Monday, December 31, 2007

Goodbye 2007

This year started out a little rough, but steadily got better. Because I started blogging about halfway through the year, I can remember the second half much better than the first half. However I do remember that in January, bad things happened to both of my kids and when things happen to my kids, it is so much worse for me than if it had happened to myself. First, Aaron's band got stranded in a snow storm and then on the same weekend, their money box was stolen. It had every bit of money they had made. It really broke my heart for them. The second bad thing that happened was that a guy that Leah had previously dated left some threatening messages on her voicemail. It was really frightening so she had to go to the police about it. Thank God for her friends who stayed with her for support during that time!

Things started getting better after that and I'll just briefly mention some of the highlights of my year....we got a new look in our kitchen - new stove, countertops, floor, sink, painted walls instead of wallpaper; we went to two different CD release parties in Nashville; the band got signed to a record label; I went to Tampa with my sister to visit her son; went to a "hip-hop church" in Tampa; Eddie and I went to Helen, Georgia; went to Rush of Fools concert at my church; Leah and I went to the beach with my youngest sister and her three kids; went to the beach with Eddie and Leah; had Eddie's 50th birthday celebration; went to several Plea concerts in several different locations; housed and fed numerous bands several times; a wonderful Christmas season with loved ones.

Now, the nest is empty again and while I miss everyone, it's not really bad. I've been so busy the last month having so many different ones at our house and constantly providing food and hospitality, it's nice to have some down time before having to return to my job. I think the thing I've learned the most over the past year is to be flexible. I've learned that with only a moments notice I might suddenly have to feed a bunch of people. But it's okay if I haven't had a week to plan and buy groceries and clean house. Being flexible is so much better than having to stick to a strict schedule and try to make sure that everything goes exactly as planned. Being flexible also includes what I mentioned before about not setting my expectations too high, only to be disappointed. This lesson learned is one that I plan to keep in my life because it makes me and everyone around me much happier.

I love my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I love my family and friends, and I love all my new friends I've made this year through blogging. I wish for each of you a very happy new year. God bless you!

I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever. Psalm 145:1

Sunday, December 30, 2007

The Simple Things in Life

As I mentioned already, my son and daughter have both been home for the holidays, but my daughter left late Saturday night. Tonight my son and his girlfriend will be leaving because the band he's in starts up another tour tomorrow. For anyone who might be new to this blog, he's a musician (the drummer) for a band that tours full time, so his life is made up of traveling on a daily basis. He's been doing this since May 2006, so some of the simplest things in life are things that he doesn't get to take advantage of anymore. Just to mention a few of those things....sleeping in a bed, going to church every Sunday, taking Sunday afternoon naps.....these are things he no longer gets to do. So this afternoon when we came home after church and going out to lunch, it was raining outside; one of those afternoons you just want to stay inside and read or watch TV. I thought this was so cute -- my son got so excited and ran to his room to put on some comfortable clothes because he said it had been such a long time since he'd been able to take a Sunday afternoon nap. It made me so happy to see him so excited over the most simple thing. I'm so glad he got to live a sort of normal life, if only for a week.

Aaron and Meghan

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Expectations

It seems so long since I've actually written a blog post! One reason for that is because I've been off work for the past week, so I'm away from my normal routine life. However, I have been reading my friends' blogs and I have sure enjoyed hearing about your Christmas holidays. I only posted pictures of mine, but I have to say that I could not have asked for my Christmas to be any better than it was. The best part was to have my son and my daughter home with us and everything after that was just extra icing on the cake. This year I decided not to set my expectations too high, because I was afraid that if my expectations were too high about having a great Christmas, something might happen to disappoint me. We had plans, but I decided to focus on the real meaning of Christmas and if everything didn't turn out exactly the way we planned, it wouldn't be the end of the world. But everything went just as I wanted it. I got all the cooking done that I wanted to do; my son arrived home from up north in plenty of time to spend all our family get-togethers with us; the weather was cold for Christmas; we spent time with my husband's family and with mine. It was wonderful!

My daughter's boyfriend came to join us on Christmas Day, so it's always nice to get to know the guy she's dating a little better. I like him a lot and I really appreciate that he treats her like a lady. My son's girlfriend flew in from Pennsylvania the day after Christmas and has been spending a few days with us. Again, I'm glad to have the opportunity to get to know her and I'm also very pleased with his choice for a girlfriend. She's very sweet and beautiful, and is a committed Christian. I pray that both of my kids will follow the Lord's guidance with their relationships.

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. Psalm 25:1-2

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Our Christmas in Pictures

We went to my parents house on Christmas Day. The first picture is when I gave my mom the special gift I made for her.
Dear Mom,
I hope that you will like this gift I made for you. I think sometimes we buy gifts for people at Christmas without much thought behind it, but we do it just to have something to give. But I want you to know that there was a lot of thought and a lot of time put into making this particular gift. Since you are missing the hymns being sung at church, I wanted to give you a CD with your favorite hymns on it. I spent many hours recording your favorites as well as my sisters’ and my favorites, and then adding other instrumental sounds using my synthesizer. There is no singing, just music, but hopefully they are played simply enough straight out of the hymnal so that you can sing along as you listen. It is far from perfect (like me) and there’s not a lot of fancy piano playing, but there is a lot of love behind it and a lot of thankfulness to you and Daddy for giving me the gift of music. I don’t know what I’d do without it. I love you and Daddy so much!



My husband was so proud of his "A Plea for Purging" hoodie that Aaron gave him!






Alex, my nephew, opening a gift. Seated on sofa is my son, Aaron, my brother-in-law, Robert, and my sister, Angie.




Chaos in the kitchen at my parents house.


My daughter, Leah, and her boyfriend, Thomas, by my mother's Christmas tree.



Thomas gave Leah some hunting clothes!



At our house on Christmas Eve, all six cousins on my husband's side of the family together for the first time in many years. We have a picture from every Christmas of all the boys holding up Leah, the only girl cousin.



At our house on Christmas Eve, Eddie's brother Frank always plays his accordian -- these are his two sons with him. I thought this picture was funny.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Christmas Traditions

What are some of your Christmas traditions that make Christmas special in your home? We don't really have a lot of things that we've done intentionally for the purpose of becoming a tradition, but I believe there are a few things that have become tradition simply because we do it every year. One is that we always get together on Christmas Eve night with my husband's family and eat, exchange gifts and listen to some Christmas music. Then on Christmas morning, just our little family gets up and we wait until all of us are up before anyone goes to the room with the Christmas tree. Then we open the gifts we got for each other and I make sausage balls for our breakfast. Later in the day, we go to my parents' house to have the family get-together with them and my sisters and whoever is able to be there from our families. My mom will sometimes get someone to read the Christmas story from the Bible before we start opening gifts. We usually do the gift swap called "Dirty Santa". Sometimes after that we will play a game together. The last couple of years we played this electronic game called Catchphrase. It's a lot of fun when you have several people to play. And then we go home exhausted and just rest and hang out together that night. All during the Christmas season I like to burn scented candles that make the house smell Christmasy.

Please share some of your Christmas traditions or things your family does that make Christmas special at your house.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. Luke 2:13-14

Friday, December 21, 2007

Friday Favorites - Christmas Edition

Today, for Friday favorites, I'd like for you to read an article that I thought was really great. This one is not by one of my blogger friends, but I thought it really captured the spirit of Christmas. I hope you will take five minutes to read "Jesus is Christmas".

If you just feel like reading the Christmas story from the Bible, click on Luke 2.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

The Real Meaning of Christmas

Amel tagged me for this about a week ago and I'm just now getting around to it.

Here are the instructions for this meme:

1. Make a paragraph next to the last paragraph in the tag that is passed to you “What is Christmas to you” and put your name at the end of it linking back to your site, or the page that answered this tag.
2. You can use a title that will suit your Christmas idea.
3. Then tag as many as you can.

For me, Christmas means HOPE. Always has been, always will be. The fallen world has received the greatest hope of all: the birth of Jesus Christ. And since hope is all around, then it's only normal to see so many acts of kindness around Christmastime. In Indo, we never exchanged Christmas gifts, but now I live in Finland and I start to buy gifts for my loved ones. Christmas also means family gathering for me and candlelight service at church. Plus I get to sing Christmas songs and enjoying a Christmas play and dance. Other than that, for me Christmas also means SERENITY. I can feel a different kind of peace in my heart whenever Christmas comes along. And since Christmas is near New Year, it's also time for reflection for me: reflecting all the blessings that the Lord has given me and then thanking God for everything. -
Amel

Christmas, to me, is a day that is set aside to celebrate the birth of God's only son, the Savior and Messiah. We celebrate this special birth by spending time with the people we love the most and giving gifts to each other because God gave to us the greatest gift of all. And it's not only on Christmas Day that we celebrate; we celebrate during the weeks leading up to December 25 by giving gifts to others around us who are in need of basic necessities that we are already blessed to have. We celebrate by listening to and singing Christmas carols that tell about the birth of Jesus. We also celebrate this day by eating special foods that we only have at Christmas time. I love Christmas and meditating on the story in Luke 2 about how it all actually happened. I love spending time with family and friends and the warmth of love that I feel at this time of year. -Kathy

I am tagging everyone who visits my blog from now until Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Inside My Thoughts

Since I don't have anything really pressing to write about today, I decided to go ahead and post one I wrote on December 7th, but I never posted it. I was complaining and I guess just getting it all typed out that day helped me to feel better even without posting it. I just found it in my drafts today, so here it is in red print...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Would you like to get a peek inside the mind of Kathy? Well, keep reading and you’ll see a typical “Kathy” thought process…

It’s Friday night and I have to go to a middle school Christmas dance. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. It’s just that, Friday night?! I’m so tired from my work week and I’ve got all my Christmas shopping still ahead of me. But, really, I’m not complaining. I mean, I love my husband, he’s a teacher at that school and he has to chaperone the dance. He’s been working all week, too, so I know he’s tired, but he wants me to come there and be with him at the dance. I should be honored that he wants me there, right? That’s why, I am really not complaining. He’ll be hungry after school and won’t have a chance to get dinner, so it’s very important for me to pick up some food and take it to him, and spend the rest of the evening with him, even if it is 25 miles from home. I mean how could I complain about something so trivial, right? He came to hear me play in the Christmas program last weekend, twice! And he came to the church one of the rehearsal nights to eat dinner with me. He gets my side of the bed all warmed up for me every night before he wakes me up from falling asleep on the couch. But here I am, complaining about having to do this one little thing for him. Yes, that’s right, I don’t want to go to a middle school Christmas dance on a Friday night in December and I'm complaining about it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oh, I just now remembered that I did post this one on December 7th, for about five minutes. And that was when my husband called me at work and told me that I shouldn't drive to his school for the dance because he was going to be busy anyway monitoring kids and wouldn't have much chance to visit with me. I was so happy that I didn't have to go to that dance!

A Plea for Purging Christmas

I love

A Plea for Purging!

They are the coolest metal band around

and their CD


is the best!

Merry Christmas

Aaron, Andy, Blake, John and Lyle!

I love you guys!

Monday, December 17, 2007

What Are You Looking For?

I was on my way to work the other day when I saw a sign that really said something to me. The sign said this...

"What you see depends mainly on what you look for."

The reason this sign made me start thinking so hard was because there is someone in my life who I feel has done me and others wrong at times. Now, it seems like I'm always looking for the faults in this person and trying to keep count of all the wrong things she does. When I read that sign I realized that I can find fault so easily with this person because that's what I'm looking for. I need to change this bad attitude and start looking for the good things in this person and I imagine that I'll start finding some different things. This will take some effort on my part and it won't be easy to change my bad habit.

I'm thankful that God doesn't look for my faults because if He did, he would find way too many to name. When God looks at me, he doesn't see my sins and my faults. He sees an unblemished life and a clean heart, not because of anything I've done, but because I have been purified through the blood of Jesus.


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. 1 John 1:7
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Plans Change

This has been such a crazy week with so many unplanned things happening. I've had to be very flexible as plans changed. Even with all that, it's been a good week and I enjoyed the things I did, but I am really tired today. After the band guys left this morning, I realized that my computer had become infected with some kind of virus, so I spent a lot of time on the phone with a computer guy this afternoon. Thankfully, he was able to get it fixed. I tried shopping some today also, but my feet got really tired and then it started raining so I just came home. I still have some shopping to do but I know it'll get done. I'm not stressing over it.

Do you ever have one special gift that you can hardly wait to give someone at Christmas? I'll have gifts for my husband, my kids, our parents and some extended family gifts. But the one this year that is really special and I can hardly wait to give is the one for my mother. I won't say just yet what the gift is, just in case she happens to read my blog. I don't think she reads it, but I will wait until after Christmas to say what the gift is. I hope that she will like it and that it'll mean as much to her as it does to me. Do you have one of those special kind of gifts for someone this year? I would love to hear about the special gifts you are giving and any stories about why it is so special.

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! 2 Corinthians 9:15

Friday, December 14, 2007

Friday Favorites

Last month I read some really wonderful Thanksgiving posts. One that stuck in my mind was written by Kay of Loop de Loops in La La Land. Please take a moment to read her Monday Thanksgiving post. It is absolutely beautiful. And while you're there, listen to "Breath of Heaven" on her music player if you've never heard the song before. I don't remember how I came in contact with all of my blogger friends, but I do remember finding Kay through a profile search of a certain Christian band, I believe it was Newsboys.

In case anyone doesn't already know this, you can go to your own profile and click on one of your interests and blogger will bring up a list of all the other blogs who listed that same interest in their profile. For example, I have listed A Plea for Purging as one of my favorites in the music category. I can go to my profile, click on A Plea for Purging, and a list of all the profiles who listed them comes up.......all six of them! Ok, so they haven't gotten very famous amongst bloggers yet. But if I click on Newsboys, it brings up a list of 5,300 profiles that have listed them as a favorite. And that's how I found Kay and a few other blogger friends.


The weekend is coming and I hope you each have a safe, fun and restful weekend with good weather.

Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength." Nehemiah 8:10

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Christmas Time is Here

Just like many other people, life for me at this time of year is getting busy with so much to do. I have chosen to make it fun and enjoyable and not to be stressed about it. I've decided that if everything doesn't get done or every present doesn't get bought, that's okay with me. I will enjoy Christmas time because it's not about me. Christmas is about Jesus and I don't believe he would want me putting all that other stuff ahead of him, including my blogging.

I had an unexpected blessing yesterday. When I turned on my cell phone yesterday morning, I had a text message from my son telling me that the band had some shows cancelled and a promoter of one venue did them wrong, so they were coming to our house for a couple of days. I was so excited and decided I would text him back and tell him how happy I was and how welcome they always are at our house and I couldn't wait for them to get home. However, my texting skills are sorely lacking so it took me about 10 minutes to respond by text message with my joyous message saying......"ok". That's it, two little letters was all I could get done and still make it to work on time. He immediately texted me back with a nice long message thanking me and telling me when they'd be here and so on. I don't know how these young people do it! But they got here and we had fun getting to hang out with them last night. I hope to cook dinner for them tonight. They'll keep my home computer busy so I won't get to use it much for a couple of days. That's fine with me, I'm just glad to have my boy and my other boys home!

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Emmanuel, God With Us

When I was in college I had to take a religion class as one of the required courses that everyone had to take. One research paper I had to do for that class was on one of the many names of God. I chose to do my paper on the name Emmanuel (also spelled Immanuel). This one word is so full of meaning. Simply put, it means "God with us." In the Old Testament, Isaiah prophesied that a virgin would give birth to a son and he would be called Immanuel. It is so amazing to think that God who is above all, God who is the creator of all, God who our finite minds cannot really even comprehend, this same God took on human form and left his glory in heaven to be with us. Emmanuel, God with us.

Mercy Me, one of the great Christian groups today, has a song called God With Us. I've added a video at the end so you can listen to this wonderful song.

Isa 7:14 - Show Context
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Mt 1:23 - Show Context
"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"--which means, "God with us."


Joh 1:14 - Show Context
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.



Monday, December 10, 2007

Storms

This morning I heard on the news that there is a snow and ice storm from Texas to Pennsylvania. Every time I hear something like this I immediately look at A Plea for Purging’s schedule to see where they are supposed to be that day. When I heard this report I was hoping with all my heart that they weren’t going to be in the area where the bad weather is. Tonight they are scheduled to be in Abilene, Texas. I’m not sure exactly where the ice begins, but I know there seems to be some in the panhandle part. If I’m reading my map correctly, I think Abilene is south of there so I’m hoping and praying that the guys are not going to be traveling in the icy areas today. Last winter, they were in Amarillo, Texas and Oklahoma at the exact time a horrible storm hit. I try so hard not to worry because I know my worrying won’t accomplish anything. But when I know that my son, my only son, is traveling in possibly hazardous conditions, it does give me the opportunity to completely trust God to take care of him.

Here in Alabama, we are having extremely mild temperatures today – a high of 80. I had to pull out the summer clothes. Are you in any of the areas across the country being affected by this storm? Are you having ice or snow?

When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me? Psalm 56:3-4
I have been given another award! I would like to thank my friend Sindi from Life is a Roller Coaster for giving me this. I have really enjoyed getting to know her and reading all about things that go on in her life Sindi, thanks so much!

Saturday, December 8, 2007

My Mother

When you work a full time job, it makes it hard to get everything done that needs to be done around Christmas time. Sometimes at the end of my work day, I just feel so tired that all I want to do is go home and plop down on the couch and watch TV. I don't get to do that very often, but when I think about it, I don't really have that much that I have to do after work. On Wednesdays, I do go to choir practice, and one Tuesday out of the month I go to a ladies mission meeting, but other than that, my evenings aren't super busy. That brings me to the point of this post.

The other day when I felt so (*yawning and stretching*) "t-i-r-e-d" because of working, I thought about my mother. When I was growing up, my mom had to work full time. Not only that, she had four daughters. But when I compare myself to her, I fall sooo short of being what she was. She always cooked breakfast for us, every morning. I never cook breakfast during the week. She always came home from work and cooked us a nice dinner. I did cook dinner when my kids were home, now I do it sometimes. Twice a week she had to make sure I got to piano lessons, plus whatever my sisters were involved in. Every Saturday that rolled around she had to go grocery shopping and do all kinds of housework. She and dad always made sure that we had a very special Christmas. I don't think they were consciously thinking about making memories, but I have the most wonderful childhood memories of Christmas. But what gets me the most now when I think about it is this....After I was grown, married and had my first baby, my husband and I had to work the afternoon/night shift. My mother, who was a year older than the age I am now, would leave her full time job and pick up my baby and keep him until I got off work at 10:00 each night. That blows my mind! I think about how tired I am each night at my age, and then I realize that my mom babysat for me at this age after working all day. My mother is one amazing woman.

Mom is 75 years old now and doing well, except for her knee hurts all the time and keeps her from being able to get out and about very much. She goes to church and all, but can't really get out and do a lot of shopping or walking around. I ask her if I can help by doing some shopping for her, but she never really needs me to do anything. She's a great mother!

My new blogger friend, Julianarw, has passed these awards on to me. Thank you, Juliana! Even though my mom doesn't have a blog, I would like to give her and my dad the Christmas Spirit Award for always making our Christmas so wonderful. I pass the Bodacious Blog award on to my blogger friend, Sindi!






Friday, December 7, 2007

Friday Favorites

It's Friday, yea!!

Today I would like to start doing something new. I would like to try to do it each Friday, but knowing myself, it will probably be a once in a while type thing. What I'd like to do on Fridays is to put a link to a favorite post that I've read in the past. If anyone else would like to try this also, feel free to join in. I've seen people do Marriage Monday, Wordless Wednesday and Thankful Thursday. So welcome to Friday Favorites! I encourage you to follow the link and read the post. Today's favorite is a post that was written by 74Wixygrad on his Seek Him First blog. The title of the post is Enlarge Our Borders. I enjoyed it and I hope you will too!

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:33-34

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Pride v. Humility

This past Sunday and Monday, my church orchestra did its annual Christmas program – we did it twice on Sunday evening and then again on Monday night. And this was after rehearsals for three nights last week. My part in the orchestra is to play the synthesizer. This is a keyboard instrument that can make all kinds of different instrumental sounds. As a musician, I learned a long time ago that it is easy to let pride creep into my attitude. I have to make sure that I always pray for all the glory to go to God for any music that I play. I play first of all because I feel that God has gifted me with this talent so that I can give praise, honor and glory back to Him. Each Sunday at the other church where I play the piano, people always give me compliments and wonderful encouragement. I am so thankful for that and it is something that I really need because it helps me keep going. But I have to be careful to find that balance of not becoming prideful while still being grateful and respectful toward those who give me compliments.

Pride is something I believe everyone has trouble with to some degree. For Christians, we realize that too much pride or having a haughty attitude is sin. The dictionary says this kind of pride means “thinking too well of oneself; haughty, arrogant.” The Bible says that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. That thought alone should be enough to make us want to stay away from the sin of pride. But there are also other negative consequences of pride mentioned in the Bible including being disgraced, quarrels, punishment from God, destruction and downfall. When I feel the pride creeping into my attitude, I have to remember that God opposes the proud. I don’t want God to oppose me.

The opposite of pride is humility. The definition of humility or humble is: “modest, without wrongful pride in oneself or one’s accomplishments; patient and mild disposition.” God gives grace to the humble – isn’t that much more desirable than being opposed by God? Being humble doesn’t come naturally – it takes a lot of work and a lot of dependence on God. But it is definitely something to start working toward! I am listing some verses below that are about this subject – to read them, all you have to do is click on it and it will take you to the verse.


Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18

James 4:6
1 Peter 5:5
Proverbs 13:10
Proverbs 15:33
Proverbs 16:5
Proverbs 16:18
Proverbs 18:12
Proverbs 29:23

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Follow Up

Earlier today I did a post about Rush of Fools appearing on The 700 Club. Well, they posted the video of it on their myspace page so if you'd like to see it click Rush of Fools video. Wes is the one with spikey hair and wearing a tie. The other guy is Kevin. This is great, now I don't have to find the show and watch it on TV tonight!

Now I'd like to tell the rest of the dog story that I started a while back. If you need the background on this go to Part 1 or Part 2 to read previous posts. To shorten the whole story, our neighbor's dog was climbing the fence and always staying in our backyard with our dogs. But finally, their dog started not only coming into our yard, but it started getting out into the neighborhood and running around. The neighbors had told us they would get rid of the dog since it wouldn't stay in their fenced yard, but they never got rid of it. Instead, they brought home a second outside dog, I guess in hopes that it would give Betsy some company. That idea didn't work and Betsy was running all over the neighborhood and finally started frightening children and acting like she might bite them. It was at that point that my husband felt he had to take matters into his own hands and he called the dog catchers and had them come out and pick up the dog. Since then, we have never seen the dog again and our neighbors haven't spoken to us. I felt really bad about it, but we couldn't stand by and take the chance that the dog might hurt some children. We saw our own son get attacked by a Rottweiller when he was eight years old. It was a horrible experience and that is why I have had a fear of that breed dog.

So, now you know the rest of the story. The End.

T.V. Show Today

There is a Christian television show called The 700 Club, but I never watch it. However, I found out that Rush of Fools is supposed to be on the show today. I hope to be able to catch the show tonight but I'll have to find out what channel and what time it comes on. I just thought I would put this out there for anyone who happens to see this in time and would like to watch the show. If you see it, please let me know how it was and at what point in the show the group appeared.

Thanks and have a wonderful Tuesday!

Sunday, December 2, 2007

The Gift

December has just started and I know some people who have already finished their shopping for Christmas! Not me, though; I only got started yesterday. I'm just not one to get everything done ahead of time as I have to first get finished with Thanksgiving, then church Christmas programs. But it's a lot of fun to shop for gifts to give the people I love. Sometimes I have to make myself stop buying because I keep seeing more things I want to give them. When I get the newly bought items home from the store, I put them in my special hiding place until I'm ready to wrap the gifts. When I finally get the gifts beautifully wrapped, I place them under the Christmas tree to wait for the time to come when I can give it to my loved one and watch the excitement on their face when they open it.

Each gift that waits under the tree until Christmas has a tag with a name on it. Therefore, each gift belongs to a specific person. But until Christmas arrives and that person actually receives the gift, they can't do anything with it or use it in any way. If there is an expensive shirt gift-wrapped and tagged with my husband's name, no matter how much it cost he cannot wear it or know anything about it until he's actually received the gift from me. It's his gift, I bought it for him, but he needs to take it and open it before it can do him any good.

There is a gift for you that has your name on it. It was given to you by God but you have to accept it and receive it. I know that most of my regular readers have already received the gift. It is the gift that God has given to us -- his son, Jesus. This is what Christmas is all about -- it's about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, God's gift to mankind. This gift is life-changing, I know because He has changed my life. I am a different person from what I would be without Jesus. It's real, He's real, and it's powerful. If you feel that you would like to know more about Jesus, please find my email link on my profile and I would be more than happy to talk with you about it.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Romans 10:9-10

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Busy Day

It's been a busy Saturday! I've done some shopping with my hubby today and we put up the Christmas tree, then went out again to buy just a few more lights to finish it out. I've done laundry and cleaned house, and now after all that, my mind is mushy. I knew early this morning I should have written my blog while my mind was fresh and I knew what I wanted to say. But it's gone now. Maybe I can try tomorrow morning to write something meaningful. I'll just leave you with a beautiful passage from the Bible and I'll use the King James version for this one because that's the way I originally learned it and no other translation makes it sounds quite as lovely.

Psalm 121
1. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
2. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
3. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved; he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
4. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5. The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.
6. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
7. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil; he shall preserve thy soul.
8. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

Psalm 62