GIFTS

Tis’ the season to be jolly….or so the song says.  I was thinking of how the season of Christmas just somehow always FEELS different to me.  There’s something about the lights of a Christmas tree.  There’s something about the women at church mostly dressing in their red attire.  There’s something about singing “Joy to the World”, the Lord IS come.  Different somehow. 

And yes, in many of our worlds, Christmas means gifts.  My trusted online dictionary defines “gift” as something voluntarily transferred by one person to another without compensation.  In other words, something given to someone with the giver expecting nothing in return.  Something FREE.

Now granted, I love getting gifts as much as the next person.  In remembering my childhood days and seeing the few photos we have of our Christmases,  I recall a King of the Hill game under the tree for me as well as a typewriter and even as I got more in the wanting-to-look-good age, a beautiful pastel plaid skirt and sweater.  Wow, I really did look good in that.    As I have aged, the gifts have been different and many more than I have ever deserved.  I enjoy putting up my tree every year and decorating it with the countless ornaments given to me by friends, family and children in the church.  Odd that I can’t often remember what I did last week but I can recall who gave me every ornament.  That means the gifts come from the heart and stay there.  There have been gifts given to me by The Husband and The Girl that have been dear to me, often costing little, like the macaroni Christmas tree painted green with glitter that sits on my shelf as a Christmas decoration every year.  And that really pretty necklace The Husband got me as a surprise one year.  Okay maybe that was a little pricier than "little".

This year, though, I have been pondering gifts.  It seems that my gift buying efforts have changed with fewer names officially on my list.  The gift of sharing has taken over my Lunch Bunch as we a few years back decided to stop the individual gifts and adopt a family to help.  This year we are helping a young teacher in rural Mississippi who needs classroom supplies for her class. 

I’ve decided that as I age, I long for those intangible gifts—those gifts that you cannot see or touch or that don’t come in gaily wrapped packages.  Sure, I long for a regular nap after lunch some days for that bit of extra umph I need to make it through the rest of the day.  What a gift that would be!  I long to be able to stay awake when I sit on the couch to watch tv with The Husband at night. I need luck on that one.  I long for peace, a better economy, a God-fearing country, salvation for those who don’t know what it means to know my Lord and Savior, happiness for those who are sad, and so much more.  You get the idea. 

As I contemplate my other gifts that I receive daily, I am blessed by a gracious God who bestows grace to me when I certainly don’t deserve it.  Isn’t that what grace is?  Mercy is another gift.  Thank goodness I am granted mercy.  Health, happiness, and a loving family and church family are other blessed gifts that I receive. 

Most of all, we are reminded of the most precious gift of this season and every day in the scriptures but especially in John 3:16….”For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

My favorite verse of the Christmas carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem” is the third verse.  It goes like this:

How silently, how silently


The wondrous gift is given!


So God imparts to human hearts


The blessings of His heaven.


No ear may hear His coming,


But in this world of sin,


Where meek souls will receive him still,


The dear Christ enters in.


Once the “dear Christ enters in” that soul and one receives the wondrous gift of salvation, life is forever changed.

“Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift.”  2 Corinthians 9:15

Merry Christmas to all!

THANKS

One of my dear friends sent me a Thanksgiving card yesterday.  Inside was a piece of paper with a typed prayer of thanksgiving.  It touched my heart and I wanted to share with you all on this eve of another special  day of giving thanks.  I don't think my friend will mind my sharing.  It goes like this:

Lord, as I sit down at a Thanksgiving table once again, I want to thank You for Your goodness to me.

Thank You for meeting my needs every day—for food and shelter and clothing, and for the many extras You provide that I so often take for granted.

Thank You for family and friends who make my life complete.  Thank You that even when we are miles apart, we are bound by the cords of Your love.

Thank You that I live in a country where I am free to worship You and to read Your Word.

Most of all, I thank You for Your Son, Jesus Christ, who is the “light of the world.”  When I turned to Him, He flooded the darkness of my soul with the light of Your love.

Thank You that He not only died for my sins, but that He is alive today at Your side—hearing my prayers and preparing a home for me in Heaven.

Thank You that Jesus came into this world and took up residence in my life as Savior, Lord, and God.

Thank You for all that You have given me as a Christian:  the Holy Spirit who is Your presence in my life, the Bible that is a light to my pathway, and Christian friends who encourage and help me.

Thank You that I can face tomorrow with hope because Jesus is living for me.

O, Lord, how truly rich I am!  Thank you for all You mean to me.

“Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.  For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endureth to all generations.”  Psalm 100:4-5

AMEN!

FROM THE MOUTHS OF BABES

Many many days I learn more from children than I have learned from any adult.  I have laughed at words from children’s mouths.  I have cringed at words from children’s mouths.  I have gotten all teary-eyed at words from children’s mouths. 

Being an only child, The Girl often had to play alone.  She was pretty good at it.  She had lots of “babies”—mainly Cabbage Patch Kids—remember those?  One day when she was maybe somewhere from 4-6 years old, I was walking down the hall and heard singing from her room.  The Girl would use her dolls as her playmates.   On this particular day she was playing church and as I realized the singing was going to continue, I managed to get to my tape player (yes, that was the days of tape players and nothing else) and tape the audio portion without her knowing.   Many times since then I’ve listened to the tape and smiled, but honestly lately as I’ve thought about it on occasion, she wasn’t totally wrong with her wording.  She was singing, “Blessed Insurance, Jesus is mine.  Oh what a full taste of glory divine.”  Okay so many of you know it’s “Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine.  O what a foretaste of glory divine.”  If you think about it , though, having salvation is “insurance” and it’s “blessed” and His glory when you have a full taste is certainly glory divine.  So all these years later, I still can tell that story and be blessed just as I was on that day. 

So this past Sunday The Girl's helper was absent so I went into the 4 and 5 year old Sunday School class that The Girl teaches to "help" .   After the lesson of the 10 lepers who were healed and only one came back to say “thanks”, there was a prayer time.  I still say God has to smile when he hears his children pray, especially those little ones.  It made me teary-eyed.  Some of the children want to pray aloud and some want to just pray in their hearts.   There is nothing better than hearing them pray.  One child was thankful for everyone—even called most of the everyones  by their names.  And that child has a world of everyones in her life.  I wondered how many folks that child knew but the child remembered to be thankful for all of them.  Really.  I am blessed when I hear those little voices sincerely talking to the Lord.  After that, The Girl gave a handout of a paper with space for a drawing that said at the bottom “I thank God for____________________.”   Okay so there’s wonderful things to be thankful for and the children are really into the project.  There’s the earth, myself, my mama, my heart, people that don’t die in a fire, and a cross.  So I compliment all of these and prepare to go to the copier to make more copies.  They like this project.  As I’m going out, I hear a child ask The Girl how to spell something and realize that on the cross picture it’s going to say “I thank God for Jesus dying on the cross.”  Well wow, I thought the cross would represent church or something like that but, no--thanks for Jesus dying on the cross.  From the mouth and heart of a 5 year old child.   Hmmm.  I return from my copying and comment on all the pictures and realize a yellow arch has been drawn over the top of the cross picture.  I say, “Well, you’ve drawn a sun over your cross.”  To which the child replies as he looks at me with a disbelieving face that I could be so wrong, “NO, that’s the Holy Spirit.”  Well duh.  How could I ever miss that?  Really.  I looked at The Girl and she just smiled and nodded her head with that incredulous look I have learned to recognize through the years. 

So that morning I was reminded that if it’s so easy for little children to talk so freely to the Heavenly Father, it should be just as easy for me.   I realized that yes, we can be thankful for the earth, ourselves, our mamas, our hearts, and even that no one died in a fire.  I was thinking that things such as fires can represent a lot of fear in my life.  I can be thankful that Jesus will calm those fears.  And I realized, too, that I fall so very short in sharing what God did for me by sending his son, Jesus, to die on the cross for me.  If a child can share so confidently, why can’t I?  Why DON’T I?

Yes, this past Sunday morning I was blessed.  And that is only one of the reasons I am thankful this day.

“Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.”  Mark 10:14

INSOMNIA

Insomnia:  Chronic inability to fall asleep or remain asleep for an adequate length of time

I’ve heard folks speak of how annoying insomnia is.  As for me, I’ve never experienced that very often.  I’m the one who can go to sleep and sleep very well, even sitting straight up in a loud room.  That is, if I’m tired enough.  And, most days, I’m tired enough.  Especially as I age.

Today it’s 4:30 a.m. and I’ve been awake for over an hour and a half.  It could be because my stomach is off.  That could be because I drank a Diet Coke an hour before I went to bed.  I know better than that.  It’s just that I have a limit of three Diet Cokes a week and have only had one so far this week and just felt like I wanted my second last night.  An hour before bedtime.  Not so smart.  Plus, I have a sniffly nose.  Not the full blown cold that The Husband has had ALL week and still has but just enough sniffly nose to keep me awake.  And did I say that The Husband has gone fishing?  Already.  Before 4:30 a.m.  Uh, huh, The Husband LOVES to fish. 

I lay in bed wide awake and got to thinking.   I guess that’s what one does when they have insomnia.  I have a wood cutout of a sheep I’ve had for many years that says “Don’t count sheep, talk to the shepherd.”  Well, having little insomnia, I haven’t done that often but got to doing that this morning and finally decided to just get up and write about the conversation.  So here’s my thoughts in my insomnia state.

The list for things I am thankful for is too long to write each thing.  So here’s a few:

I’m thankful most of all for my salvation and relationship with the Lord.  Without that, nothing else would make sense.

I’m thankful for The Husband and all he brings to my life and our home and the love he has for the Lord, our family, and me.  He is a good man even with the snuff dipping and early rising.

I’m thankful for The Girl.  What a joy she has brought to my life and our home!  We all know I could write so much here but I’ll just say The Husband and I have been blessed beyond measure to have her call us Daddy and Mama.

I’m thankful for The Son-In-Law.  Boy, doesn’t that sound odd? It’s my first Thanksgiving as a Mother-In-Law and I have The Son-In-Law to thank for that.  We are blessed as he is a fine young man who made the choice to love The Girl and join our family.  I couldn’t have picked a better one if I had hand picked him myself.

I am thankful for parents who love me and I am thankful that I never doubted that love.  My parents are those two that everyone loves and so do I.

I am thankful for a sister who allowed me to be a good big sister.  She is very dear to me as is her husband and kids.

I am thankful for an extended family of in-laws that I love.  Many good memories have been made with them.

I am thankful for a place to worship and the freedom I have to worship. 

I am thankful for a church family who supports and loves freely.

I am thankful for friends, both old and new.  Isn’t there a saying that says “one is silver, the other gold”?    Life has a path that brings folks into it that become very precious to me.  

I am thankful for laughter and for tears.  I need them both to keep things in perspective.

I am thankful for my shoes that I can wear all day long without having my feet and legs hurt.   I am especially glad of this as they cost more than any shoes I have ever worn and I could not take them back after I had worn them.  Whew!  Luckily, I am not vain about having to wear good looking shoes.  My Catholic friend calls them “nun” shoes.  I call them “comfortable”.   I wear them every day.  Did I say I can wear them all day long without having painful feet and legs?  Yes!

I am thankful for that pink medicine I took for my stomach earlier and for the wonderful doctor who prescribed it.  She has been my wonderful doctor for about 25 years now and I’m thankful I found her that day long ago after I had fallen through the attic....a great story to tell for her and for me!  It’s the little things…..

I am thankful for music, children, mercy, corn flakes, afternoon naps, an easy to fix hair do, a beautiful day, grace, a love of photography, grits, sweet memories, and so much more.   The list is endless.  Endless. 

One of my favorite songs is one that has been sang by the Children’s Choir at church and says much to me.  It goes like this:

“Dear Lord, we vow to thank you for all the good you give

For birds and trees for skies and seas, the world in which we live.

Dear Lord, we vow to thank you for family and friends

For food and for your faithfulness, your love which never ends.”

The "love which never ends" is one of our biggest blessings.  God is so good and thankfully, He and only He holds our future in His hands.

“In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”  1 Thessalonians 5:18

Brought to my knees......

...not once but twice in less than 5 minutes!  Ahhh....maybe I've learned to keep my pins away from my cutting area....

SHEEP

Sheep.  Not a one of us need an official online dictionary definition of “sheep”. 

I love sheep.  It amazes me at the thickness of their coats.  It amazes me at the peacefulness of the sight of a pasture full of sheep grazing.  I love watching the baby lambs grazing by their mamas. 

I have a couple of books that I have read that tell interesting facts about sheep.  Did you know that sheep are not really smart?  Did you know that they have no natural defenses—no fangs or claws or such as that?  Did you know that they have no sense of direction?

This year I felt the calling to write our church’s Christmas program.  Uh huh.  Not my idea for sure.   I argued with the Lord over it and He won.  At our church we have a boatload of kids to be in this program.  I’m talking a boatload. And that is a HUGE blessing for our church!   I was indecisive about what role in the nativity part the youngest of the youngsters would be.  Somehow the idea came to make them animals.  As I was talking to one of the mothers about costumes and making them all sheep, she made the statement, “If they wander a little on stage, that’s probably all right because that’s what sheep do.”  Little did she know that her statement would prompt me into a blog entry.  She is so right.  Sheep wander.  That’s why they need a shepherd.  So yes, you guessed it, I was reminded of Psalm 23.  The Lord is MY shepherd.  It’s one of those Psalms that I learned as a child and somehow kept in my heart for all these years. 

I decided that I would share the 23^rd Psalm accompanied by some of my favorite photos.  While you read and look, think of yourself as the sheep because that’s really what we all are.  Doesn’t Psalm 100 say “we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture”?  And doesn’t the Word say “He is the good Shepherd”?  In fact the Word speaks of his shepherdship in so many places.  Bet the online dictionary doesn’t know the word, shepherdship.  I like it.  Makes the Lord sound just like the all important wonderful shepherd He is!

So....Psalm 23.....

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; 

he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul;

he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

And I say, "Amen."

TRUST

Trust  --  Firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.

“This is your pilot speaking.  We are experiencing some turbulance.  Please stay seated with your seat belts fastened.”

Not exactly what I want to hear when I’m only-God-knows how many thousands of feet in the air the airplane on which I am riding is flying.  As the plane seemed to lurch and thump, The Husband and I heard the pilot’s voice as he said those words on our first flight of the day on our recent trip to Montana.  As in the past when those words are spoken, my arm immediately goes into the arm of The Husband.  That connection somehow gives me a bit of comfort while my mind is also trying to remember the safety advice and demonstration that the flight attendant gave.  Oh course, I paid very little attention to that safety segment.  I was wishing I had listened a bit more so I took out the safety brochure from the seat pocket and tried to learn it quickly.  Just in case I had need of it.

It’s in those moments, the taking off moments, and the landing moments (are there many moments left?) that I especially think seriously about what is about to happen.  It was actually on this flight that I considered the fact that during the course of this trip, I was going to ride on four different planes “driven” by four different pilots.  I would have no idea if mine would be their first time to fly a plane with people on it or if they had piloted many times.   I rarely ever think of that concept.  I trust these men (usually) that I have not seen nor do I know.  They look like pilots, they dress like pilots and they smile like pilots so they must be pilots, right?  But...is that enough to give one confidence?  (Guess there's a sermon in THAT somewhere.)  I trust them because Delta trusts them.  (These days, is that a good reason?)  Nonetheless, I flew in planes piloted by these folks I don’t know.  Luckily, I arrived home safely.

We have trust in our cars like that most days.  I trust that when I get in my car that it is going to crank.  I had an appointment at Northside Atlanta a couple of weeks ago at 8:00 a.m. on a Monday morning for what I call my yearly “Marathon Mammogram”.  I say that because at the doctor’s where I go, you are asked to allow 2-3 hours as you get the results that day.  When I walked out of there 4.5 hours later (everything was fine) into the pouring rain, got in my car, cranked it, paid the maximum parking fee, and drove out into the road, I saw my “check engine” light on.  Aargh….a friend used to call that kind of day a “day with negative ions in the air”.   As soon as I saw that warning, I became afraid that my car was going to break down at a very inconvenient place and my trust became shaken. 

We put our trust in people who sometimes disappoint us.  We put our trust in ourselves and we sometimes disappoint us.  Amazing how we trust even wrong things at times.

I am reminded of a childhood book I used to read to The Girl when she was small.  We read a lot of books at our house.  The Bernstein Bears series were some of the favorites.  If you’re not familiar, they are a family of bears--Papa Bear, Mama Bear, Brother Bear, and Sister Bear.  Sort of reminds one of my family descriptions on this blog, doesn’t it?  These books taught lessons to children and in this particular one, it teaches about trust.  If I can vaguely remember, Brother Bear and Sister Bear are playing in the living room in a fashion that is not accepted in the Bear treehouse.  In their antics, they knock over a lamp and break it.  Of course, they don’t want to admit their mistake to Mama Bear—it was her favorite lamp.  One line that I remember from the book that eventually Mama Bear says to them is “It’s hard to put trust back together once it’s broken.”  I say to that, “Amen”.   By the end of that story, one learns that rebuilding trust is not an impossible task.

So with all of this writing, I am coming to what is most important and a trust that will never let me down.  That is trust I have in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  He has never messed up yet.  He trusts me certainly more than I seem to do Him some days.  I often forget He is the one who sees the future and knows the best for me.  I can trust Him to always lead me in the right direction.  I can trust Him to never leave me, even when I seem to take Him for granted.  I can trust Him with my family, with my friends, with my problems, with my life.  And most of all I can always trust Him to love me more than I deserve.

Remember that when your plane of life experiences turbulance, put your arm in the arm of your Heavenly Father.  He can calm the turbulance in your life.

That’s real trust.

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths.”   Proverbs 3:4, 5

VACATION

Well, The Husband and I have returned from our annual vacation.  Well, annual some years.  Luckily, this was one of those annual years.  We were gone for a week...actually eight days with two of them being travel days.  We flew in and out of Great Falls, Montana....flying in via Salt Lake City (and a run literally from one gate of arrival to another of departure--whew) and flying out via Minneapolis/St. Paul (with time for a Burger King lunch in between).

This country of ours has many beautiful sights.  The sights we saw were without a doubt "God made" rather than the bright lights of "man-made".  Before heading out, we visited the local Walmart to purchase our traditional vacation snacks.  One must prioritize...

We headed out bright and early on our first morning there in route to Glacier National Park.  Yes, we left the hotel before daylight and the only good thing about that was that I was able to capture this Montana sunrise.

 There were wildfires in Idaho and the wind was blowing so the mountains and sky were not as clear as we would have hoped but beautiful all the same.

Glacier National Park was beautiful, too, and we drove 18 miles to Logan Pass on "The Road to the Sun".  We would have driven straight across to the opposite side but the road was only open 18 miles worth so we had to turn around and come back.   At Logan Pass, we saw these sights:

Yes, the photo with the two wood "poles" show that they are ready for snow.  They put the poles so the snowplows will know where to come to scrap the roads when the time comes.  I can't imagine that much snow.

We then drove around the south edge of the park to the west entrance and drove the 12 miles into the park on the 12 miles of road that was open.  Then we turned around and came back.  West Glacier was a whole different landscape.  It was flat-ter with lots of water.

 The Husband really enjoys looking for "game".  He spent a lot of time like this:

 And he was rewarded for his efforts....

There were warning signs...

The large "bull" elk with his harem were over this hill.  I did forget my fear for The Husband and spent a slight bit of time coveting the nice lens on the other guy's camera.  Maybe The Husband was there to take a closer look at the lens and not the elk?  Yeah. Right.

 We even saw a moose, even though it was a dead moose, we stopped, gave thanks it was not our rented car that hit it, and took a picture.  The husband enjoyed taking a much closer look than I did.

The flat ranch areas were mostly "open range".  I soon found out that meant that one tags their cows and just turn them loose outside the fences to gather and socialize.  Amazing.  Just in the road.  Standing in the road.

And then the ranchers "round 'em up" just like in the movies....

There were classic barns...

...ghost towns (Virginia City--wasn't that the Cartwright's hometown?)...

...fall leaves......

....and beautiful scenery.

We ate lunch one day at Wisdom, Montana.  Population:  100....

....and reminisced about a prior trip when we stayed in the hotel in Cooke City that Frommer's called "the poshest in town"....

I lost my desire to ride in a hot air balloon by traveling the road through Beartooth Pass.  It should have been named "Fear Highway".  You can see the road just curves around the side of the mountains and there are no trees.  It was SCARY.  I have decided I don't care for heights.

I was sooo happy to see this:

I always love the artistic photos....

...and the turkeys and birds.

One of my very favorites (yes there was a deer in the distance)....

And yes, two of us went on the trip...

So that's it in a nutshell....see you next time....