Christmas Time

I love Christmas time so much! In my opinion, the best part of Christmas is spending time with family. I love my family so much, and am so grateful that I got to spend time with my family on both sides this year! I had a blast and made so many memories! Thank you, Lord, for blessing me with such an amazing immediate and extended family!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Before getting into relationships...

Who can agree with me when I say that friendships can be hard? We put ourselves fully out there for the one's we love, fully knowing that we could get rejected, dissapointed, and hurt. C.S. Lewis got it right when he said this, "To love at all is to be vulnerabe. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it careful round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket-safe, dark, motionless, airless- it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable... The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers of love is Hell." So what do we do? Do we keep our hearts hidden from those we love or do we give them away with the possibility of getting crushed and hurt? How do we give our thoughts, time, and love to a person we know will someday fail us? We must first give ourselves fully to the one who will not fail us. We must find ourselves and our worth in God and God alone before we get in any kind of relationship because if we don't we will look for our self worth in relationships with fallen people and when those people hurt us we will start to think that we aren't worth much if even our friends hurt us and that we aren't worth being treated well. Our self worth and self value will take a plunge. But when we find ourselves in our Creator, knowing that we are made in His image and our loved by Him we are free to love others, knowing full well that we will get hurt, but trusting in the one who we find ourselves in.
"For anyone to enjoy relationship, they must repent of their need to control and their insistence that people fill them. Fallen people demand that others "come through" for them. Redeemed people are being met in the depths of their soul by Christ and are free to offer to others, free to desire, and willing to be dissapointed. Fallen people have been wounded by others and withdraw in order to protect themselves from further harm. Redeemed people know that they have something of value to offer; that they are made for relationship. Therefore, being safe and secure in their relationship with their Lord, they can risk being vulnerable with others and offer their true selves." -Stasi Eldridge (Captivating)

The Christmas Tree

Found this poem that my grandma wrote, thought it was really good! My grandma was a poet and she didn't even know it (:

The Christmas Tree

Once there was a Christmas tree,

the biggest that you've seen

It's trunk so straight

it's branches full and color deepest green

The star on top was so bright,

the darkness seemed like day

and on it's sturdy limbs of green,

the falling snow did lay

Beneath it's boughs,

a manger sat--simple yet divine

For in it lay the son of God

a gift to all mankind

Though he was an infant yet,

you could plainly see

All the wonders of his love

in the Christmas tree

Like its trunk strong and tall,

the infant Christ would grow

And like it's sturdy limbs of pine,

that held the heavy snow

He'd have the strength within his arms,

to hold us all so near

That not one voice in this world,

could not reach his ear

And like the star with all its light,

his love would always be

A guiding force for us to follow,

throughout eternity

The Christmas Tree is full of splendor,

be it trimmed or bare

If in the heart of the beholder,

there is love to share

Teach us Jesus how to be,

as strong and patient as the tree

So all our gifts this year will be,

good deeds that we can give to thee

Clinging

Have you ever found yourself clinging to the things of this world? Have you found yourself desiring so much to be of the world that you loose sight of God? I know I sure have. It's at those times that I need to remind myself that I don't belong here. I am a stranger in this world. I was made to live eternally with my Father and this world is nothing compared to that....but it's really hard to remember that. It's hard to be in the world, but not of the world. At times, I find myself desperately collecting more and more on this Earth; I cling to it like an infant clings to its mother. But at the end of the day, all that this world brings leaves me unfufilled and searching for more. "If I find in myself desires nothing in this world can satisfy, I can only conclude that I was not made for here." -C.S. Lewis.
Clinging is a bad habit of mine and a lot of others; we need to stamp out this habit and realize that we were made for so much more than this world. Nothing here will ever fufill us, only Christ can do that.
"Wherever you are and wherever you turn, you will not find happiness until you turn to God."
-Thomas a Kempis

A Walk Down Memory Lane

Last Christmas my sister, Cassie, made me a memory jar. It was a jar filled with a lot of weirddd things we used to do when we were little and I could open one a day for a month. This year when I pulled it out from our Christmas stuff I had to chuckle at some of the weirddd memories (:

here's a few of them:
(keep in mind that these are from cassie to me so when it says me it means cassie and when it says you it means me.)

-Remember when I started crying in the middle of the street because I thought I had a tumor.

-Remember when Brooke had a crush on our cousins.

-Remember when we would wake up every saturday night at midnight to watch Hannah Montana.

-Remember when I would act like I was possessed and was going to cut your veins at bed time and scare you.

-Remember when all of Brooke and her friends thought they were evil squirrels.

-Remember when you decided to pee downstairs because you were too lazy to go upstairs.

-Remember when we made our Barbies act out Sept. 11th. (oh geez we were disturbing little children!)

-Remember when Brooke would always hide behind the couch to eat cookies and then come out with crumbs all over her face and deny eating any.

-Remember when I made my bunk bed a "tanning bed" and colored you guys with brown
marker.

-Remember when Brooke had a crush on practically every boy in the world.

-Remember when we hated Brooke because she was the "perfect child."

-Remeber when we would trade making our beds the "library."

-Remember when we gave our Barbies family portraits.

-Remember when we played "Oprah" at night when we couldn't fall asleep.

-Remember when I formed a spy club with the neighbors and asked for spy gear for my birthday.

A Strange Story

Have you ever thought that the birth of Christ was a strange story? Have you ever found it strange that God used Joseph, an simple carpenter, and Mary, a young ordinary girl to bring the Messiah into the world? Have you ever found it strange that the Savior of the world was born in a tiny town called Bethlehem? Do you find it strange that there was no room for the ruler of the world in any inns in town, or that he was placed in a manger filled with straw to sleep? Have you ever found it strange that the angels chose three lowly shepherds to first share this good news with? I know I have, but our ways our not God's ways and this strange story happens to be the beginning of the world's redemption story.