> 00:03:57.527
- Wouldn't it be wonderful if this season we shared
- 00:03:57.527 --> 00:04:00.163
- Something of the life of christ with everyone we encountered?
- 00:04:00.163 --> 00:04:03.966
- I don't mean we should go around
- 00:04:04.600 --> 00:04:06.102
- Beating people over the head with our bibles, but rather
- 00:04:06.102 --> 00:04:09.105
- That we let the radiance of christ shine through us.
- 00:04:09.105 --> 00:04:13.076
- I love this encouragement from paul,
- 00:04:13.076 --> 00:04:16.112
- But thank god he has made us his captives and continues
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- To lead us along in christ's triumphal procession.
- 00:04:20.116 --> 00:04:24.387
- Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of christ everywhere
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- Like a sweet perfume.
- 00:04:28.524 --> 00:04:30.226
- One of the greatest lessons i've learned in the last
- 00:04:31.260 --> 00:04:33.363
- Few years is a difference between reacting and responding.
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- If you find yourself wanting to react to something,
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- Something somebody says or doesn't.
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- Trust me, you will and i do.
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- Take a moment and let the peace of christ fill that space,
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- And then respond as one who belongs to another kingdom,
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- Whose king is returning soon.
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- Let's pray.
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- Lord jesus, thank you for the gift that you
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- Are in all of our lives.
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- Father, i want to thank you for the way
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- That we have the most glorious picture of all,
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- Which is of the sacrifice that you made,
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- That you were willing to be born as a fragile baby,
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- To live a life in front of us
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- And show us what our father looks like,
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- And then to pay the ultimate price.
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- We thank you, lord, that you did not stay on that cross,
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- But that you rose again on that easter morning
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- And because of that, we have hope that no one can touch.
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- We thank you in jesus name. i'm.
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