Advent: Day Two

Not long after God created the earth, the first sin happened. We read in chapter 3 of Genesis about how Eve and Adam fell into sin. What struck me tonight as Daniel and I were reading the devotion, was that in Genesis 3:15, there is the promise of redemption for the sins of all of us. Even in the story of the first sin, we can see the promise of a Savior to come, foretelling the sufferings of Christ and the final victory over His enemy Satan! (p. 19) That is definitely reason to celebrate the birth of Christ!

Advent: Day One

Happy December! In our house, the first day of December signals the first day of our Advent devotions, using the devotional book, The Advent Jesse Tree, by Dean Meador Lambert. We were introduced to it probably in 2000 or 2001 by some women at church, who organized an ornament swap to create a set of 25 ornaments to go along with the book. If you go to Grace, you probably have a set of these or have at least heard about it. I think I saw signs of the ornament swap happening this year, which is great, since there are so many new families coming to our church.

This year, I had an idea that I might blog about each day and sometimes share some thoughts of my own about these ornaments and the scriptures from that day. Now, given my recent bout with procrastination, and my busy schedule, that idea might prove to be a dream, rather than reality, but we'll see how it goes. Also, I'd love to hear how others have used this book and ornaments and any stories you have from those experiences.

Day One: The Light of Creation. The year I participated in the ornament swap to get our set (I've done it a couple of other times to get sets to give as gifts), this was how the ornament was done. The symbol of the world coincides with the key verse for the day: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Gen.1:1)" I think it's very appropriate to start at the very beginning when thinking about the Christmas story. After all, Jesus was there with God when the world was created (John 1:1-4). And how awesome to think that because Jesus is our Light, there is light in the world and we can know Him and love Him and praise Him! (p. 14).

Thank you, God, for creating the world and everything in it. Thank you for sending Jesus to be the Light of the World and to bring us from darkness into the light! Amen.

Procrastination

Yep, I'll admit it. I'm a procrastinator! I've had a list of things to do while I am off work this week and I'm down to some less fun stuff and I don't want to do it! I'm pretty sure that if I'd just go do them, it wouldn't take as long as the time I've spent putting them off.

Here's what I need to do:

• Put the deck furniture into the shed for the winter
• Take comforters to laundromat to get them all clean for the winter months (although Mom just told me about a nice, newer place that I'm going to try out this time, so maybe it won't be so bad if I bring a book)
• Paint the mailbox and put new numbers on it (that's really a project I wanted to do with Daniel, but he's not here today)
• File papers and shred old papers (I think I'll keep on procrastinating that one--ha!)

Here's the bad part . . . I also procrastinate doing things I like to do, namely scrapbooking and making cards. Why do I do that???? One reason is because I think that if I use a chunk of time to scrapbook and/or make cards, I will feel guilty if the other stuff isn't done yet, so I just put it all off. Crazy, I know.

OK, I'm getting off the computer now and am going to go tackle that list! Then maybe I can scrapbook with a less-guilty conscience. :-)

***UPDATE***

I must have just needed some accountability, because I got really industrious after I posted yesterday. First, I got outside and put away the deck furniture, to the rousing chorus of the neighbor's dog, who just can't seem to get it into her thick skull that I live here and that is my shed I go into. Probably would have been pretty entertaining for anyone who happened upon a woman carrying deck chairs into the shed while yelling "Shut up, already!" to a dog on the other side of the fence.

I got all the new bedding for Daniel's bed washed, including going to the laundromat this morning. I did bring something to read, which was a good thing, since I don't understand much Spanish and that's all that was on the TVs in there. It was a clean place, though, which is what I wanted. I also need to say a big "Thank You" to my mom, who came and stayed with the comforters that were drying when I needed to go home to meet the delivery people from Mattress King. She's an awesome mom!

So, since I'm probably not going to get into painting the mailbox and I would really rather eat dirt than file and shred today, I'm going to be happy with 2 out of 4, especially since I did other things that weren't on my original list (I have this strange habit of adding to my list as I go and then it just looks as long as it was when it started). Maybe I can justify scrapbooking now!

Thanksgiving Thoughts

One morning last week, I was reading Colossians 3:12-17 in The Message, and was struck by the phrase, "Cultivate thankfulness". In God's perfect ways, Daniel and I actually had time to sit down and eat breakfast together that morning, and I read him those passages, taking a minute to talk about what it means to cultivate thankfulness. That same morning in my email, I had a link to a blog that was about the same theme, even to the extent of mentioning the same passage in Colossians and cultivating thankfulness! God is so awesome!

Well, I wanted to share this blog with you, because the writer has been sharing some great exercises to help us cultivate thankfulness. I hope that this week will be a time of thankfulness for you, whatever your circumstances are, and that we can all take time to remember what God has done for us in Christ.

Daniel and I are going to take a quick trip to East Tennessee today to see some friends, but I'll look forward to any comments you have when I get back.

Our funny family

Tonight our family had an impromptu dinner at Publix! It was Jeanette's idea and she invited us to come along to the holiday sampling night at our neighborhood Publix. Daniel and I wavered at first, but then we changed our minds and decided to join in the fun. When we got there, Jeanette and Russell were already there, along with Erica, who slept through most of it. We got in line for the "main meal": turkey, ham, dressing, spinach, sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes--all you can eat--on a small dessert plate. :-) Oh, and I forgot the dessert. Little tiny slivers (samples, mind you) of sweet potato pie or pumpkin pie (and also the other samples of cakes/pastries before you got to the "main meal" line.)

After we got our plates filled, we were standing around eating, and Jeanette said, "Since we're not going to be together on Thanksgiving, this is our Thanksgiving meal together!" I said we should all go around and say what we're thankful for. Like I said, we have a funny family.

Well, then we moved on to the produce section, where they had samples of veggies and dip and then apples and dip, followed by apple cider. We skipped the shrimp cocktail samples and "helped" Russell and Jeanette, who actually had some grocery shopping to do. There was more ham and some of those little cocktail weiners and sausage balls, then we got ice cream samples and egg nog down in the dairy foods. We finished out the night with a white chocolate pretzel and some cranberry 7-Up. Quite a smorgasboard!

Another funny thing was that we ran into some friends who were doing their weekly shopping. When we stopped to talk to Julie, she said that Wesley (her husband) had already reported to her that our whole family was out at Publix together for the holiday samples!

And before you wonder where Grandma and Grandpa were, they arrived just before the rest of us were leaving, so there actually were a few minutes that our whole family was at Publix together!

What a funny (and in my opinion, FUN) family we have! They're some of what I'm most thankful for at Thanksgiving and all year long!

You know you're NOT a teenager when . . .

. . . the guy on the radio has to explain to his listeners who the group Journey is!

I was listening to Wally on Total Axxess on WAY-FM tonight and happened to tune in just as he was feeling the need to explain that Journey was a band in the 70s and 80s blah, blah, blah. Let me tell you, it's not fun to suddenly realize that there has been a whole generation of kids born since that band was in its heydey! Yikes! My high school marching band had "Open Arms" in the repertoire for two seasons, for crying out loud! By the way, Wally was telling about Journey because the song "Don't Stop Believing" has become i-Tunes' most downloaded song of all pre-digital releases, or something like that. Blah, blah, blah. :-)

In other VERY exciting news . . . I just found out tonight that one of my bestest friends from college (and currently) is moving to the Nashville area with her family!!!!! Rhesa and her husband, Philip, and their girls, Rebekah and Rachel, are some dear friends who Daniel and I have enjoyed going to visit in KY. We've had some fun times out on the lake in their boat and we just all have a good time when we're together. Well, now we won't have to just get together once a year . . . they'll be so close! They don't know exactly where they'll land yet, but we can pray it's in the southern part of the Nashville area and that they will have a smooth transition to new housing, schools, church, etc. Yea!!!! I'm soooo excited!

You know you have a teenager when . . .

. . . you ask for his Christmas list and he texts it to you on your phone.




Me: Why can't you just write it down for me?

Him: I can just send it to everyone.

Me: Well, Grandma doesn't have texting on her plan, so please don't send it to her.