Isaiah 63:7

I have achieved my goal of reading through the book of Isaiah this December before Christmas. Here are some thoughts on Is. 63:7

We live in a negative world.
God calls us to praise him
People are without work and money is tight
God calls us to rejoice in his goodness
Though we may fall, God will lift us up.

Have a blessed Christmas!

Developing an attitude of gratitude

Even in tough times, I am amazed by how much God has blessed our family. More than anything, I want to pass down an attitude of being grateful for what we have, and sharing our blessings with others to my children. Here are some ways we are trying to do that this season.

Operation Christmas Child - http://www.operationchristmaschild.org/ a project through our children's missions at church. We pack shoeboxes. Both of my children took some of their own money to buy things at the dollar store to put in a shoebox and both were at church the night the children in our church together packed over 120 boxes to send.

Packing lunches for our local homeless shelter - This is something the adult Sunday School classes at our church does. This year, my husband and I will be helping to assemble the lunches, with my kids helping alongside us.

Countdown Christmas chain - 2 years ago, when my daughter was 3, I saw the idea to make a paper chain to countdown the days left until Christmas. Each day we remove 1 piece of the chain. After all, as a kid the time does not go quickly enough and the visual helps them to see how we really are getting closer to Christmas. The first year we wrote someone or something we were thankful for on each strip. Last year, we included some things we could do to help others. My daughter gave some piggy bank money to the Salvation Army, made cards for people she loves, and baked cookies for her class at school.

We sponsor a little girl (yearround) who is the same age as my daughter through compassion international. www.compassion.com/default.htm It costs $32 a month and my daughter writes the letters (with help) and prays every night for her friend. We also have researched what life is like for a child in Peru, and how they don't have things we have.

Hope this gives you some ideas!

-Sandy

In my weakness, He is made strong

Hebrews 4:15-16 "This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same temptations we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it."

As I read that passage, it was easy to list my weaknesses, those many many times when I give into my flesh. Yet the last verse made me pause: if I come boldly to the throne of my gracious God, I will receive his mercy and grace to help me when I need it.

What a comfort to know that God is so tender and merciful. In our Sunday School class this past week, our teacher shared a thought. What if when we went to sleep at night, we prayed as we fell asleep, as if we were falling asleep in God' arms? I love the idea of falling asleep in God's arms. Like a little girl cuddling on her daddy's lap.

Fall Fun

I love the fall. Carving pumpkins, jumping in leaves, trunk-or-treat... Yes, I did say "trunk"- or-treat. This is the fifth year our church has sponsored this event. People decorate their car, van or truck trunks with a theme and we pass out candy in the church parking lot. Anyway, it is a great outreach to our community. This year I was blessed, as a non-christian co-worker who I invited to bring her son asked if she could decorate her car trunk with her son. Of course our youth pastor (who organizes this event) was excited to have her, and I was excited to be able to have a fun event to be able to witness through, and I was pleased that several of our ladies went up to her and made her feel welcome. It just goes to show you that witnessing opportunites do not always have to be super-spiritual events. Often it's the fun stuff that reaches out to our unchurched friends. Our pastor says building relationships is probably the most effective thing we can do to build God's kingdom.

to do list

My to do list looks more like a book than a list. I feel as though I'm drowning and no matter how hard I work, I can't seem to get any closer to the top.

In times like these, I need to look at what I've accomplished, and the things that I've done that will count for eternity:

Yesterday I...

I spent quality time with my daughter - baking cupcakes for a special activity for our toddlers at church and later doing a puzzle.

I had an opportunity to have lunch (even thought it was McD's) with my husband and have some "alone" time to chat and laugh

did 7 loads of laundry (ok, I know that one doesn't count for eternity, but it makes me feel a little less stressed)

visited with my parents for a little while on our deck when they brought the kids back from their outing, enjoying the beautiful fall day.

ate a (pretend) meal meticulously prepared by my son and enjoyed every bite...to which he laughed and squealed with delight.

Father God,

Today give me a desire to do the things that really matter to you, and let the rest just "be".

Amen

Teamwork

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to participate in a Teambuilding session with some coworkers. I must admit, at first I was not looking forward to it. After all, I had plenty of paperwork to catch up on instead of "wasting" time. However, at the end of the day, I felt it had been a great day. A group of us had to work together to balance a "boat" in the woods, transfer a can of "hazardous" liquid using a spiderweb like contraption, tossing as many koosh balls as we could around the circle without dropping, and get as many points as we could by tossing tennis balls into buckets - the catch being we couldn't move our feet from where we initially placed them. I learned that I have grown a lot. I used to not speak up in a group at all, but yesterday I found myself offering ideas to help our group complete the task at hand, and making a fool of myself lying down in the back to block tennis balls from rolling off of our carpet. Needless to say, today I'm a little sore.

God does not call us to spirit of fear and timidity. I am sometimes fearful of what others think of me, critical words that may be said behind my back, fear of not fitting in. When I find myself feeling fearful, I try to remember that God's opinion is the only thing that matters. When I am doing things He calls me to, I cannot do them alone. I need my brothers and sisters in Christ and I need to be able to work cooperatively with them to achieve our task at hand. I also need to speak up when I have an idea that I think might help us achieve that task more effectively, without worrying what others might think.

created beautiful

Wow! I've posted 2 days in a row! Our Women's Bible Study started back last night after a summer break. This session we will be focusing on how we as women are created beautiful by God. Last night we played a game in which we had to give ourselves a point for each "mindless" thing we've done. Such as locking ouselves out of the house, the car, leaving the iron on, forgot an appointment...and so on. There were 18 items and the winner had only ever done 9 of those things. In fact, most of us were up around 14 or 15. This just goes to show that we are all human. We make mistakes and it is only by God's grace and mercy that we are saved.