Thankful Thursday - 1/8/09

If it's Thursday, it's time to give thanks. (Yes, every day is time to give thanks. But on the blog, it's Thursdays.) This week's things I'm thankful for:

1. I am thankful for the wonderful Christmas holiday, and the joyous time I spent with my family. The kids had great playdates, and went to the movies, and it was wonderful. I also have 99% of my Christmas stuff put away (1% is the random stuff that keeps popping up).

2. I'm equally thankful the kids have gone back to school this week. I love their school with Christian educators and administrators, where they pray daily and learn about God as well as academics.

3. I'm thankful I started working on my book this week! I spent several hours on Monday doing discovery work, emailing, phoning and faxing. Leg work - but necessary.

4. I'm thankful for antibiotics; my little one has an ear infection. After being up a lot on Tuesday night with pain, I'm thankful that we have drs to find the cause, meds to fix it and for sweet sleep!

5. I'm thankful for all the encouraging words on my blog on Monday. "You like me, you really like me!" *

If you want to post your own Thankful Thursday post or to read more, visit Truth 4 the Journey by clicking the button below.





*My husband asked this morning "What does that mean in #5?" So for those of you who have missed the "You like me" joke, here is the information (Source: Wikipedia): 'Sally Field won an Academy Award in 1985 for her starring role in Places in the Heart. Her gushing acceptance speech is well-remembered for its earnestness. She said, "I haven't had an orthodox career, and I've wanted more than anything to have your respect. The first time I didn't feel it, but this time I feel it, and I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!"The line ending in "...I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!" is often misquoted as simply "You like me, you really like me!" which has subsequently been the subject of many parodies.'

Words

The other day I printed off a couple of my blog postings and gave them to my dad to read. My dad can be dis-interested in my life, and I expected some sort of rejection, yet was hoping for the opposite. He surprised me by saying how much he liked the one he read (he didn't read the other), and asked me to give him a few more copies so he could share them with his friends.

The next week when we got together, I had printed out several copies of my article from Word. "What's this?" he asked. "It's my article." "Where's all the other stuff?" Because I hadn't printed it from my blog, all the header, and side bar info was gone. It had my name and the date, the title and the article. It was truly just my writing. "I don't want this, I want the other stuff." He wanted me to print it off my blog like before. "I'm proud of you." he said as we went our separate ways.

I couldn't help but wonder exactly what he was proud of. It wasn't my writing. He had that in his hand, but didn't want it. Was it the blog layout he was proud of? Because if that was the case, he was proud of Edie at Rich Gift Graphics, who designed my blog. Was it the fact that I had a blog? Because we ALL know that you have to be very special and unique to have a blog. Actually, we all know that anyone can have a blog. If he's proud of that, perhaps if I sign up on Facebook, Twitter and My Space, then he'll really be proud. They are all free Internet services too.

But my heavenly Father taught me something by all of this. How many of us read a daily devotion, or a Bible study book, or Christian living book and say "Wow, I really love the Word of God." Yet, when someone hands us a Bible, we say "What's this? No, I want that other stuff with it." Do we love God's Word or Max Lucado's words?

I'm not putting down Max Lucado, because I happen to love his writing. But if we confuse God with Max, then we are really confused. It's nice to have devotions, and studies, and lifestyle books to help us understand the Bible. But the fact is, those things are peoples opinions. Because the Word of God is living, it imparts to each individual what they need. Perhaps what Max needs is different than what you or I need for today.

Just stop and think. Make sure it's God who you're following. Because we can all write words. But there is only one place to read the Word.

Hebrews 4:12 -- For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.



**Post script - I'm not implying devotions, lifestyle books, or bible studies are bad. They are GREAT! But nothing is better than the Bible.

Faith & Mustard Seeds

After my husband & I were married we wanted children right away. After two long years we were still childless, and very disappointed. Finally our daughter was born during the third year of our marriage.

While Christmas shopping the next year, I found some Christmas stockings that I just loved. They were crushed velvet with jewel-like buttons and gold trim. They came in four colors. I picked up three for my husband, my daughter and me. I looked at the fourth stocking. With all my heart I wanted to have one more child. But would I be able to? Bystanders may have seen a woman trying to decide what color stockings to buy, but actually I was trying to decide if I had faith that I would have a second child. I bought the fourth stocking.

The next Christmas I pulled out our decorations. There was the fourth stocking. It represented faith, and hope, and longing. I left it in the box and hung the other three. The next year I did the same thing. But the year my daughter turned four, I was pregnant that Christmas. I was so excited, but still the stocking stayed in the box.

The next year I pulled out all four stockings. I told my husband the story of the stocking that had been in the box all these years. See, I had never told anyone about that stocking. I had faith, but just a teeny, tiny faith, built on great hope. If anyone had discouraged me, I might have lost my faith. So instead I just kept it inside, a tiny faith the size of a mustard seed. But now my faith was realized, as I had another child.

Several years have gone by since that Christmas, and at four years old, my youngest just celebrated her fifth Christmas. I had not forgotten about the story per se, but it was in the back of my memory.

As I pulled down the stockings this past week and laid them together to pack them away, I remembered. Tears came into my eyes as I remembered that longing, that hope and that faith, and felt it realized. My children, my family just as I'd dreamed.

What are you longing for today? Have faith, even the size of a mustard seed, that God knows your heart's desire and longs to grant it to you.

***
To read another article on faith by me, click over to ithirst and read my article on "The Power of Faith" on the front page, toward the bottom. This is the first of my 4-part feature "The Power of Faith, Love, Hope & Prayer." I'll be writing one article a month there through April.

Matthew 17:20 -- "I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

Psalm 37:4 -- Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.

New Years Rainbow Resolutions

The blog returns for real on Monday. But since we're still on vacation, just for fun, the resolutions I'd make if I lived somewhere over the Rainbow, or some other place where dreams really do come true:

1. I will get back to my pre-children body weight and build without diet, exercise or illness.

2. My desk will remain neat and organized to provide a peaceful working environment.

3. I will not raise my voice at my kids the 11th time I tell them to do something (even though they haven't listened the first 10 times).

4. I will put the laundry away on the same day that I wash, dry and fold it.

5. I will not check my email more than twice a day. I will use all that extra time to organize my household.

6. I will not determine my blog postings worth by the number of comments left. (But everyone knows if you hit 25, "They like you, they really like you!"

7. I won't wait until the night before my weekly bible study to do my bible study homework.

8. I'll accept those fine lines or gray hairs as signs of wisdom learned over the years (HA!).

9. I will not be ashamed of the fact that I, you know, well occasionally, not that I have to, sometimes watch American Idol.

10. I will gather up all the change in my home, roll it and cash it in...quite possibly becoming a millionaire. (where does all this change come from???)

What are your Rainbow Resolutions??

Thankful Thursday - 1/1/09

Today's Thankful Thursday meme will be in the form of things I am thankful for, and my resolutions regarding them in 2009. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

1. I am thankful for my family. I resolve to try to apply the fruits of the spirit in my relationship with them: love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. That means I'll be biting my tongue...a lot!

2. I am so thankful for my friends, both local and bloggy. I resolve in 2009 to spend time with them, and share moments and deepen the wonderful gift God has given us in each other.

3. I am thankful for a healthy body! Praise God! I resolve to do more with this healthy body, like exercising to build aerobic strength and stamina.

4. I am thankful God blessed me with the gift of writing, which has become my passion. I resolve to get serious in my writing. I hope to write a devotional book this year, perhaps to be published in 2010. I plan to write for publication at least 3 hours a week. That is the goal.

5. (I save the Best for last) I am so thankful to have God in my life. I resolve to do daily bible reading. I am planning on joining Wendy Pope, and about 1,000 other folks, as we read the entire chronological Bible next year. I've never tried this before, and I pray I will be faithful in this, (along with my regular weekly bible study and my Sunday School class, and research for my writing!! Pray I fulfill this goal!)

So what are your goals for 2009? What are you thankful for? Leave me a comment, or write your own post. Be sure to let me know so I can come visit. And don't forget to link up to Truth 4 the Journey, at her Thankful Thursday meme by clicking the button below.

See What I'm Saying - Christmas '08 Edition

It's that time again! It's time for you to see what I'm singing...er, I mean, saying! Last time I kicked it off with Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. What excitement comes today? Watch the video to find out!




To see the "sister video" to this, visit my sister at Monkeys are Funny. But leave a comment first! Puh-lease!

The Christmas Hangover

I don't know about you, but I have a hangover. No, I haven't been drinking. In addition to the disagreeable physical effects from drinking too much, a hangover can also mean something remaining behind from a former period...i.e. Christmas, or any aftermath or lingering effect.

After nearly 2 months of shopping, wrapping, decorating, and baking...all low key and all my choice...it's over! Done! The toys have been opened, removed from the packaging (which is no small feat), and "some assembly required" has been performed. Many toys have found their way to the playroom.

After much fun on Christmas eve and Christmas Day, I discovered that while I was enjoying the holiday, my family woke up on Christmas eve and put PJs in the hamper, then wore clothes which hit the hamper that night, then more PJs for the hamper, and then more clothes on Christmas morning (not to mention new clothes, which I always run through a wash cycle before wearing.) WHERE DID ALL THIS LAUNDRY COME FROM? I took 2 days off, and bam! Craziness.

And the Christmas tree, so regal and bright before, now seems to mock me..."You know you have to undecorate me, don't you? You realize I have to be carried up to the attic? Got a plan for that? You know your husband is still recovering from his arm surgery?" *Sigh*

It's enough to cause a big, bad hangover all right. Then I realize, I'm overwhelmed and exhausted by things that are not important. Why is my focus on these chores? Where is my joy in the Lord? I was so focused on not turning into Martha before the holidays, than I let my guard down afterwards! And Jesus' voice again says, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed."

May you & I focus on the One who is the one thing needed now in the week after Christmas, and as we enter 2009. Only one thing is needed. I think I can handle that. How about you?

Romans 13:11 -- But make sure that you don't get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can't afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don't loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about! (The Message)