Blue Skies

Love has long patience, is kind; love is not emulous [of others]; love is not insolent and rash, is not puffed up, does not behave in an unseemly manner, does not seek what is its own, is not quickly provoked, does not impute evil, does not rejoice at iniquity but rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
     
Love never fails;

(from 1Corinthains 13)

I have mentioned on several occasions how much this passage has meant to me over the last year or so. Like a treasure hidden in plain sight, but somehow I was blinded to it.

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. - 1John1:5

This has been a great year...really a great year. I can't imagine what lies ahead, nor do I really want to know. We are told to take it one day at a time.

Matthew 6:34 You should not, then, be worrying about the morrow, for the morrow will be worrying of itself. Sufficient for the day is its own evil.

Happy End of 2011!

Christmas Party Tips

I was thinking about some of the ways I have learned to make Christmas gatherings a smooth(er) thing. 


Things I wish I would have been doing all along, but hey- live and learn.



We usually have three or four Christmas gatherings per December with our extended family. All of these are at places other than home, so all the goodies have to be packed up and taken with us. This seems like it would be pretty simple, but it is surprisingly not.




1.) Bring bags! I found the large shopping bags work well. I try not to bring trash bags in fear of getting them mixed up with trash in the clean up process.  As the kids get older I have started to give them  their own bag to carry their own stuff.

I haven't stepped foot in a Toys 'R Us in years, my MIL gave me this bag.

2.) Try to keep them from opening every single little plastic accessory until getting home.....if possible. 




3.) Don't be too quick to toss the box and instructions to something. I found this out firsthand this past weekend. Hold onto the things needed to return an item at least until you are sure it works. 

SHARPIES!!

Perhaps the greatest thing since sliced bread

Everyone must have a Sharpie at all times. I now have one that has made a home in my purse so I'll never be without one.





These are a great way to mark identical gifts or most importantly, plastic drinking cups.

Oh red plastic drinking cup, how you look exactly like the other 40 red plastic drinking cups half full of room temperature corn syrup based beverage. How I wish there were a way to know who you belong to!

 When the kids get their first drink at these things, I mark their cup and that cuts way back on the get-a-new-cup-every-ten-minutes thing.




Also a routine for us is to decide about 1/2 hour out when we are going to be leaving. It's then time to gather, I make sure everyone goes to the bathroom and the Mr. starts loading the car.



Last but not least, in the hustle and bustle we should all try not to forget to say thank you. To thank the hosts, not only for the gifts, but all the planning and preparation that goes into hosting.  They spend a great deal of thought and possibly expense, and we should show our gratitude!


I hope you all have a great Christmas weekend and that we can show the light that is within us to those who may not know that LIGHT yet!




I would love to hear your tips.

Our Great Big Weekend

Two family Christmas gatherings


One completely trashed house (even though neither gathering was here)


One huge hand-me-down TV that the Mr. didn't want to bring home, but did, he is good to us:)


Two fridges stuffed with various leftovers (again, we didn't host...I'm not sure what happened)


And.....a new camera for me! I wasn't 'specting it at all, but it is sure appreciated. I'm so totally spoiled.

It's much different than my old camera...but I tried to get a shot of this superbly cloudy sky this morning.

 I'll be using today to play with my camera get the house back to normal.

You're a Mean One... Mr. Grinch

My shift in thinking started about this time last year.





There were little nudges along the way, of which I have or will get to telling about, but since it's Christmas time, I'll do this one.





I found out that someone in my little world was involved with sin. And this is one of the "biggies" in the evangelical Christian world...okay so it's biblically a sin, too, but that is really not what this is about.






What was I going to do?






Well, at first I kind of freaked out. And then I made it my personal mission to turn everyone around.



I'll save them all!




That didn't last long. I informed all involved parties that they were on the way to you-know-where and that God wasn't at all pleased with this...I may have been a bit nicer about it, I'm not sure.  Of course, God is not pleased with sin, don't get me wrong, but isn't that what Jesus was all about?.....



But I digress.





Back to Christmas.




So this person (the sinner-you understand) was at our family Christmas party. When opening gifts, the gift from this person was so personal and thoughtful....not expensive or anything, but just downright thoughtful.



I felt like the Grinch whose heart grew three sizes.

Google images

What a butt I had been. Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.





I still knew what was going on was wrong, but I had been handling it all wrong, too. I was afraid. Afraid I say!





How many times did Jesus say don't be afraid?






I got to thinking about 1Corinthains 13 again, a real turning point, how Love BEARS all things, it BELIEVES all things, it HOPES all things.





And some things started snapping internally (not in a bad way). GOD IS LOVE. I am not showing love, internally or externally. I'm being a big religious sourpuss and I don't want to be this person!!!





I'm asking the Lord to change me.

Lunchtime Reading - Humility

I was doing a little blog reading on my "lunch break" over here and came across this article:



Go ahead and click over, it's short and to the point:)




How to be Humble

ht: http://doingmybestforhim.blogspot.com/


This is an area that is important for me to work on....the idea that I don't have the most interesting thing to say when meeting someone new or even talking to friends. AARGH! This is a hard one. I find so often that I just can't wait to blabber about whatever I'm thinking rather than actually l i s t e n i n g to another human being. 


I have been really impressed by some good listeners lately. I want to be a good listener!


Anyone else have trouble with this?