I love this time of year.  I always have and I suspect I always will.  My heart still fills with anticipation and awe around Christmas just as it did when I was a little girl.
As an adult, married and living away from my childhood home, my Christmases are haunted by ghosts of Christmases past.  I can remember helping Mom bake cookies, she used my grandmothers’ recipes; decorating the Christmas tree with homemade and store bought ornaments; our house filled with Christmas carols; gift shopping with Dad, I was his little helper and he let me wrap all of the presents for Mom; visiting with family from out of town and, more recently, friends who had moved away and were home for the holidays.  These were my favorite things.

So many wonderful things that have happened in my life have taken place around Christmas. So many good memories.  As the carol goes, “it’s the most wonderful time of the year.”
“Oh that we could always see such spirit through the year.”

I’m leaving your town, again
And I’m over the ground that you’ve been spinning
And I’m up in the air so baby - yeah
Well, honey, I can see your house from here
If the plane goes down,
I’ll remember where the love was found
If the plane goes down

The obvious bias in news coverage is ridiculous.  It goes beyond partisan loyalties to “Obama”-shaped, rose colored glasses worn by reporters, so-called “gatherers of news and facts”, world wide.  They succeeded to aid in the defeat of one woman who had her sight set on the White House, and now they turn their gaze on the other.  The irony is that Sarah Palin represents everything in a woman that liberals and feminists used to say they wanted: she has a family and job, and is successful and accomplished in both titles; she is self-made; her husband has a job, but is very much involved in raising their children.  She has hundreds of people to vouch for her achievements and accomplishments.  She has lived an American life.  One might wonder that she is not applauded for her achievements, but no.  Why? Because liberals support women based on liberalism, not because they are women and not because they have admirable characteristics of strength.  Because feminism is not about women, it’s about liberalism.  Feminism is one of the tentacles of liberalism that uses women to advance ultra, far-left, radical ideas.  And the media are furious that a strong, attractive, independent, self-made woman with more executive experience than both their favored candidate and his chosen running mate dares to be a Republican, much less Conservative.  So they put forth questions and suggest ideas which would never be mentioned if John McCain had vetted a male Vice Presidential candidate.  Questions about her family and her neglecting their needs. Questions about her pregnant daughter’s feelings and the humiliation that national attention will inflict on her, suggesting that Gov. Palin should back out of the race - although it may well be noted that no working mother would be entreated upon to give up her job because it was found that her underage daughter was pregnant.  Thus the real issues - that of her experience, and her positions on energy, the economy, etc. - are completely dropped. Because on the real issues, she wins.  On the real issues, Sarah Palin knocks one out of the ball park.

A good friend of mine who works on staff at a church in Wisconsin had a letter come across his desk requesting the help of a church in the Del City, OK area for an elderly woman who is moving into a new apartment mid-August.  I forwarded the information to our church, but to be perfectly honest I didn’t know if they would act upon the invitation.  However, I knew that our church has a heart for ministering to the community, and they didn’t disappoint.  Today I received an email letting me know that LifeChurch.tv would be moving the elderly woman in the next couple of weeks.

I love being apart in offering tangible forms of God’s love!  I think sometimes churches forget about its importance.  How many times does the Bible account for God meeting a person’s physical need right along with their spiritual need?  I love that about Him - He is full of love, compassion, and faithfulness.
Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits-
who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.  The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. (Psalm 103) 

Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. (Romans 13:8)

Now it shall be, if you will diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth….The Lord will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. (Deuteronomy 28:1, 12)

The past little while God has been speaking to me and AJ about our finances. We had accumulated some debts and were not being good stewards with our money. We started listening to financial counselor Dave Ramsey’s radio program and were really inspired to get our finances in order. After reading his book, The Total Money Makeover, we began his 7-step process to obtain financial freedom, and in what seemed like no time at all we were able to complete Steps 1 & 2 ( after we set up a monthly budget and started keeping track of every nickel and dime).

Along with paying off our debts, we began to be convicted about tithing 10% out of our income. When things got tight, that was the first thing that seemed to make its way to the bottom of our list of priorities. So, we changed that.

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.” (Malachi 3:10)

I’ve heard this verse paraphrased, “you cannot out give God.”  It definitely seems that when one gives with a desire to obey God’s commands and out of thanksgiving for all that He has provided for them, He tends to open the windows of heaven and flood them with blessing. So we decided to take God up on His offer, to put Him to the test.  That’s exactly what we said, “Okay, we’re going to put You to the test and see if You come through.”  Well, we weren’t disappointed.  In fact, He’s blessed us in ways we would never have thought.  Even if we didn’t see any sort of financial outpouring, it feels good to give and know that you are enabling a ministry to meet someone’s needs, whether they be spiritual or physical.  It is almost contagious; the more we tithe the more we want to give, above and beyond the specified 10%.

This is not to boast of anything AJ and I have accomplished; we have not obtained anything really spectacular or out of reach from the common man.  If anything, this is point a huge arrow towards what God can do, even with two small pawns who are more often than not less than acceptable depiction of His character.

Over the course of the last three years I have frequently wondered why we are still “stuck” here in Oklahoma, and it is becoming more evident each day that there are some important lessons God is wanting me (and us) to learn before we leave this place.  From experience I can say I would much rather learn them now, the first time, than have to take a detour later on.

*On a side note, I ran across this article about the church that AJ & I attend and their position on tithing.  It’s pretty neat.

I have been reading Elisabeth Elliot’s book On Asking God Why, and recently came upon a few chapters (15 - 17) regarding divorce.  Her thoughts on the subject were very interesting, and gave a different perspective on the issue than popular consensus.

Here is an excerpt from Chapter 16 - The “Innocent” Party:

“When sinful people live in the same world, and especially when they work in the same office or sleep in the same bed, they sin against each other.  Troubles arise.  Some of those troubles are very serious and not subject to easy solutions.  God knows all about them and knew about them long before they happened.  He made provision for them.  His Son bore all of them—all grief, all sorrow, all disease, all sin—for us.”

I wonder how differently I might react to conflicts which arise at work and at home if I was to remind myself of this truth throughout the day.  I would like to believe the change would be substantial.

Being very much of the earth–earthy–we always want tangible, visible things–proofs, demonstrations, something to latch onto. If we always had them, of course, faith would be “struck blind.” When Jesus hung on a cross, the challenge was flung at Him: Come down! He stayed nailed, not so that spectators would be satisfied (that miracle, his coming down, would have been a great crowd-pleaser), but that the world might be saved.

Many of our prayers are directed toward the quick and easy solution. Long-suffering is sometimes the only means by which the greater glory of God will be served, and this is, for the moment, invisible. We must persist in faith. God has a splendid purpose. Believe in order to see it.

“Our troubles are slight and short-lived, and their outcome an eternal glory which outweighs them far. Meanwhile our eyes are fixed, not on the things that are seen, but on the things that are unseen” (2 Cor 4:17, 18 NEB).

- Elisabeth Elliot

Twitter admins’ are DUMB.

… the end.

Puggles, pookimos, Jack-a-
bees
—the biggest trend in pets isn’t purebreds, but specially created hybrids.

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