Category Archives: life

Sunday Scripture 7

sunday-scripture31.jpg  2 Corinthians 6:2  For he says, ” In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.”  I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. 

Paul is urging, can’t you feel it?  Christ is urging…

We had a great sermon today on baptism.  It was one of those powerful, God’s in the place and smiling, sermons.  There were 4 baptisms today, praise God!  What I wanted to highlight in this is, NOW IS THE TIME, NOW IS THE DAY.  NOW.  When is the time?  NOW!  If you’ve already given your life to Jesus, then recommit NOW to live the new life that Jesus died to give you.  If you haven’t made that commitment yet, NOW IS THE TIME.  Jesus is coming again, do it Now.  Don’t wait, He’s urging.  From this moment on, die to sin and live for Jesus. 

For more Sunday Scripture, check out Amy at P2P.

Christmas Eve

The following is a communion meditation written by my dad, for the Christmas Eve service at his church tonight.  I got the chance to read it on Saturday and it gave me goosebumps.  I just had to share it. 

THE SCENE IS A SPARSE HILL IN ANCIENT JUDEA, NOT FAR FORM JERUSALEM.  NEARBY IS A CAVE.  JESUS WEARS ONE MEAGER GARMENT.  MARY IS WATCHING, WONDERING WHAT IT ALL MEANS.  A MAN IS STANDING BESIDE HER, NOT THE FATHER OF JESUS, BUT THE ONE WHO WILL CARE FOR HER.  BENEATH JESUS ARE BEAMS OF ROUGH WOOD.  ABOVE, THE HEAVENS SPARKLE WITH SUPERNATURAL SPLENDOR.  IN THE CITY SITS HEROD PONDERING JESUS DEATH.  JEWISH LEADERS DISCUSS HIS COMING.  NEARBY ARE OUTCASTS, GIVING THEIR OWN CRUDE TESTIMONY.  SOON RICH MEN ARRIVE WITH GIFTS JUST AS SUITED FOR A BURIAL AS A BIRTH.  ARE WE REMEMBERING A BIRTH OR A DEATH?  A MANGER OR A CROSS.  THE HILL COULD BE A SHEEP STUDDED HILL NEAR BETHLEHEM, OR IT COULD BE THE HILL CALLED GOLGATHA.  THE CAVE COULD BE A STABLE CRUDELY CUT INTO ONE OF BETHLEHEMS HILLS, OR IT COULD BE A BURIAL VAULT RECENTLY CARVED IN A NEARBY CEMETARY.  THE MEAGER GARMENT COULD BE SWADDLING CLOTHES OR A BLOODY, RAGGED LOINCLOTH.  IT IS JESUS OF COURSE, BUT IS HE A NEWBORN BABY OR A DYING MAN?  IT IS MARY, BUT IS SHE SITTING AT A CRADLE COMFORTING HER BABY OR CROUCHING, CRYING, HERSELF IN NEED OF COMFORT?  IS THE MAN JOSEPH THE CARPENTER, OR JOHN, WHO WILL MAKE HER A HOME?  ARE THE ROUGH WOODEN BEAMS BENEATH JESUS A MANGER OR A CROSS?  ARE THEY SEEING THE HEAVENS SPARKLE, OR AN ECLIPSED SUN AND A BLOOD RED MOON?  THE HEROD COULD BE THE GREAT WHO TRIED TO KILL THE BABY, OR HIS SON WHO IN A SENSE SUCCEEDED.  THE OUTCASTS COULD BE SHEPHERDS, KNEELING AT THE MANGER, OR THIEVES HANGING ON EITHER SIDE OF JESUS.  THE RICH MEN COULD BE MAGI WHO OFFER EXPENSIVE GIFTS, OR NICODEMUS AND JOSEPH WHO OFFER ONLY AN EMPTY TOMB.  IT’S AS THOUGH THERE WAS A MIRROR IN THE MANGER, A BIRTH REFLECTING A DEATH.  WE COME TONIGHT TO CELEBRATE THE BIRTH OF OUR SAVIOUR, WE COME TO CELEBRATE THE LIFE OF JESUS, BUT WE COME TO THIS TIME OF COMMUNION TO REMEMBER THE SACRIFICE THAT HE MADE WHEN HE WENT TO THE CROSS AND WILLINGLY GAVE HIS LIFE, THAT YOU AND I, AND ALL MANKIND COULD BE FORGIVEN AND HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY OF ETERNAL LIFE IN HEAVEN WITH JESUS WHO WAS BORN TO DIE FOR OUR SINS. 

Santa or Not?

There’s a real Santa debate going on, I’m not sure if you’re aware.  Questions are being posed, and in some cases, accusations are being thrown.  I have to admit I’ve never even thought about some of the things being said, and then a few have crossed my mind.  I guess I wanted to mull over them here.  First, I’ll give a brief history, to catch you up to speed. 

I grew up believing that Santa brought me gifts if I was good.  I found out that he even brought me gifts when I wasn’t good!  There was pressure, and the threats too.  (You’d better be good, Santa’s watching you, He sees you when you’re sleeping….)  I’ve even used these myself, I’m sad to say.  Again, it never crossed my mind.  Santa’s a jolly old fellow, isn’t he.  He is magical.  Whimsical.  But is he REAL?  Do you believe?  What were you told?  It all seems like a game, but are we harming our kids?  Lying to them?  Causing them to question if Jesus is real too, or are we lying about Him too? 

I don’t remember when I stopped believing.  Probably some kid at school told me.  It doesn’t stick out in my mind as being earth shattering, or a giant scar on my adolescent mind.  So I think my kids will turn out OK too.  But then there’s a tiny ounce of doubt.  The what if?  Am I, in my fervor to give something a little magical to my kids, scarring them?  Will they ever believe anything I say again? 

My oldest is 11 1/2.  A friend of hers told her a few years ago, and for some crazy reason, when she flat out asked me I lied.  I just think I wasn’t ready for her to be so grown up.  I realize now that I was being irrational and selfish.  I wanted her to believe so her brothers would too.  My oldest son is 9, and he still believes.  I’m surprised that he hasn’t heard at school, but he is naive.  He might have heard something, but mommy and daddy told him the truth about Santa, and he’s real.  In fact, he just told me tonight that we need to go see Santa.  We were planning on that Sunday evening, but now I’m not sure.  I don’t want them to get too caught up in the fantasy, and forget about Jesus.  I try to always point them in that direction.  We do the advent readings, and talk about Jesus’ birth, so the focus is on Him, but Santa is in the limelight too.  A few years ago, I was selfish, and didn’t want Santa taking all the credit, so we left some toys unwrapped and said they were from Santa.  After all, I was the one out at 5am in the freezing cold to get the years hottest toy!  This year, my daughter joined meon Black Friday, in search for the deals.  It was a fun time, and she held up really well.  So far, I don[t think she’s told anyone what they’re getting.  We shared in Santa’s duties.  I have a really good friend who sat out in the freezing rain and snow for over 5 hours outside of Toys R Us last weekend for a Wii.  Now that’s Santa. 

So I question whether or not I’m doing more harm than good.  And then I have a 4 year old who is eager for Santa to come, but concerned than he hasn’t been all that good this year.  Are we teaching him that he has to be perfect in order to receive?  There’s only one perfect one, and He loves us, sin and all.  I want to teach them that unconditional love of Jesus Christ.  That’s what I want to make important right now.  Please leave your thoughts on this matter, and give me some new insight as well. 

Finally

Today was the first day of Christmas vacation.  I’ve been looking forward to this day for a few weeks now, but I spent it moving furniture and shampooing carpets.  We had some new furniture delivered, and I’m sitting in the most comfortable chair right now, I could almost go to sleep.  My house is still in disarray, but this room is peaceful.  I don’t want to leave it. 

I can’t believe Christmas is in 4 days.  I haven’t wrapped any presents yet, so I feel an all nighter on Christmas Eve coming on.  I hate to wrap presents because it seems like such a waste!  Matthew is really excited this year about Santa, and we’ve been reading about the manger in several stories at bedtime.  He has his own nativity set to play with, and I think he is understanding even more.  We’ve been trying to do the Advent readings, but with all of us not home at the same time, it’s been more of a challenge than I’d like. 

I’m tired so signing off for now.

Shopping

Today I spent the majority of my time running around, and I hate to do that.  We first had to go to Target and pick up a few gifts, which turned out to be more than anticipated, so lucky I had a coupon.  I also needed to get some baking items.  I never know what to give to teachers for Christmas, but always feel obligated to.  Last year I made cranberry muffins and granola, so I thought I’d do the same since we have all new teachers.  Brooke has 5, and Zach has 1, then there are 4 teachers and the office manager at dance, and the list goes on.  I thought I’d make loaves of bread this time, so that’s what I’m doing now.  Waiting on four loaves to finish.  I then have 4 more in the fridge, but since I’m falling asleep, I think those can wait until morning.  I have laundry that needs to be done, a bedroom to pick up, floors to mop and vacuum, and furniture to move tomorrow too.  Basically, this post is about nothing, because I’m tired.  Please come back again, and I’ll try to have something good to say!  My timer’s going off now..

Today I can..

I’m looking for addresses and found this little clipping in an old day planner.  I’d give credit where due, but it says Author Unknown.

I woke up early today, excited over all I get to do before the clock strikes midnight.  I have responsibilities to fulfill today.  I am important.  My job is to choose what kind of day I am going to have.

Today I can complain because the weather is rainy or… I can be thankful that the grass is getting watered for free.

Today I can feel sad that I don’t have more money or… I can be glad that my finances encourage me to plan my purchases wisely and guide me away from waste.

Today I can grumble about my health or… I can rejoice that I am alive.

Today I can lament over all that my parents didn’t give me when I was growing up or… I can feel grateful that they allowed me to be born.

Today I can cry because roses have thorns or… I can celebrate that thorns have roses.

Today I can mourn my lack of friends or… I can excitedly embark upon a quest to discover new relationships.

Today I can whine because I have to go to work or… I can shout for joy because I have a job to do.

Today I can murmur dejectedly because I have to do housework or… I can feel honored because the Lord has provided shelter for my mind, body and soul.

Today stretches ahead of me, waiting to be shaped.  And here I am, the sculptor who gets to do the shaping.  What today will be like is up to me now.  I get to choose what kind of day I will have.

 

 

 

A question

This morning I hit the snooze button 3 times.  I woke up at 6:29 and was excited to have one more minute.  I quickly shut my eyes to go back to sleep, and then I thought…does one more minute really make a difference?  So I ask that question today.  I decided it didn’t, shut the alarm off and got up groggily. 

Christmas invites

One more example of bad perfectionism. 

I was asked to make 90 invitations to a Christmas open house where my daughter dances.  When asked, I was buttered up with, “I looked at some stores, but thought you could do something nice and crafty.”  OK, no pressure.  For literally 2 days I worked on those things.  It took me awhile, (techie challenged), to copy and paste the text onto a page, and figure out what size, what graphics, etc.  Then I couldn’t print them out on plain paper, so I copied/scanned some Christmas paper that I had laying around.  Then I needed to print those off first.  I ran out of colored ink very quickly.  At one point I said something like “it would have been easier to just go to my friendly UPS store and have them do this for me”, but I didn’t listen.  I finally got them printed, and this was the same day as the crash, so I was stressed anyway.  Once printed, I needed to EMBELLISH.  Don’t you just love that word?  I thought I did better this year, because I didn’t put much emphasis on every invite being different from the others.  I had 5 or 6 different scanned papers, and a big Christmas tree die cut on each one.  I alternated, and half of them had the tree on the front, and the other half had the tree on the inside.  The ones with the trees on the inside had stickers or something on the outside.  Did I say I worked on these mostly all day?  Then I went to get some more printer ink, stickers, glitter glue, rubber stamps…… and came home, put the kids in bed at 9:00, and sat back down to finish.  I did that at 4:46 AM.  Wow, I was tired when I got up at 6:30, after hitting the snooze button 3 times!  I had laid them out for the glue to dry, and decided that the ones without a tree on the front looked too plain.  So 4 hours later, I had them finished again, with even more glitter glue.  Why do I do this to myself?  A simple project turned into a nightmare!  But they were reeeaaallllyyyy  CUTE! 

Perfectionism

I’ve never really thought of myself as a perfectionist, but recently learned that it’s true.  I guess I alway thought it was a good thing, and a perfectionist was organized and put together in all aspect of life.  And some are, just not me.  See, I suffer from perfectionism.  It’s not a good thing.  I can take one small task, and blow it up to Titanic size, then stress over it while making it worse.  One example would be this organizing frenzy I’ve been on.  I got started with Flylady, and absolutely loved it.  She helped me to get my kitchen cleaned out and semi organized, (I say that because I just last weekend went back through the panty, cleaned and labeled shelves.)and has given me some great tips.  That’s also where I’ve self diagnosed myself as a perfectionist.  It’s very hard for me to start a task, because the pre planning is overwhelming.  I need to map it out on paper or in my head until completion, because when I start to work on it, I won’t stop until it’s finished.  No wonder I get overwhelmed!  So I’ve been trying to stick with her program, and develop routines, and only do  a task for 10 to 15 minutes, and for the most part it has worked.  I have slowed down because of all the Christmas things that need done, and also because my to do list just keeps growing, but basically have a routine.  I just think I need to change it a little from what she says.  Flylady has a Monday Home Blessing hour, where she vacuums and does her housework.  You can only do the task for 10 minutes, and then you have to go on to the next.  Well, I can’t vacuum in 10 minutes, nor can I change bed linens on 4 beds in that amount of time.  She also has zone work, which is great.  I’m going to tweak the plan somewhat and develop days specifically for kids rooms, bathrooms, kitchen, LR/FR, and the such, and do those every week.  I’m spending too much time looking for emails from Fly to tell me what to do.  I still want to do her challenges and Zone work, and she’s taught me a bunch.  So, Thanks Fly lady!  I’ll let you know how it goes, but the thought of it is overwhelming right now.  I need to make a list, and rework it, then put it into Excel, and change it 3 or 8 times, then print and laminate and place in my binder.  Perfectionist?  HA!