Our Joyful Season

Where's the Will When Nothing Is Going Your Way

The holidays always have a way of sneaking up to surprise me. I have no excuse though, it's not like I haven't seen December coming like eleven months ago!

Still life has become slightly more filled as opposed to last year.

2013 I was very pregnant and happy to hibernate in our tiny rental and have my brother and sisters visit.

Now; we have a trip a pretty big one to make for my sister's wedding during this we've been up to our ears with social stuff and illness and hunting season.  This is the time we use to stock our freezer for the coming year, my husband has been a busy man.Being self sufficient is a lot of work, one really appreciates whats on the that table when so much work goes into it.

Anyway during all of this we've all been sick, and my father-in-law is doing a forty eight hour visit prior our trip. I'm crunched for time, I even mailed our Christmas cards on ahead to our destination because I won't have time to complete them at home. I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed, I think I've been up every night this week until two pm and assumed tonight would be the one time I'd get into bed before ten pm.....until my dog, tiny, aging Pippen showed me that he can't handle table scraps AT ALL anymore. Now I'm unable to sleep, anxious in case my dog can't get over this issue he's having and how in the world I'm going to fit a possible vet visit in between a man checking our septic tomorrow and my father-in-laws visit. We still have one vehicle, a canceled play date due to my children's illnesses and I'm just feeling a bit overwhelmed.

These are the times my overall attitude towards my children can be impatient, strained and agitated. All the small things my children do seem magnified in my sleep deprived stressed mind. Like my two year old bringing my full coffee cup to me,dribbling the entire way and then dropping and breaking my favorite green mug after all that effort!

My four year old failing to obey the first time, my five year old and his nighttime ritual of anxious fear about mice eating his toes and the bedroom having two nightlights instead of the desired four, one for each light socket.(in his mind at least)

Tonight before the children's bedtime I left the dinner dishes in the sink, plunked myself on a couch and read whatever stories they brought to me. All these little people wanted was my total and complete presence, and they didn't care how dirty or clean the house was. We cuddled and chatted and I realized that having a will when nothing is going your way causes more harm than good. It's corrosive, damaging and terribly selfish.

I don't know how many more adventures, or misadventures are coming our way. I know I'm going to feel the press of time and the pricks of uncontrolled outcomes. But if I willingly attempt to see things for what they really are, circumstances and happenings I can approach the situation with a godly attitude, Jesus always wants our reactions to scenarios not necessarily the situation.

May your season be fixed Him.

Not Another Christmas Post

I'm standing next to a man in a red suit, with a white beard. (A real beard by the way)

Guilty by association of celebrating a pagan holiday. Don't worry though, this is just going to be another post about Christmas.

Let me start to explain......

At points in my brief Christian life I have questioned everything I do and everything I partake in. Christmas really unnerved me at one time because of how people tend to view it. The total idolized,selfish, misuse of a day during December with pagen roots,reeking of Catholicism, now so Americanized with a millennial, media make over.

Ugh.

Remember "The Christmas Carol" By Charles Dickens?

How about the movie "It's a Wonderful Life?"

Those are two primary examples of remembering in the correct context the mere idea of "giving" minus selfish materialism, without consumer filled brain washing.

You have to admit there's something about winter that encourages giving, with it's cold, long, dark. People become sick more often, there are heating bills, extra needs of clothing and the feeling of isolation due to shortened days and bad weather. There's nothing ungodly about dedicating a specific day of giving, helping or being social. It has only been in the past sixty or so years that America has decided to exonerate, and glorify December 25 to the point of idol worship.

It isn’t wrong to have a fern in my home (which I do) However having a fir tree, imitation or authentic, is considered by some to be biblically incorrect, yet only during the month December.

Now, I'm not going to launch a revolutionary movement to overthrow the observance of Christmas with all its "me "glorification, with it's Pharisee like promoting tune of "look what I did for someone else." But I am going to call for some reasonable thinking by those believers who vehemently object to their brothers and sisters in Christ enjoying seasonal festivities....at all.

FIRST, let us concede that Christians do not have to celebrate or even acknowledge Christmas…or Easter, Pentecost,  Valentine's day,Thanksgiving or the Sabbath.

Romans 14-4-6“Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.”

Christians are not obligated to hold higher any day above another , even birthdays. Alright that's a little extreme I know but remember Puritans and even Mormans do not party. (Usually)

However it must be acknowledged that Christians are free to esteem one day better than another if they are convinced in their own mind, through prayerful, sanctification and conviction. I am convinced in my own mind that Christmas can be celebrated as enjoyable time of family traditions with parties and the gift giving. You need not be convinced just please do not think to equate my liking of lights,evergreens and red bows with pagan idolatry. Jeremiah 10:3-4  isn't referring to Christmas trees, but hand-crafted idols, hewn for the express purpose of worshipping as a god.

I love Jesus. I worship Him and I give him ALL glory for each gift I receive or am able to give, and I am thankful for remembering seasons that have me contemplate various aspects of his life, birth, death, resurrection, and ascension. I do not worship mythical fir trees nor do I feed subliminal pagan doctrine to my children through the metallic decorations I drape on it.  We DO not encourage the lie of Santa Claus, we don't encourage lying at all. Yes, there is much of Christmas stuff that should be shunned—greed, materialism, shallowness (I Peter 2:16 )

There's so much of the yuletide spirit that is neither godly nor ungodly. Celebrate it or ignore it, that is your liberty in Christ. If I judge or look down on the abstained then I am missing the point of a liberty to forgo celebrations of any kind. Listen if you can't manage to keep the celebration of Christmas a godly matter in your heart than by all means don't partake. But do not feel as though you may be committing a sin against God by holding to a celebration in a right and godly manner.

With that said; I will bake some seasonal cookies, turn on some holiday music, drape my house in some extra greenery. We will pack boxes for the hungry, sing at a nursing home and give some "needed gifts. I will not question my alliance to this World because I am purposely doing this for the glorification of Christ, in His name.

Peace and Joy to you.