Tis The Season...

For making Christmas cards.

For snowy winter roads. 

For baking cookies.

 

 

For Sister's birthday.

For cold mornings and warm fires.

For bright lights.

And for celebrating the best gift that was ever given, Jesus!

 

For God so loved the world, 

that He GAVE His only begotten Son, 

that whosoever believes in Him should not parish, 

but have everlasting life! - John 3:16

Merry Christmas!

November-A Whirlwind Part 2

   In mid-November I flew down to Georgia and attended Wit Ministries Women's Retreat "4 Days 2 Hope". The retreat was held at a beautiful cabin in the mountains near Blue Ridge, Georgia.

The scenery was beautiful, but even more beautiful was the fellowship, the teaching and the work that God did in the hearts and lives of the young women there! For me the weekend was eye-opening, life-changing, life-giving and yes 4 days to hope!! I am so grateful to the LORD that I was able to go!

  

   Grandpa M's funeral was 3 days after I returned home from GA. Almost all the extended family was able to gather together for the services. The emotions surrounding  the funeral were bittersweet... Bitter was the loss, sweet was the bonding closer to the family that remains.

   Thanksgiving was the following week and it was truly a time of thankfulness in my heart. Thankful for God's work in my life, thankful for the years that I had had with my Grandpa M. and all the precious memories of him that I have to remember forever! Thankful for a heart full of hope! Thankful for home, family and friends...

and homemade pies too! 😊

 We hosted the Thanksgiving feast and festivities!

    So there you have it, the highlights of my eventful November 2017! Oh wait-a-second... I forgot to tell you about going to my nephew's musical and spending two more delightful days with all my nieces and nephews, and starting my new job as a Church Secretary and...  

The Greatest Love Story Ever Told...

Journal 1-6-17

Christmas Day rain!

   Our Christmas celebrations were very laid back & simple this year. We attended our church's Christmas Eve Service. And on Christmas day My Grandparents joined us for dinner. Instead of a white Christmas we had a wet and rainy one! (Some thunder too!) All very odd for December 25th in Minnesota! I was tempted to go puddle jumping! But I refrained myself from such frivolities as I had guests to entertain!😉 

Holly and I made this Gingerbread 
house one December afternoon!

Nativity from my Great great Grandparents.

   I spent most of my "Christmas vacation" feeling very ill! (Thus my quiet blog over the holidays.) 😔 I am thankfully doing much better now! It feels great to be able to think coherent thoughts again! In all of my life I strive to have a heart to learn. One thing I learned/observed in myself while I was under-the-weather was... I say a lot of worthless things! When I lost my voice I found that it was normally a good thing that I wasn't able to say the things that I was thinking!  Now that I have my voice back I am challenged to be more mindful of the words of my mouth! Just because I have the ability to speak doesn't mean I should speak! I am reminded of the verse in Colossians 4:6 "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man." 

 

   I am growing a new appreciation for the winter months. Though I am still not in love with the freezing cold... I do enjoy having more time to devote to homemaking! More   time to clean, organize, decorate & bake! Yesterday I started cleaning out our guest room/sewing room, which for the last several months has been the catch-all room! (If we didn't know where something went, it went to that room!) As most of my organizing projects go, I soon was cleaning out a completely different area of the house from where I had started. Because while cleaning place #1 I ran across something that should go to place #2 and that is were I stayed for the remainder of the day! Thus our office got a purging instead! Accomplishing something -yes- just not exactly what I had planned on accomplishing in the beginning! So it is off to the guest room again today! I love organizing... so I am excited! 😁 

Holly's Christmas Village

Happy New Year 2017!

I hope 2017 is finding you  happy, healthy and hopeful! 

Reason for the season?

   We have all heard the saying "Jesus is the reason for the season." Why is it then that there seems to be a million more distractions away from Jesus, during the very season that we say He is the reason for? It's like planning a surprise birthday party and inviting everyone except the birthday person! I could get on my soap box and proclaim the merits of simplifying our lives, that we might have less of what doesn't matter and more of what really does. But you know... Now isn't the time for that. Now is the time to focus on Jesus Christ and who He is!  

Watch as this 11 year old boy proclaims who Jesus is in every book of the Bible!    

           

                                                               

May your Christmas be Jesus-saturated! 

Merry Christmas!!

The Sacrifice of Praise

   I didn't want Thanksgiving to completely go by with out recognition. So while others may be plunging headlong into the Christmas Season today... I wanted to linger a bit longer in the season of purposeful praise. 

   Honestly I haven't had a heart overflowing with gratitude lately. So how could I write about it? How could I celebrate Thanksgiving? But then the Lord reminded me, that we are to give the sacrifice of praise. Hebrews 13:15 says: By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. Is sacrifice something easy? That we do naturally? Or does it rather come with a cost? By a decided choice?  It's true I haven't felt like giving thanks to the Lord lately... Not because I don't have anything to be thankful for. But because I was choosing to look at the "bad" things in my life, instead of the good. Yet when we obediently choose to offer the sacrifice of praise, we change our focus, and our new focus changes us! Gratitude has a way of growing joy in our hearts! Changing our attitude and prospective! 

Thank you Lord for: 

• Each one that gathered around our table yesterday. My parents, 4 Grandparents & Sister! 
• The food & time we shared. 
• Grandparents celebrating 66 years of marriage yesterday!
• Far away family too... My brothers, Sister-in-law, and dear nephews and nieces!
• The country I live in. God bless America!
• The Word of God!
• God's Saving Grace.
• That when I am weak, Christ is all the strength I need!
• Living on a farm.
• My church family.
• Dear friends!
• My home.
• Health & energy!
• This day! And so much more!

     
   If you would like, please leave a comment sharing what YOU are thankful for! I would love to hear! 😊 

P.S Happy Belated Thanksgiving!