Santa and Jesus?

There are so many opinions about including Santa Claus during Christmas. Do we not or do we? Is it Holy or not? Is it exceptable or not? Will kids lose the meaning of the birth of Christ, or not? Debates can go on forever and will continue to do so. My family, as well, has debated this very thing. Our conclusion: YES, we will include Santa. Maybe not in the same sense as some do. For example: I don't tell my children that if they are naughty that Santa will see them, know they were naughty, and not bring them gifts. God is the only one who can see everything that we do at all times. I refuse to give Santa any of God's credit or His authority. But I have done my fair share of research on who St.Nicholas was. He was a loving and God fearing man. A man to be admired for sure. Allow me to educate you briefly if you are unaware of who St. Nicholas was. He was a man who loved God and had a love for people. He gave of his own resources to others who otherwise would have gone without. That is where Santa Claus came from! Of course it has gone way beyond a man who wears a red suit and brings toys. We now venture into reindeer leading a sleigh, chimneys, the North Pole. I see no harm in those things either. It's up to you when and if you tell your children who much truth there is in that. We have told our children that Santa goes and brings toys to kids whose parents cannot provide to for them and that we help Santa because we can give our kids gifts. This is the absolute truth too...have you ever given a family who is going without some gifts? Have you ever fed a family that doesn't have food? You are being their Santa! Moreover you are being Jesus to them!! That's the goal anyway! St. Nicholas was driven by his love for others....what is driving you? Perhaps that more of an issue here than a jolly man in a red suit. Perhaps we need to evaluate the condition of our own hearts and begin our work there. We can enjoy Christmas cartoons and Santa Claus but let's never fail to remember that this is all about the greatest gift ever given. God, put on flesh, became like us, for us. To then die for us! Love someone this Christmas...St Nick did! Joyfully, Kathy

Lessons from the pulpit

We have been studying Colossians and it has been eye opening to say the least! I love church and I especially love when the lesson stays with me all week long! Last weeks was a lesson like this and I have a feeling that today's sermon is going to be the same way. Here's the scripture we studied : Colossians 3:5-11 5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you:[a] sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming.[b] 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self[c] with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave,[d] free; but Christ is all, and in all. I'm not typically a Message Bible reader but in this case I love how it is written. Her it is as well: 5-8 And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That’s a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. It’s because of this kind of thing that God is about to explode in anger. It wasn't long ago that you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better. But you know better now, so make sure it’s all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk. 9-11 Don’t lie to one another. You’re done with that old life. It’s like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you’ve stripped off and put in the fire. Now you’re dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ. The Pastor made a point that really stuck out to me... this list of things to put off is something that we will conquer in our life. DAILY we have to put these things off, giving them to The Lord, and praying for strength to stay away from them. Sure we can and will become stronger in the staying away from these snares but we will never be able totally overcome them til we are made perfect in Christ. Which will be in Heaven. I'm thinking that I need to write this on an index card and tape it to all the bathroom mirrors in the house to remind my family to daily put these things off and pray for strength! we sang this song today also and it really moved me! I encourage you to look it up on youtube and be blessed! You Hold Me Now by Hillsong On that day when I see All that You have for me When I see You face to face There surrounded by Your grace All my fear is swept away In the light of your embrace When Your love is all I need And forever I am free Where the streets are made of gold In Your presence healed and whole Let the songs of heaven rise to you alone No weeping, no hurt or pain No suffering You hold me now You hold me now No darkness no sick or lame No hiding You hold me now, You hold me now In this life I will stand Through my joy and my pain Knowing there's a greater day There's a hope that never fails When Your name is lifted high And forever praises rise For the glory of Your Name I'm believing for the day When the wars and violence cease All creation lives in peace Let the songs of heaven rise to you alone No weeping, no hurt or pain No suffering You hold me now You hold me now No darkness, no sick or lame No hiding You hold me now, You hold me now For eternity All my heart will give All the glory to Your name For eternity All my heart will give All the glory to Your name For eternity All my heart will give All the glory to Your name For eternity All my heart will give All the glory to Your name No weeping, no hurt or pain No suffering You hold me now You hold me now No darkness no sick or lame No hiding You hold me now, You hold me now No weeping, no hurt or pain No suffering You hold me now You hold me now No darkness no sick or lame No hiding You hold me now, You hold me now No weeping, no hurt or pain No suffering You hold me now You hold me now No darkness no sick or lame No hiding You hold me now, You hold me now Joyfully, Kathy

Whew! Ok there!

Sooo sooo much better! Fall is my absolute favorite season and I just love to decorate! My blog background now makes me happy! A couple of dear friends of mine and I met at the park yesterday to let the kiddos play and have a picnic. While the children were playing, we ladies had ourselves a Bible study! It was such a fulfilling and sweet time with these gals! We studied Proverbs 31. We went through verse by verse, picking it apart, and seeing how we are implementing these things in our lives already! Usually after reading this I walk away feel less than super about my life a wife! I bet we have all felt like that a time or two! Not this time! I left so encouraged and really to take on the world...well maybe not the world but for sure my little corner! One thing that I'm really looking forward to getting started in the following verse: She gets up while it is still night... Proverbs 31:15a! This just kicks my rear all the time! I'm a night owl and I don't love to rise early! I do love mornings, mind you! There is nothing like the freshness of a brand new day, the brand new sun light, the birds singing their praises...ahhh.... totally refreshing! I lack the self control to get up though and STAY UP! AS I was pouring over this verse and feeling quite convicted I really felt the Holy Spirit began to gently speak to my heart. This is what I heard... My husband is a police officer. Enough said but I will elaborate. He rises early to begin his day and never insist that I get up with him. I pack his lunch the night before including his breakfast. But how much better would his day go if I got up with him. Had the coffee set to bring him a hot cup of coffee, fixed him a hot breakfast, visited with him and then prayed over him before he left? Not that I don't pray for him because I do but this is about rising early and praying over him before he walks out the door. He has an important job and a not always safe job... it's the least I can do to get up with him and put a little bounce in him step! This is my new endeavor! I will succeed...prayer please! :) Joyfully, Kathy

Revamping!I

It has been a long time since I have blogged. In fact my blog still looks all summery... I'm about to fix that! I've decided to attempt as I have in the past to begin blogging AGAIN! Wish me luck! Joyfully, Kathy

Rest now?

Ever begin your summer saying to yourself and your children, " This summer we are gonna take it easy and slow and just really enjoy it?" That's me, every summer. Sigh, but somehow I have found myself in late June longing for a year of sleep, relief from the heat, and slowness of life. Alas, slowness is not what has been going on as of late! We began this month with a multitude of dance rehearsals followed by several dance recitals. Shortly there after I started planning my youngest angels 11th birthday. We don't usually do big birthday parties but this year my daughter wanted have a party at the lake! After we tallied up the people we had to have there, we were at approximately 35 people! But before I could get going good on the planning we had a massive storm! I mean massive! It was sort lived BUT left a lot of damage. We arrived home to a crushed fence, a crushed carport, a hole with a huge tree limb hanging out in our laundry room, and part of our bathroom wall that had been severely cracked by the impact of the huge tree that caused all this! Good news: Praise God, my animals were fine, none of our cars were home, no one was home, and my house is livable! Even better news...we are renters and our landlady is amazing! My headache, her money. Even though we rent, that is our home and it was really sad to see all that damaged! But there is already work being done! Its looking better every day! Again, praise God! We had that birthday party I mentioned above yesterday and it was a blast! So many friends and precious family showed up to help and celebrate our young ladies birthday! I can't believe she is 11! Where has time gone?? What a beautiful, special girl she is growing up to be! We grilled hotdogs and swam in the lake all day and opened enough Barbie gifts to last that little girl a life time! She was so pleased! We spent today recuperating and trying to heal sunburns! I don't know what happened to me...I'm usually the sunscreen queen and I completely forgot to apply any to anyone yesterday! My girls naturally brown skin handled it fine. I, on the other hand, am quite pale and suffering major consequences! It was a blast though! Now I can begin slowness and rest right? One can hope! :) I want to begin planning out next school year! I get so excited and geared up when I start planning! This year we have a group of homeschool families that want to plan field trips with us and I am so looking forward to it! Also, the Homeschool Convention is in August and this year I get the pleasure of my hubby going with me! We are going to have a special weekend alone and attend the convention together! It encourages me to see him so interested and wanting to gain knowledge! I would also love to get away with my family at least for one night this summer and do something fun! My oldest darling begins college this fall... sigh, whole other post on that! Good night all and may God richly bless you!, Joyfully, Kathy

God's answers so far...

In my last post I was pondering what my Pastor had preached on last Wednesday. Here's what I have heard from my precious faithful Father thus far. I have a best friend. How did she become my best friend? Time. Lots of time. Sacrificial time. Listening. Being available. Why did I do these things? Because I wanted to know this woman and I wanted her to know me. I pursued her and she pursued me. After a lot of time, listening, and effort we know each other forwards and backwards. That is what I need to do with the Lord. I need to pursue Him. He in turn will pursue me. I need to be available to Him. I need to make a sacrifice of time for Him. I need to read His Word. I need to inhale it's nectar, I need to feast upon it's Words. I need to hide those Words deep in my heart. I need to bask in His presence. I wise woman once said, " Whatever is important to you you will do well." In this case she was speaking about arriving to church on time. She was saying that if church was truly important to me then I will be on time. This has stuck with me for years! If my relationship with God is important to me then you will find me pursuing Him. My question in my last post was, "what is the next level of intimacy with God and what will it take to get me there?" I don't know the next level because I have been neglecting time with The One who will take me to the next level. What will it take to get me there? The sacrifice of my time is what it will take me. He's waiting. It's me that has wandered off, waiting for some holy relationship to just fall upon me without any effort from me at all. So I'm going to read my Bible again. I miss the days when I couldn't find it Sunday morning because I couldn't remember the last place that I read it! I don't want it to be waiting every Sunday morning safely in my church bag. I want roughed up leather binding from lots of handling. It seems so easy. The Lord says," Seek Me and you will find Me." Jeremiah 29:13. My biggest obstacle is unfaithfulness. Sigh, The Lord has His work cut out for Him! But He made me, He knows me, He loves me, and He is waiting for me! There you have it... I'm gonna read my Bible. I'm gonna be with Jesus! I'm gonna seek and I know I'm gonna find! Joyfully, Kathy

Next Step

Pastor asked a question on Wednesday..."What would it take to get you to move to the next level of intimacy with Jesus?" Perfectly legitimate question....one that maybe most could even answer. I, however, sat in my seat dumbfounded. The next level? There was a time in the beginning of my relationship with the Lord when I knew I was drawing closer and my walk was strengthening but now... well now, I just don't know. I'm not living in habitual sin. I go to church. I think for the most part I practice what I believe. On the outside it would appear that I'm living "a good" christian life. But, what is the next level? How do I get there? How do I even begin to advance to the next level? Does that makes sense? I'm not lost but I'm not on fire. I'm (gulp) lukewarm. There I said it. I'm lukewarm and I have no idea how to stay hot all the time? I have know idea what the next level of intimacy with Jesus is and it makes me sad. Almost, makes me wish I had some sin I could give up...not really but you know what I mean! Sigh, this question has been plaguing me for days now and I still have no answers.... hmmm, tomorrow is church! Praise God! Maybe the answer will arrive soon. Jesus, I need to know what the next step for us is in our relationship. I don't want to be lukewarm, You have warned against that in Your Precious Word. I'm waiting for Your answer Lord. Eagerly. Show me Lord. Teach me. I love you, Amen. Joyfully, Kathy