The perfect gift...

This is another of the prayer experience stations from our gathering a few weeks ago. The other two I've posted so far can be found here & here.

"What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb
If I were a wise man I would do my part,
Yet what I can I give Him,
Give my heart."
~Christina Rossetti

Priscilla Shirer tells a story of her two young boys sitting around the tree one Christmas morning, surrounded by all of their new toys and gifts. Her husband, trying to have a spiritual moment, asked the boys why we celebrated Christmas.

Her older son answered, "Because it is Jesus' birthday."

Her youngest looked at the gifts all around him and replied, "Am I Jesus?!"

We know we are not Jesus. But perhaps we have fooled ourselves into thinking this season is about us, about what we will be getting or giving, about how we will decorate, or about the juggling of all of our social obligations. At the very least, our attention is divided as we run busily from one Christmas event to the next, and spend time and effort trying to find the perfect gift for everyone on our list.

Spend some time in silence, pondering the Gift of Christmas. Ask God to reveal to you something you can give Him for Christmas. Perhaps you will be giving up something. Or perhaps you will be committing to do something for Him or one of His children. Maybe you just need to carve out the gift of time. Perhaps there is something He has been asking you to give for a while now.

What better time to give yourself to Christ than on His birthday, the day He became the most important, perfect Gift we will ever receive?

"Helping..."

This...

... is why it took me so long to get my Christmas decorations up.

And also why it didn't really matter how particular I was in their placement.

Before a certain fabulous aunt of mine adds to her running list of reasons to call Child Protective Services (she's kidding- I think) let me just say that 1) I was with Little Sister the entire time she was undoing all of my hard work checking out the tree and 2) in retrospect, I should have nipped this in the bud instead of encouraging her with my picture snapping, because I had to be especially vigilant every day afterward to be sure she didn't sneak off to strangle herself with beads, and because my tree will never look the same.

Song for Sunday: "And the world didn't know"

I heard this song on the radio while finishing some Christmas shopping.
It's one of my new favorites.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We've been busily preparing for the holidays around here!

Last weekend, my parents came for a visit. Nana helped us make delicious Christmas cookies. Big Sister helped decorate them.

She especially liked the sprinkles. And creating a freaky interesting face on her gingerbread man. (By the way, it was sugar cookie dough. Do you still call it a gingerbread man?!)

We also worked on adorable little ornaments for our family & friends. I really want to upload a picture, but I also want to let them be a surprise for Christmas. Maybe after...

On Sunday, Big sister had her first ever solo in a children's choir program. The lighting in the sanctuary was a little dim so our pictures didn't turn out, but she did a wonderful job. The entire evening was magical- the children's & youth choirs, the handbells, the congregation singing carols. I teared up more than once.

Afterward, we tried to take pictures of the girls in their Christmas dresses, to put in our Christmas cards. A frustrating time was had by all.

The best picture we got was this one below. I wasn't sure about it, so I vowed to see how our pictures with Santa went before deciding on a card photo.

I didn't have to wait long. Monday was unseasonably warm, so we thought we would take advantage of it and head up to Rock City. We've gone there to see the lights and Santa every year since Big Sister was born. This year they actually changed a few things.

Including Santa.

Have I ever told you that I am not all that big on change?

I'm not. The old Santa scene was in a tent, with lovely trees and a sweet little bench. I especially liked it because it wasn't your typical old man living room, complete with ugly armchair, like most studios and department stores I remember growing up. Even last year, when they put Santa in a comfy (yet old man-esque) armchair, they still had trees and snow. It was more "Cozy North Pole" than "Stuffy Papaw's House."

Guess where the NEW Santa sits?

And it didn't help my opinion of him that new Santa did not do much to set our toddler at ease. Instead of trying to describe it, I'll let the picture speak for itself:

Yep. That's the official photo. We bought another one, too, with Little Sis looking a little less terrified. But if you want to see the true experience, you can't beat that little gem right there. By the way, props to Big Sister. She tried to hold her baby sister's hand and reassure her. She was so overwhelmed with the experience she barely got to tell Santa about the cursed Barbie I Can Be Pet Vet...

When we were finished, Little Sister actually seemed a little less afraid. But (and maybe I just felt this way because I admittedly didn't give new Santa much of a chance after seeing my daughter scream in his arms in his sparsely decorated living room...) we were rushed through and she didn't get to go back and try again.

The rest of our time at Rock City was great. Big Sister was old enough this year to remember some parts from last year and to really enjoy herself.

Little Sister was really into the outdoor element of it all. She kept saying "outside" or "tree" or "water" or "touch it." Also, she did NOT, under any circumstances want to be carried. If oen of us picked her up, we had to wrestle to hold on to her, which is not ideal in damp, narrow, rocky places.
Once, Daddy put her on his shoulders (a placement that lasted all of thirty seconds) and a few minutes later we looked down to see Little Sister WALKING along the path with one shoe completely gone. The girls and I had to stop and hang out with an elf named Peppermint while Daddy backtracked to locate the shoe. When we got home, I had to throw Little Sis's tights away!

We've had other special Christmas moments this past week as well- the little kinds like sitting together and watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas or watching Big Sis hang out with her classmates at her school party or singing Jingle Bells in the car. As we enter into this last week before Christmas, I'm hoping to make time for lots more.

AND, I'm wishing you & your loved ones lots of Christmas moments- big or small- too!

This little light of mine...

Here is a second prayer experience station. Confused? See previous post.

"The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned."
Isaiah 9:2

"The Word gave life to everything that was created,and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can ever extinguish it."
John 1:4-5 (New Living Translation)

Candles.

We light them on the advent wreath each Sunday. We place them all over our homes to give off a warm holiday glow and make the room smell like pine trees and holly or a delicious Christmas dessert. We give them as gifts.

Tonight, think about light. Lighting a single candle immediately dispels darkness. It shines on everything around it, making invisible things visible. Darkness, on the other hand, can do nothing to extinguish the light
from even the tiniest tea-light.

John called Jesus the Light. But Jesus passed that label on to us- the light of the world. As you light a candle tonight and think about the depths of that comparison, ask the Light to reveal the hidden things in your heart. Ponder new ways to reflect His light in the darkness around you.

Every time you hear a bell ring...

A few weeks ago, Hope & I put together a prayer experience for our monthly Mom's gathering at church. We wanted it to be a time to be quiet and contemplative amidst the Advent craziness. I wrote some devotional thoughts and activities for prayer stations based on some common things we see (and take for granted) this time of year. Since I've had a hard time slowing down myself, I don't have a new blog post, so I thought I'd share some of the thoughts from that night. The first is about Christmas bells.


"Ding dong merrily on high,
in heav'n the bells are ringing”


“Hark how the bells, sweet silver bells,
all seem to say throw cares away.”



“I praise the true God, I call the people, I assemble the clergy;
I bewail the dead, I dispense storm clouds, I do honour to feasts.”
Common inscription on medieval church bells

Bells play a big role in Christmas celebrations: many carols mention them, Salvation Army volunteers ring them, Clarence says every time we hear one, and angel gets his wings, and Santa & his reindeer are supposed to have them on the sleigh. But what does any of that really have to do with Jesus?

In church history, bells are traditionally rung when someone dies, and it is said that they ring out on Christmas day to celebrate the birth of our Savior and the impending death of Satan and sin.

Bells have also been used for centuries to announce the beginning of worship services in churches all over the world. Some say this began to call sleeping monks to prayer. At Christmas time, perhaps the bells ring to break the slumber of those long-awaiting the coming of the Messiah.

There is only one real reference to bells in scripture. God told Moses to include bells along the hem of the robe worn by the high priest Aaron: “Aaron must wear it when he ministers. The sound of the bells will be heard when he enters the Holy Place before the LORD and when he comes out, so that he will not die.” Exodus 28:35

Hebrews 7 tells us that Jesus is now our High Priest, and that His sacrifice made all others unnecessary. How appropriate that we ring bells to celebrate the time when our High Priest stepped out of Heaven to join us on earth and offer the ultimate sacrifice!

Ask God to help you hear reminders of His gift of victory over sin
every time you hear a bell ring.

Photo by Karen Barefoot, from stock.xchng

Ni Hao and God bless...

This morning, Little Sister and I were watching an episode of The Wonder Pets we had saved on our DVR. We were doing this because Big Sister was eating the last piece of Nana's yummy coffee cake. Whenever Little Sis sees anything yummy, she becomes determined to eat it. She'll say, first sweetly, "Cake! Nummy nummy!" but if there is any sort of delay her voice gets gruff. "CAKE!" she will half-bellow, half-growl. Offering anything else as an alternative is futile- it will be thrown from the high chair until she gets her "nummy nummy."

SO, since there was only one piece of CAKE! left, and since Little Sister has already eaten her weight in it this weekend, we let Big Sis have it. In secret. While Little Sister and I watched tv in the other room.

After Wonder Pets was over, Moose A. Moose led us through a matching game, and there was a short clip about Max & Ruby celebrating Thanksgiving. (This was when I realized that Daddy had selected an episode from the DVR, since surely Noggin would not be this behind in their programming).

After that came a "Say it two ways" segment with Kai Lan. We looked at a yellow hat and she told us that in English we say "hat" and that in Chinese it is called a "Mao Zi."

And then, clear as a bell, Little Sister said, "Bless you."