He is Greater.....John 3:30 says He must become greater, I must become less"

I missed my 12 days of Christmas post yesterday.  I got groceries in the morning, then took the kids to Walmart ( a bribe for good behavior the past 2 days when I had to work and had no childcare.....so the siblings and nana came to the rescue).  With all of the kids home, there is a constant revolving door on the dishwasher, the fridge and the snack cupboard.  Always cooking.  Always washing.  In the afternoon I worked to keep the wood burning in the fire place because it is just so cold in Iowa this week.  Then we started a puzzle.  Claire bought one with Christmas money at the mall the other day.  She and Roger and I became helpless slaves to it for the remainder of the day.  Hence, no blogs for the 5 Golden Rings.  Oops.  The 5 Golden Rings are said to represent the first 5 books of the Old Testament of the Bible.  Genesis.  Exodus.  Leviticus.  Numbers.  Deuteronomy.  While fixing the puzzle yesterday, Claire told me her teacher had sent her an app to use so that she could read

Ok.....so now that we have come to the four calling birds a.k.a.  the Four Gospels.....I can clearly confess that I don't know my Christian doctrine well enough to be writing about it.  I could do lots of research so that I could teach a scholarly lesson but, lets face it, I don't have that kind of time.  Or gumption.  Today I did 5 visits around 4 different towns and had to make a stop to get a vaccine that was required for my work, and I had to fill up with gas.  The warmest it got today was 16 degrees.....it was cold.  I am tired.  Back to the four calling birds...... Matthew.  Mark.  Luke.  John.  The four gospels all tell the story of Jesus birth and life and death.  They tell it from a slightly different voice and give a few fresh details with each narrative.....Luke was a physician so his story is more detailed.  John had passion......if you know a new Christian, have them start in the book of John when you give them a bible.  Matthew is a favorite of mine....and I do

According to the internet explanations ( if we choose to believe that the 12 days represent 12 different parts of Christianity) the third day is for 3 Christian virtues:  Faith.  Hope.  Charity.  I was reading from a different site that said this is not code for persecuted Christians and that made me crabby because I liked it better when that seemed true.  Don't believe everything you read, folks.  That said, you can believe this.  Three of the hardest virtues to maintain and live by, are faith, hope and charity.  Living a life of faith means not believing in the here and now, not banking on what you can see and sometimes it means if you want to walk on water, you first have to get out of the boat.  Jesus called to Peter to get out of the boat and come to him......if Peter had lacked faith, he would have stayed in the boat and refused.  Faith allowed him to swing his legs over the side of the boat and shift his weight forward and to stand up.  Then he had to move.  Today, the li

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me....two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.  The 2 turtle doves are said to mean the Old and New Testaments of the bible.  I have been a Christian for as far back as I can remember and I am pretty familiar with both the Old and the New Testaments of the bible.  That said, I am no bible scholar.  My summary is that the Old testament tells the stories of the beginning of our faith.....from the first people God created, to the establishment of his people, to the wars and the successes and failures of humanity.  In my humble opinion, God gave His people every chance with free will....and quite possibly determined that we are weak, and flawed and hopeless.....without a savior.  The New Testament is the story of Jesus and how he was born into the world to be the answer to our hopelessness.  God wants us to be reconciled to Him so badly that he sent a son to humanity to understand us and to save us......and the New Testament gi

Today is Christmas day!  We made it everyone.  I hope you all had a blessed day celebrating this significant holiday.  I started my day praying quietly in bed.  I woke up on my own before my alarm, and not due to the voices of any children.......so I laid there a bit longer.  My thoughts drifted to some of the hard things we have faced this past year......and I felt Jesus telling me to just give them to Him.  Lift them up and do not feel their burden any longer.   He wanted my Christmas to be about love and family and blessing......and he was asking to take my heavy  hurts........so because He asked, that is what I did.  Do you know the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas"?  well, we sing this song in our house every holiday season.  My mom collects holiday decorations with this theme......and it is a part of our celebrating.  The song was created, so the story goes, in England during a time of religious persecution when Catholicism was outlawed in the 16th-18th centuries. 

I've written about feeling "Christmas-weary".....and I worked through that.  Then I found myself feeling "Christmas-able" and was able to celebrate that.  Thank you, friends, for reading along.  I would likely write just for myself, but it's fun when someone tells me that I write what they are thinking or feeling.....it spurs me on to share.  Phase 3 this season is.......Christmas-ready. I am quite sure I am Christmas-ready because today I went back to Wal-Mart (AGAIN) for just a few last-minute things......its the mom work.  It's the finishing touches to make sure all the stockings gifts are purchased and come out fair.....and some supplies in case the kids decide to make caramel chex mix over break......and the one item I forgot to get from the grocery list that child #2 specifically requested.  I noticed a few other moms in Wal-Mart today.  They all looked just like me.....checking their lists, walking faster than normal pushing a cart....an occasi

I found a way past Christmas-weary.  I think I want to share it.  My statement about feeling weary of the season was genuine and honest.  The demands of the holidays can be exhausting.  They are especially so if you, like me, don't want to miss anything.  If you don't want to miss anything AND you want to feel deeply moved and inspired by the holiday......well.....that is wearisome.  Because I was honest with my feelings, God heard my whispered lament.  He saw the stress lines on my face and how I rub my forehead when I am thinking hard.... and he heard each one of my deep sighs.  Maybe He smiled.  Maybe He heaved a heavy sigh himself.....but however he responded, He moved for me.  I began to smell the fragrant pine scent of our real Christmas tree.  Some years I cannot smell it past the first day.  As I sit here writing, I am smelling it so strongly and intensely that it makes me smile.  He wants me to know......He wants me to enjoy all of it.  The smell of a fresh Christ

Are you Christmas-weary?  I am feeling just a little bit Christmas-weary.  What does that mean exactly?  I don't really know.  Exactly.  I think its a new term I just now coined.  If you choose to use it, feel free to pay me for the rights to the phrase.  Drop-offs can be made to my mailbox.  Smiles. Christmas-weary......well.  I love my freshly cut Christmas tree......and I got some new decorations for it this year.  They keep sliding off of the long pine needles.  I find them on the carpet and I bend over and pick them up and try to find a new branch to secure them....and I do this every day multiple times a day.  Roger and I were gone tonight.  When we got home, I saw a chewed up cardboard box in the middle of the living room floor.  I asked Roger, "Is that a box you need?  Like, did you order something important"   Christmas-weary means that every day we are getting more and more boxes in the mail.  Some are just household items, and some might be gifts.....only

Christmas is a season of gifts and blessing.  Many respond with a service of giving.  This is my favorite part of Christmas.  Jesus came to earth and the wise men gave Him gifts....and so the tradition says that we give gifts , too.  One story says that there was a saint who went around and blessed children who were orphans and who were poor, etc. with gifts and that his name was St. Nicholas....when my own children ask me if Santa is real I usually talk about things like this.....that the spirit of giving is a part of Christmas and that Jesus himself inspires us to give generously. This week, I learned of a young family that had no food.  I sent out a request on social media to help and 2 friends gave GENEROUSLY....to someone that they, nor I know.  Bags of groceries and diapers and wipes were in my garage and all I had to do was load them up and make a delivery.  My Christmas elves, meaning people in my community, have been asking "is there a family we can bless for Christm

Tomorrow marks the first Sunday of Advent season for 2017.  Advent means "coming" in Latin.  It is the period of four Sundays and weeks before Christmas and in this season, we Christians preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  In church there is a reading from the bible and a candle is lit to honor the process of preparing for the holiday of Jesus' birth.  We sing traditional Christmas carols and songs and we admire the festive decorations and we honor Him.  This is a beautiful season for me.  I love the traditions, the respect and the beauty of the holiday.  I love Christmas.  My children are having a hard time coming up with some gift ideas.  We don't go crazy with gift-giving but we do give gifts.  Tonight Isaac said, "I have everything I need.  I am happy.  There is really nothing I need to ask for."  What a beautiful thing for a 15 year old American kid to say.  His needs are met.  I asked Josiah's half brother what he wanted for Christmas re