How do you FEEL about the month of December?

This time of year, especially in the Northeast where I live, it's hard to not feel cold and a little bit off.  We often have fall/winter weather that bounces around like one of those old fashioned bouncy balls I had when I was a kid.  One day it's nice and warm(50s) and sunny and the next day it's biting cold and windy with frost everywhere. Enter in the lack of sun, the change in weather that isn't consistent and the obligatory cold that my youngest brings home from school and presto-the above photo is how I FEEL about December.  Yes, it's beautiful in it's own way. The colors contrast nicely, the change of seasons are a beauty to behold, BUT it makes me feel cold inside.

As a child I don't remember feeling this way until my parents got divorced, when everything went topsy-turvy. There were arguments about who would see who on what days and money was hard for quite awhile after that. Things didn't seem merry and bright like they did when I was about 6.  When people ask me what age I would like to return to, I always think right around 6 would be nice.  When you notice your parents arguments but for the most part you are able to escape into childhood blissfully and play all day long, explore the world from little eyes, show awe in every new thing you see and learn about.  Dance like nobody is watching, or at least don't understand enough to care that someone is watching.  You know that feeling I am talking about?

Holidays became a dark , depressing time of year for me.  I can look back and see that now and see how it has affected my holiday spirit. It's a hard thing to get over and it's a struggle each and every day from Halloween on through New Years.

This is how I really want to feel:

All bright and cheery.  But I know that I am not alone in these feelings, and that is sad.  

So, where am I going with this?

I want everyone who is reading this to understand that if you are like me you are not alone.  If you aren't like me and find brightness and cheer in this season that is AWESOME, just beware that there are others who have a hard time and try to do for something for them to help make them feel better.  Sometimes this means just letting them be after letting them know you are there if they need you and other times it means doing something small for that someone or something you may not know.  Prayer is always a good idea as well.

In this first week of Advent it is the week of Hope.  As a christian we have HOPE and that is something that can be held onto anytime of the year and through any circumstance.  It doesn't mean it will be easier but it does mean that we have something to hold onto until it gets easier.  Jesus is our hope.

1 Peter 1:3

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” 

What can we do to refocus on what's important during this season?

This is going to look different for each of us. Since our son was small we instituted a couple of traditions in our family for this season.  

1. We only give 3 gifts to each child.  One for fun, one for learning and one for spiritual growth.

2. We make either a cake or cupcakes and on Christmas Eve afternoon/night we light a candle and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.

There are a lot of great Advent Calendars or activities to do with kids or for yourself.  Just go ahead and search for them online.  There are so many it's a bit overwhelming.  So I suggest you find something to fits your schedule and don't stress over if you miss a day or even a week.  Start small and go from there.

If you, like me, struggle with the whole Santa Claus thing over taking Jesus during this season: re-focus on Jesus with your kids.  Santa can be a fun thing and I'm not saying you shouldn't do that whole thing, but if Christmas is supposed to be about Jesus' birth then re-focusing helps.

Sometimes all it takes is getting into a Christmas Devotional and working your way through the scriptures towards the Nativity.  

Right now I am checking out Max Lucado's video devotional for Advent called Because of Bethlehem. You can sign up for the free downloads and check it out here.

This month on my blog I am going to try to share some ideas and thoughts with you. I am going to give myself a lot of leeway, so if you don't see many posts you'll know why.  But keep an eye out on my Facebook page as I might share things there instead of an entire blog post I've written myself.

Below is a song by Hillsong that really touches my heart this time of year.  My wish is that one day I can be bright and cheery like the photo above, but until then I will be more like this burning fire and I can still say that my HOPE is in JESUS.

Thankful for Jesus as my Savior

What are you thankful for?

As Christians we are called to prioritize God in our lives.  I find this very hard most days as I get caught up in the day to day grind of just life.  That being said, I always want to make God a priority, but follow through is hard.

With November and Thanksgiving here in the states, it's a reminder of all the things we should be thankful for.

My top reason I am thankful: God sending his Son, Jesus, to save us all.  Covering past, present and future sin.

If you are reading this and haven't fully committed to your beliefs, it may be time to dive deeper and find out what's holding you back.

Part of believing in a savior is knowing your need for him.  Do you realize how far from God you truly are and how much you need a savior?  I do, most every day I realize this fact and I am so grateful for his continuing Grace.  

When you are saved it's by faith alone, not Jesus AND, just Jesus.

That being said, we are called to move away from sin, leave those sins behind. To repent means to do a full 180 degrees, turn around.  As believers we should show some type of change.  Change isn't needed to be saved(except for the repentance aspect), but it certainly is a way to show that God is sanctifying you.

This topic is a big one, and I'm not going to get into it too much.  I will give you some good articles to read if you want to dig deeper.

How can I be Saved?

What is Sanctification?

Finally, if you are saved, how to you share that with others?  Check out my blog post here about sharing your hope in Jesus.


John 17:14-19

14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.


There are so many awesome songs about being saved, but today Forgiven by Crowder really spoke to me.

Thankful for Freedom of Religion, Freedom to Pray

Yesterday's post I put a link in to Voice of the Martyrs.  There are so many places today where you can't openly follow Jesus , to do so is to suffer persecution or even death.

I have a VOM calendar pinned to the wall next to me and I'll be the first to admit that I am not an on fire for prayer kind of person most days.  I have it there as a reminder to do just that, pray and most days I still don't.  I want that to change, so here goes putting it into practice today.  It's not that hard, it doesn't take a long time, but yet my selfishness gets in the way.  Do you see a theme here?

Anyway, today's prayer is for Myanmar, where a front line worker asks "Pray that I would be the man of God that He desires."  Oh such a prayer as this is so simple and I should be asking that daily for myself as well.  Knowing God's will can be complicated sometimes, other times it's written out for us in the Bible as clear as day.

Will you pray with me today for Myanmar and this front line worker, we may never know who he is , but God knows him and His heart?

....  Who else needs prayer around you?  Family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, people you see walking down the street next to you, people driving in front of you... there are endless people to pray for, pick one today and go from there.  Don't forget to pray for yourself as well.  Don't know how to pray, God lays out the foundation for it in The Lord's Prayer.  I never really liked reciting the Lord's Prayer because it felt very impersonal to me, that being said, knowing it allows to me to understand HOW God would like to see us pray.  Need more info on this, check it out here.

Who can you pray for right now, and for what?

1 Thessalonians 1:2
We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers.

Thankful for Worship Music

I don't know about the rest of you, but for me, Worship music helps me to be in tune with God.  I know, that sounded corny.  There is something about tuning into a radio station needing a pick me up, only to find the exact right song playing for what you need. I was looking back at music I've listened to through the years and I've found something interesting.  When I look at what I listened to, I was very much affected in one form or another by what was going on in my life at that time and how I was growing or not growing spiritually.

Music reaches into my soul like nothing else seems to. There is this connection that I can't explain.  It wakes me up, it helps me feel, it allows some form of release.  Music helps me to pour out my feelings.

I am not a natural music talent in any form. I have managed to pick up a few things and pluck a string or two, or blow a note or two, I can even sing a little, but I am so far from being capable of anything good.  That being said, when the right song is playing, it doesn't matter what I sound like, it just moves me.  There are some songs that I just can't shake off and some that hit me so deep I can't even sing them.  There are others that help me shout things to the rooftops.

Right now there are a lot of those rooftop songs, but one of them is below.  What is your shout it to the rooftop song?

Psalm 147:7
Sing to the Lord with Thanksgiving; make music to our God on the harp.

Gratefulness: What Happened to Thanksgiving?

When did we stop celebrating Thanksgiving?  Here's a little rant.  I wanted to just put this out there, for years now it has bothered me that most stores go from Halloween into Christmas and forget about Thanksgiving altogether, unless it's a grocery store.  When did schools stop talking about the Pilgrims, now it's all Happy Harvest Day and stuff like that?

Being Thankful is something that we, especially in America, have forgotten how to do.  Do we realize how lucky we are compared to the rest of the world?

I'm just as bad sometimes, I turn my eyes inward, I'm selfish, ungrateful, spoiled, complain a lot.

This month I want to focus on being Thankful.

The number 1 thing I am thankful for is Jesus.

That He came to save us all. That he gave his amazing grace to us, but when we personalize this, He loved ME so much that He saved me from all my sin.  It really is Amazing Grace.

There are places in the world that people can't believe what they wish to believe openly, they are persecuted for their beliefs.  If you haven't read about Voice of the Martyrs you can do so here.

1 Chronicles 29:13
Now our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.

What can you thank God for today, how can you praise His name?

Happy Halloween & Reformation Day

My Hubby's Pumpkin this year(2017)

It's another Holiday.  Some of you might have been wondering where I've been since Columbus Day.  Well, my husband and I went on vacation-by ourselves!!!  Yes, we are spoiled.  No kids, no work, just fun and relaxation.  

We enjoyed a lot of alone time, lots of board games( I skunked him 3 times in our cribbage tournament-okay, he skunked me once, but although I technically won, we both won since we got to spend so much time together), watched several movies-most of which weren't very good, and spent a couple of days adventuring to find waterfalls when the weather was nice.

Onto one of my favorite websites, History.com for the History of Halloween.

Most of you have probably heard a lot of the history before, but it's always fun to watch a short reminder video.   

It's interesting, I guess I never thought that people didn't celebrate Halloween or struggled with it as Christians. You can check out this Focus of the Family article answering the Question:  Should my family celebrate Halloween? 

It might have been the way I was brought up, we only attended church periodically. I have fond memories of dressing up and trick or treating - all those Halloweens that were so cold your Mom would make you layer a lot and by the time you got home you were sweating from all those layers and all that walking. 

I also remember that our parents had to check all our candy.  And yes, sometimes that is funny because they would laugh and steal the candy saying it wasn't safe for kids, but then they would eat it.  That was mostly my Dad though.  But it was also serious, there were people putting razor blades in candy and kids getting sick.  

Me at Halloween when I was about 7, Yes I was dressed as a NUN!
My Mother made this costume for me.

Back when I was a kid people had Halloween parties for grown ups!  Can you believe it?  I wonder if anyone ever does that anymore.   We try to get together yearly with a group of friends to do Pumpkin Carving, that's been going on now for about 12 years.

When my husband and I had our son we just figured, he doesn't eat the candy why trick or treat.  So we brought him to family in the area to show off his costume, which really was just a sweatsuit made to look like a costume.  I miss the more simple costumes.

Then as he got older and we had our daughter, there wasn't really any trick or treating around where we live.  Nowadays, there are things like Trunk or Treat-mostly done at churches to give the kids a place to come that's safe, not scary and have some fun.  It also gives the church the capability to reach out to those who aren't Christians, to spread the gospel.

Speaking of:  Did you know that today is also Reformation Day?  The day when Martin Luther began the Protestant Reformation.

Here is one our friend's blog post about Halloween , I've shared about him and the organization he works for here in my blog.  

So, check out Mark Sohmer's tips for Reverse Trick or Treat.

Now, I realize that most of you have already done your festivities for this holiday, but I wanted to write a post about it anyway.  Sometimes it takes me a full year to get into the swing of things and try something new, so I hope that this was fun and helpful for you.

For our family it's about having fun and decorating.  For my daughter especially, it's about eating lots of candy.  In the end my take away is this:

Read the portion of 1 Corinthians 10:23-33 titled The Believer's Freedom but pointedly verse 33:

So whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

Vampires

It's October, the leaves are changing and the weather here in the eastern US is getting really chilly.  Although, while I write this today it's 64 F and humid, it's a little odd, seeing that it's been 32 F the last few nights.

With October comes all things creepy right, or at least it seems that way.  The decorations go up and more than likely you will find a vampire or many among the strung up things.

Ever wondered where the legends of vampires came from, check it out here, at one of my favorite sites!

Now that you've read a little history, let talk about how to keep those Vampires around us from sucking the life out of us, and from us becoming them as well.

Don't let things suck the life out of you, and don't turn into a life sucker either.

Blood is our life force, it's what makes things work in our body.  It's what God showed us in the bible as a sacrifice to atone for sin, even before Jesus was in the picture , He showed us the necessity to sacrifice through blood.  Leading the way for the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus' blood covering all of our sins.

There are a lot of great things in life. For me, entertainment and family outings are a couple of them. But, like any great things, too much and too often can be a bad thing because then it sucks the life out of you. It's exhausting, it gets us to a breaking point and we just wanna hide under the covers and cry for awhile.  Yeah, I've done this a lot in the past, and I'm sure I will in the future. 

If we don't find a balance with all things they can become our modern day vampires.  And, if we aren't careful, we can overstep our boundaries and become vampires ourselves, sucking the life out of others.  Finding balance is a necessity in life, it is so hard sometimes and requires a lot of daily mindfulness.

It's those closest to us that tend to be affected the most, family members, spouses, children and friends.  

I encourage you today to look at your life and see if you have any vampires in your life or if you've become one.  Evaluate things, and see if you need to strike some kind of balance in your life.  

God is in control, but we need to take up our cross daily. I saw a sign on a church the other day that said:  

No God, No Peace

Know God, Know Peace

Isn't that true.  When we strive to know God and what He wants for our lives, then it leads to peace.  No one said it would be easy, in fact it often isn't, but striving is part of the journey.

1 John 6-7:

6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

Ephesians 2:13

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.