Quoting Myself

Ha.  I just commented on Ree's blog; my comment was an entry to one of her many contests, but as I wrote I was struck by my own words...you know, how you can preach to yourself sometimes?

I wrote:

I love Christmas.  I love Advent, the hymns, the greenery, the lights.  I love how my children love those things too.  It's not all happy wonderful loveliness...tonight my attempt at an Advent lesson blew up in my face.  But, the beauty of the season (as well as the poignant reminder that I desperately need Jesus, who came as a tiny baby, so that he could grow up and die for me) brings me back to joy.

I just wanted to remember that I said that.  Like, maybe the next time the Advent lesson goes kablooey.

Santa Grandpa

I've said this before, but one thing that brings me a great deal of joy is how much my kids love my parents.  It was so wonderful to see how Michaela and Christian would run to them and love on them as the years went by, especially since we only see them three times a year or so.  (Some years it's been more, some years less.)  It is a joy to see Eliana love on them with the same amount of enthusiasm.  Each year, during either our Thanksgiving or Christmas visit (we switch back and forth with the Walker family and the holidays every year) my mom loves to get a picture of the kids with "Santa Grandpa".  Here are some that I thought captured delight beautifully...

They have a lot of fun together...I love it!

Beauty in the Ugly

I often (okay, pretty much always) focus on what is negative.  Someone can give me a compliment and I immediately refute it.  Or call that someone's mental stability into question.  (Example:  Mike tells me I'm beautiful.  I reply,"You are crazy.")  (Or maybe he needs new glasses.  Hmmm.  That is a definite possibility.) 

Like this picture, I focus on all the stuff that is peripheral.  The stuff that is peripheral, but that is also chaotic.  There is all this mess, all this garbage that grabs my attention and drags me down to the depths of despair.

I've got a lot of issues.  Sometimes it feels like I've got a few garbage bags full of...well...garbage that I'm carrying around.  It's hard to feel worthy of much of anything when you feel like garbage.  But, somehow God looks at me (yes, I know it's not just "somehow".  I'm covered with the righteousness of Christ...but it doesn't always feel like it, right?) and sees someone worthy of loving.  Someone he wanted to save.  He can see beauty and value amidst chaos and trash.

The funny thing is, it works another way, too.  It's not just God seeing the beautiful in the middle of the ugly, it's me seeing his beauty in the middle of the ugly.

I know that when I focus on what is truly important, then the clamoring, distracting disaster all around me (and most likely created by me) (or one of my offspring...oh, the unfortunate genes!), that disaster blurs and the one true and beautiful thing shines so brightly.  It's lovely.  It makes me feel hope.

Hope is life-giving for me.  I place my hope in my Savior, Jesus Christ.  Oh, how I love him.

Siblings

The kids stayed outside today and played after I picked up Christian and Eliana from school.  They were very busy out there, and every now and then I could hear happy shouts and lively conversation.  I peeked at them just to make sure they were, indeed, having a good time, since sometimes it's easy to mistake angry shouts for happy ones.

taken through a window

They were truly having fun.

Joy.

Just One Word

Advent