Christmas songs

Seems like Christmas songs are being played earlier and earlier every year. This year I heard a radio station playing them the week before Thanksgiving, NON-STOP! That is too early. But, come the Sunday after, when we are putting up and decorating the tree, I am ready. Like most people, I have some songs that I absolutely love and some that I hate. Here is my list:
Songs that I love:
1. Breath of Heaven by Amy Grant(my all-time favorite)
2. Angels We Have Heard on High
3. I'll Be Home for Christmas Michael Buble I listened to this song while I was in the hospital for Christmas and cried and in my heart I was home.
4. White Christmas by Bing Crosby even though I have never seen one
5. Christmas Shoes by Newsong makes me cry every time

Songs I detest:
1. Santa Baby by anyone What a waste of talent!
2. Do you hear what I hear? I know I am in trouble with some of you
3. 12 Days of Christmas too long!!!
4. Do they know it's Christmastime?
5. Happy Christmas(War is Over) by The Beatles

These last songs make my Christmas horrible and I try to avoid them like the plague. Christmas is supposed to be happy but when I hear these songs I just want to plug my ears and kill the iPod or radio!
I know that we all don't have the same taste as each other. As a matter of fact, 3 of my top five made another person's worst list and he had #5 of my worst on his best. I guess there is no accounting for taste, right? Most of us like music for the feelings that it inspires within us. Songs have a powerful way of taking us back to a memory. I think the traditions that we grow up with influence the views the most. So enjoy your Christmas songs, whatever your taste might be and allow them to get you in the spirit! Merry Christmas!

Joy

Joy to the World, the Lord is come! The theme for this week's advent is joy. I have so much joy in my life. That is not to say that my life is easy nor has it ever been. But, the one thing that I have learned in recent years that joy can be found in any situation. When I was lying in the hospital waiting to learn my fate, away from my children during Christmas, I learned to find joy in little things. Having great nurses or a visitor bringing me a cup of coffee or the carolers who sang to me on Christmas all brought me joy. When I saw my baby on the ultrasound or felt him move, joy surged through my heart. One of the things I learned during this time is that if we wait on circumstances to bring us joy, then we will be waiting forever. Life is hard and when you become a Christian, it doesn't get any easier. We must seek out each day where we can find joy. I was not happy staying in the hospital for 81 days knowing that I might live or I might die but I found joy in knowing that God does not waste one single instance in our lives. I now take joy in visiting others in the hospital when they are unsure of what is coming next. God took my bed rest and is using it to help other women. Joy, joy, joy!!!!
Mary, in her Magnificat(Luke), finds joy in her impossible situation. Here she is, young, unmarried but engaged, a virgin, poor, uneducated and pregnant. This may seem overwhelmig(can you imagine having to tell your parents the news?) yet Mary was able to pen the words in Luke 1:
46And Mary said:
"My soul glorifies the Lord
47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.

That is finding joy in a seemingly impossible set of circumstances. Mary knew that her strength didn't come from her but from the God who created the universe. She rejoices in knowing that she is called favored by Him. After waiting for over 400 years, God has finally spoken to Israel in a most unlikely way, through a woman and a baby! Praise God! May you find joy this season!

Miscellaneous

Well, December is here and I am pleased to say that I have maintained my weight loss through the Thanksgiving holiday and hope to continue that through the Christmas season. I will set a new goal for 2010 when it rolls around. Michael and I ran a 5K last week and I am pleased to say that I knocked about 3 minutes off my time from last year. I moved up from 184/200 last year to 94/209 this year. I want to keep on improving.
Michael and I also celebrated our 10th anniversary this past week. We spent the week at Myrtle Beach without the kids(thanks to both sets of grandparents). This week allowed us to catch a glimpse of each other and the reasons that we fell in love. Sometimes, when you are up to your elbows in diapers, children, and life, it is hard to see your spouse as your spouse. I remembered that my husband has a great sense of humor and most of the time, he is extremely funny. We talked of our goals and dreams for the future and spent some time just sitting in silence(a precious commodity when you have 4 kids). There was no work, no cooking, no cleaning, no arguing children. There was just "us" time! I love that man of mine!
The best thing is that we came back refreshed and revived and ready to parent our children again. Ultimately, the kids will benefit from healthy parents who have a healthy marriage.
I am making my New Year's resolution for 2010. I kept the ones I made last yearand I have every intention of keeping these, as well. God(and this blog) kept me accountable. When lots of people are reading your weight and fat content, you are motivated to make sure they are reading low posts! It wasn't always that simple and there were months that I lost nothing, in fact I would gain but I knew that people would see that I was not accomplishing what I set forth and that motivated me work just a little harder. I have enjoyed this journey with you and look forward to our journey together in the New Year!
So to my Jewish friends, Happy Hanukkah!

Preparation

This week's Advent theme is preparing the way. In my ignorance and rush, I told my girls that it was joy. I guess I was preparing the way for joy. I am a preparer. I love getting things ready for a big event, as long as it is on time, of course. I began preparing for our anniversary trip in September. I paid for the condo in cash and began to line up the grandparents for the kids(we sent 2 to 1 set and 2 to the other). We only celebrate 10 years once and I wanted it to be special. After all, my husband prepared the honeymoon for me without any of my help. Preparation is good! So many things go awry because we fail to plan for them. Governments cease to exist because leaders fail to take into account the planning for years to come. Our own government is struggling partly because they failed to plan for eventuality that things would not always be successful. We need to realize that to fully enjoy the good times we must experience the bad ones as well. It is that same thing in our individual lives. We will struggle, make no mistake! But, those struggles make us enjoy the easier times all the much more.
I am glad that I serve a God who can see the end from the beginning. He knew before creation was spoken into existence that Adam and Eve would sin. But, He had a plan before it all began. That plan put into the place all the elements that would be needed to prepare the way for the Savior of the world. God began with an unlikely cast of characters who weren't the smartest or the richest or the most well-behaved. It included Abraham and Sarah who lied and connived and tried to "help" God with His plan. It also included Rahab and Tamar. They were women who sinned sexually to get what they wanted in life. Also, in the list was a king who had someone killed just to cover up infidelity with the man's wife. Yet, David was a man after God's own heart. The last example I am going to use is a couple who were barren. They had reached the age that no hope was to be found. There were no fertility doctors and no magic pills to help them conceive. Yet, there was Zachariah in the temple fulfilling his priestly duties before the Lord. Gabriel appeared before him and told him that Elizabeth would get pregnant and give birth to the one who would come before the One. I like to think that Zach might have laughed if he weren't so stinking afraid. "You are joking, right? Where are my friends? Are they putting one over on me? You know that Liz and I aren't spring chickens any more. Maybe you appeared to the wrong fella. There are some younger guys out in the temple. Maybe you meant one of them." And for his lack of faith, he was struck mute. True to Gabriel's message, Elizabeth got pregnant and sure enough that baby grew into John the Baptist. He foretold of Christ's coming even in the womb. He preached on the arrival of the Savior. John baptized his Lord in the Jordan. His very last breath on this earth was preparing the way for the Lord. When he was beheaded, he foreshadowed the death of Jesus. In all ways, he prepared the way for Jesus Christ.
How are you preparing for the coming celebration of Jesus' birth? Are you running around like a crazy person trying to find that just right gift? Are you flitting from party to party with no thought as to why we party? Begin, this week, asking God to soften your heart to the true meaning of this season. If you celebrate Christmas not believing in the birth of the Christ child, you might as well be celebrating Kwanzaa as a white person.
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, behold He comes......

Hope

This year, my family decided to start a new tradition and celebrate Advent. I grew up Baptist and, until recently, I didn't really know what it was all about. My friends and I are doing an Advent Bible study and we are learning so much. So, despite the fact that finding pink and purple candles in November is almost impossible, we began the tradition on Sunday night. My husband and I explained to our children what the candles mean and why hope is the first week.
We told them that the Jews has heard nothing from God through the prophets for more than 400 hundred years. Malachi was the last written prophet and he along with all the other prophets spoke on the coming Messiah. Then, all of a sudden, the angel Gabriel shows up and speaks to an old man and a teen age girl. The old man, a priest, is in the Holy of Holies performing his duties. Gabriel tells him that the baby he has hoped for will come in about 9 months time. He cannot believe because he is old and his wife is old and they have been barren for so long. Standing in the holiest place in the Hebrew nation, he didn't believe that God can do anything that He wants to do. How many of us are like this old priest? We see what God has made and done and yet we still can't believe!
Then, Gabe goes to Mary and tells her that the Hope of all the nations is going to be in her womb. He tells her that she has found favor in God's sight! I want God to tell me that, too! Don't you? He tells her, when she asks how(she is a virgin), that the Holy Spirit will take care of all the details. She thinks on it for a moment and then says do to me as you have said. Mary is not some 30 year old woman. She is a 13, 14, 15 year old girl who is betrothed to Joseph. In a time where women had very little standing, she found favor!!! I imagine that she must have been scared and full of questions but she had faith that God could do it! She knew that the nation of Israel had been longing for the Messiah and weird as it was, He was coming! He would be the fulfillment of prophecy spoken hundreds and thousands of years earlier. She knew it! She probably couldn't read or write but she knew the scripture and realized that God had never worked in a conventional manner before i.e. parting the sea, plagues,etc. Why would He do so this time? As she waited and pondered, what were her hopes? Did she hope that she would be a good mother to the Son of God? Did she wonder, like many mothers, if she would be able to accomplish the task set before her? Many of us have hopes for our kids, but Mary knew what the fulfillment of Jesus' hope would be.
What are your hopes for this Christmas season? For the new year? For you? For your family? My hope for you is that you treasure all that God has done for you and for the world! He came to the world as a baby, vulnerable and fragile. "This is such a strange way to save the world!"

Thankfulness...

No matter how hard this year has been for us this year, we have so much for which to be thankful! I know it sounds cliche and all but the sentiment is true. We have never gone without food and been hungry or been cold. We have always been fed spiritually and have not experienced a drought in that area. We have a home and haven't had to sleep unprotected from the elements except for when we went camping and that was by choice. We have friends and family who are there for us when we are having good times and bad. I have a great group of ladies in Bible study without whom I can rarely get through the week. We are able to home school our kids and instill in them the values that we hold dear. We have children when so many can't and are heart broken. My oldest daughter accepted Christ into her heart this year and we are thankful that we will spend eternity with her! We have a great marriage and love each other so much.
I am thankful for the country in which I live despite the fact that I don't like the road on which it is going! I am thankful that even now and maybe for just a short while, I am able to express my opinion about my disagreements.
I am thankful that I get to hang out with some of the greatest young people in the world. I love seeing them and teaching them and hearing about their lives. They are awesome young men and women and I hope that they grow into great men and women of God.
I am thankful that the God who created the world would take a moment and spend time with me. He pursues me and wants, no, craves a relationship with me. I am grateful for the woman He is molding me to be. We talked this week that God could just mass us into groups and ZAP!!! we are all saved! But He does it individually in order that we might choose Him. Forced love is not love at all!
For what are you thankful in the year 2009?........

Jesus is a Democrat???

I was driving through Hendo the other day and on the back of a Subaru, I saw the bumper sticker "Jesus is a Democrat." I rolled my eyes as I read the other bumper stickers that were next to it! Then, I just shook my head and laughed! I hope that this is a joke and the people aren't serious. Jesus wouldn't get near any political party except to turn over the money tables of the people defiling His temple. What I want to know is why that person believes in this so strongly that he or she would place this on his/her car for the world to see. I am not sure what Bible they are reading but when Christ comes back to rule the world, it won't be a democracy or republic. There won't be voting or primaries. There won't be celebrity endorsements or debates. When Jesus Christ returns, He will return as the 1 and only supreme ruler! Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that He is LORD. Not some, not just a few, but every one. Christ is referred to the King of kings and Lord of lords. He will set up a theocracy here in His millennial kingdom. There won't be any parties or any corruption. Christ, in His perfection, will rule with absolute authority. He will be fair and just and in no way will we feel oppressed or disenfranchised with Him. On the contrary, we will serve Him with joy and wild adoration! I am so disenfranchised right now that I look forward to those days. Are you ready to bow? You will have to whether you are ready or not. People get ready!