I need a Silent Night

Ready. Set.  Go go go go!!!

Well, we're in the full swing of all that December brings.  I looked at my calendar for the weekend and the first night that where nothing is scheduled is next Tuesday.

Seriously.

My very first school semester is winding down and I'm already gearing up for the things I want to make better for my next batch of kiddos - who by the way arrive on January 9th.  There are Christmas parties and programs galore and just a little bit more shopping to do.

I wonder if for Christmas I could ask for peace & quiet.  Oh yeah... Christ is Peace.  I'm so glad that He is a  place I can turn to when the world gets a little too busy and a lot too noisy.

People ask me all the time why in the world I get up at 3:45am.  Do you know how quiet it is at that time of day?  It's quite Heavenly!

That's why I love this song!  I hope you enjoy some Peace & quiet this season!

Stuffed in a Box?

I've been working on this blog in my head and my heart now for about 2 weeks.  Since Thanksgiving really, and I haven't completely worked it all out - but I decided to go ahead and put fingers to the keyboard and see where the Lord took me.

It's December, and decorations have been placed and arranged.  Everywhere you go people are gearing up and getting excited about Christmas.  Believe it or not, me and the kids are having a nice holiday season so far.

We're doing all the typical things...
decorating our home, reading Christmas books, watching Christmas movies, singing Christmas songs - and mostly smiling through it all.  It's different - but okay.

However, there has been this nagging question that I haven't really been able to answer.  It seems everywhere I go I hear this age old question...

"So what's your favorite Christmas tradition?"

Hmm... most people answer this question by telling what they do with "things" or "people".

For example:  decorate with ornaments, bake favorite cookies, get together with specific people...

Well - here's where my struggle begins.  All of my "Christmas tradition" is stuffed in a wooded crate where costs prohibits me from acquiring and the "people" we shared those "things" with is likewise unattainable as well!!!

I guess I could just hang on to the memories of...

1.  Reading a different children's Christmas book every night during the month of December
2.  Decorating our entire house for Christmas while watching Elf, or the Charlie Brown Christmas Movie
3.  Going caroling with our church a week before Christmas - and sharing yummy treats and hot chocolate afterwards
4.  Having a beautiful midnight candlelight service on Christmas Eve - and watching the kids go to church in their new Christmas pj's.

All the traditions that John & I built together are stuffed in a box, in a town I no longer live in, or all the way up in Heaven!

So the question becomes is 

"tradition" only something you can touch and feel?  

I really don't think so - but if you listen to people answer this question of "What's your favorite Christmas tradition" this is how they answer - with things that are tangible.

If this is the case - I don't get to have tradition this year.  And quite frankly that's just not good enough for me and my children!  No matter what our circumstances are!

Yes, I know what you're thinking.... "I can make NEW Christmas traditions."  Oh goodie!  Then, I've put myself right back to where I started - building something that can be gone at a moment's notice.

I'm sure the more I heal, these feelings will calm down.  I know that as time marches on - I will build new Christmas traditions - in fact, I probably already am - and just don't realize it.  This does actually make me smile.

This year though, I want to truly instill in my children that Christmas really is about Christ.  How He came to give us eternal hope.  How God loved us so much that He wanted us to feel Him right next to us - so He sent His Son to live with us.  He wanted us to know that He truly "gets" us - because His Son became a human.  What an amazing thing - Almighty God with us!  That's some kind of steadfast love!

This is a tradition that can't be stuffed in a box!

This is the kind of thing that my children and myself can take with us no matter where the Lord directs our paths.  I don't know what our future holds.  Where will we be Christmas 2012?  Will the things we did this year get repeated next year and become "tradition"?  Only God knows this answer.

I want to encourage you all to find a way to build a tradition in something that can't be touched with human hands - but can be felt and experienced no matter where you are - no matter what your circumstances and that has lasting - eternal - significance....

IMMANUEL - God with us!

His Word Sunday

Sunday.  This truly is my favorite day of the week!!

Today's passage is simple.  It is my prayer that everyone would find joy & gladness in what David has written here.

Psalm 122:1, 9 (ESV)

I was glad when they said to me, 

"Let us go to the house of the Lord!"

For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, 

I will seek Your good.

Today - be glad about going to church - and seek His goodness!

Beautiful Life

Here we go.... it's December.  I have so many mixed emotions floating around in my head and my heart for the upcoming days.

I'm excited about what this time of year means to my young children.  I'm looking forward to closing out what has so far been the absolute hardest year of my entire life.  I'm extremely sad that I'm not sharing it with the love of my life.

I've written many blogs in my head lately - and yet had no time to put them on the computer.

I still wonder if God will let the sun shine again on my life or will I live in the rain and the clouds forever.

I heard this song this week and found hope.  I know I have some more hard days ahead... but like this song says, "just like the sun, you'll rise to fill the empty skies."

Listen for this one too... it made me smile - "I can't wait for you to hold what I already know."

His Word Sunday

I want to ask you a quick question this morning...

How do you respond to God when He says, "Yes" - to your prayers?

I think far too often we pray and we pray and when He finally says "Yes" we run with it to the next thing.  Do we really give God the credit and the invested time that He so very much deserves?

Take a look at this awesome prayer that Daniel prayed after God said "Yes" to one of his prayers.  I often wonder how much my life might be enriched if I prayed like this!

Daniel 2:20-23 (ESV)

Daniel answered and said: 

"Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, 

to whom belong wisdom and might.  

He changes the times and seasons; 

He removes kings and sets up kings; 

He gives wisdom to the wise and 

knowledge to those who have understanding; 

He reveals deep and hidden things; 

He knows what is in the darkness, 

and the light dwells with Him.

To You, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, 

for You have given me wisdom and might, 

and have now made known to me what we asked of You, 

for You have made known to us the king's matter."

Unstained

I love short weeks!  While I wish our school was out all week - I am thankful that we only have to be there today & tomorrow.  We've even got a fun 2-day project planned that will be acceptable for everyone - teachers & students!

Therefore, I only have to plan for 2 professional outfits for this week!  Yay!

You know the downside to clothes?  You have to wash them - regularly!  I am more than thankful that my Mom washes all of our clothes.  She does a FABULOUS job keeping us all in clean clothes.


Don't you just hate it when you've spent all day doing laundry - only to find that some of the clothes came out -  not cleaner than they went in - but stained from some strange source inside the washer?!

Recently we discovered that some of the clothes were coming out of the wash with cute little lined up in a nice row - black dots!  Oh no!  Where was this coming from?!

Stained.  Not a good word.  We had to do two things.  Try to get the stain out - but more importantly establish the source of these little black dots.

I recently read a verse about stains in James.  A kind of spiritual "little black dots."

James 1:26-27 (ESV)

If anyone thinks he is religious and does not 

bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, 

this person's religion is worthless.  

Religion that is pure and 

undefiled before God, the Father, is this:  

to visit orphans and widows, 

and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

"Unstained from the world" - how in the world do we do this?!

I feel like each morning I have a wonderful prayer time, and then I step outside my house and am immediately faced with the source of little black dots!  How do I avoid getting stained?!

I'm bombarded with many who do not have positive attitudes, who do not share a love for Christ like me, and I'm tempted to engage in their way of thinking, acting, and living.  I want my faith, my "religion" to get me much farther down the road than just my own house.

This is going to sound strange - but I want my prayer time to stick!  I want it to last throughout the day!  I want to remain unstained from all that comes my way in the washer of my life.

The first part of this verse gives us a hint as to how we can avoid the little black dots - or stains...
1.  watch what I say
2.  do not deceive my heart, and
3.  look after those that may need my help

It begins with my tongue & heart, and ends with my actions!

We found that the little black dots was probably coming from grease leaking out of those little holes in the washer.  It was important that we find the source so we could do more than just get the stains out - we wanted to completely avoid the stains in the future.

Today, I want to remain unstained from the world.  I've learned here that the source of stains can come from my speech and my heart not being set on the things above.  I will have a closer watch on those today.  As a result, I hope to have a cleaner - more pure - example of my relationship with the Lord!  A religion that is not worthless - but one that is pure and undefiled - unstained.

Will you join me in keeping the stains away?

His Word Sunday

One of my favorite verses talks about how the "Lord is for me."  I think the Lord knows that in general, no matter who we are, we all experience times of insecurity - for there are constant reminders throughout scripture that the Lord not only loves us - but that He's with us!

This morning I totally enjoyed reading this passage.  It reminded me of elementary PE days and how we would have to stand there and wait to be picked.  We would wait anxiously for someone to say, "be on my side!"

In this passage the Lord says that very thing!  I hope you'll be just as encouraged as I was and feel ready for whatever the day may bring knowing He's on your side!

Psalm 118:5-9, 13-18 (ESV)

Out of my distress I called on the Lord; 

the Lord answered me and set me free.

The Lord is on my side; I will not fear.

What can man do to me?

The Lord is on my side as my helper; 

I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.

It is better to take refuge in the Lord 

than to trust in man.

It is better to take refuge in the Lord 

than to trust in princes.

I was pushed hard, so that I was falling, 

but the Lord helped me.

The Lord is my strength and my song; 

He has become my salvation.

Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous; 

"The right hand of the Lord does valiantly, 

the right hand of the Lord exalts, 

the right hand of the Lord does valiantly!"

I shall not die, but I shall live, 

and recount the deeds of the Lord.

The Lord has disciplined me severely, 

but He has not given me over to death.

Let His valiant hand guide you today!