Birthdays

December is a month of birthdays in our circle of friends and acquaintances. My birthday was the 4th, my husband's the 5th, Dustin's the 1st, Rebeccah's the 13th, Shelby's the 19th, and most importantly Jesus' on the 25th! There are five or six others that I don't even have the time to mention, but you get the picture. It seems like everyday we have something or someone new to celebrate. For some of us, like Nicholas and Noriah, we celebrate new milestones as they turn 2. For others like Aunt Steiny we celebrate a full life as she turns 70 on the 29th. I was thinking about this today and one particular verse came to my mind...

"The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. 'The LORD is my portion,' says my soul, 'therefore I will hope in Him.'" Lamentations 3:22-24 ESV

Especially in December I can find myself getting so caught up in what I am doing, what I want to do, what I still have to do, and the next thing to celebrate that I lose track of the things that really matter. I should be celebrating the Christ of Christmas everyday because His love and His mercies are new EVERY morning. They are perfect and without end. It's no wonder that we are commanded to, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." (1 Thess. 5:16-18 ESV)

So admist this season of rejoicing and celebrating don't forget to enjoy the gifts of God's unfailing love which is new every morning and to rejoice always for this is the will of God.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Let's Be Thankful

As Americans many of us have grown up knowing about and experiencing Thanksgiving. Many of us gather together with our families, and we eat and eat until we couldn’t possibly take another bite. Once we have completed our eating rituals, we might fall asleep from all the turkey or we might find the energy to watch the football game. Eventually the family members leave and a couple of weeks later you finally run out of Thanksgiving leftovers, and Thanksgiving passes into distant memory as we begin to prepare for Christmas. The thing that we too often forget is that Thanksgiving was specfically set aside as a day to give thanks.


A few years ago, my family started a new tradition. We had always done the family thing and the food thing, but we had never done this before. We never stopped to give thanks. Now wait a minute! I’m not saying that we were complete heathens and didn’t stop to pray! What I am saying is that now we gather before the meal and we stand in a BIG family circle, we hold hands, we go around the circle, and each of us says at least one specific thing we are thankful for this year. The first time we did it I honestly thought it was a little corny. Now I love it. It’s the one time a year when I know I will hear my family speak from the heart and we all turn back and give thanks to God no matter where life has taken us.

Make time to stop and give thanks this year. You never know what God might do!