celebrating advent

I love the Christmas season - all of the lights, the smells, the yummy food.  I love the anticipation of Christmas morning, when we share gifts with each other that we have thoughtfully chosen for each person.  I especially love being together as a family to celebrate that we are part of Christ's family, and that He came as a sweet babe one night to change our entire lives for the better.  The beginning of our great rescue story began that night in Bethlehem and keeping that as our focus each holiday season (and every day!) is what makes Christmas time truly so special.  Every day we talk about what Christmas is about - yes, the parties are fun, and the presents are something to look forward to on Christmas morning - but the real reason is the gift of His son, and that is the greatest present we will ever receive.

One thing that I love to do with my girls each year is celebrate the countdown to Christmas with an advent calendar.  They love waking up each morning and reading the card that tells us what activity we are going to do that day.  I have incorporated some of the memorable things that I loved as a child (like taking a night drive in our PJs to look at Christmas lights, and decorating sugar cookies) as well as some fun things like going to visit Santa at the mall, and making reindeer dust.  I also enjoy doing some activities that remind us what this Season is for - celebrating Christ and being more like Him.  We make cookies to share with our neighbors, and we take some to our librarians before picking out some Christmas books.  We fill a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child and we pick out gifts for our teachers to thank them for helping us learn.  Seeing Christmas through my children's eyes is amazing - they really are so thoughtful and generous, and they challenge me to be the same.

I made the advent calendar from a Martha Stewart kit I bought at AC Moore a few years back:

being still...

I have a confession to make.  This is the season of Thanksgiving, and yet there is a warring within my soul.  I am so thankful for so many things - a family that always loves me, a job that I can count on, a warm home to sleep in every night - yet I am finding myself getting discouraged because sometimes I feel like it is not enough - that I am not enough.  It is hard to stay content when I feel like my purpose is so much greater than the place that I am in right now.  I will tell you a secret - I want to own my own business one day.  I don't know what that looks like yet - I used to see a cutesy, vintage shop where I sold the cupcakes that I baked and decorated, but I don't really see that now.  I see a blank space waiting for me to fill it.  But I don't know that it will ever happen.  I want to work from home, I want to take my kids to the park or the beach on a Tuesday afternoon, not just cram all my family time into the always too-short weekends.  I want to blog about my life and have people care about what I have to say.  I want to stop driving down the road thinking that would be a beautiful picture and just stop and take the picture! I see these beautiful, successful, God-fearing women with popular blogs, creative Instagram feeds, and successful businesses, and I think  why isn't that me? And then I start to feel guilty for not being content.  

But that is where Jesus comes in.  This isn't for me to figure out on my own, He asks me to trust His plan for my life.  And to trust that His plan will be better than mine.  "The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever." Psalm 138:8.  When we find ourselves in these places of uncertainty, it is because He is bringing us to a place where He is the only certain thing.  He is the light to our darkness.  He commands us to "be still and know that I am God" Psalms 46:10 I don't know what paths this life will find me traveling down, but I do know that He will guide my steps if I trust Him to do so.  "But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold" Job 23:10.  He is testing me during this time, and if I continue to put my trust in Him, I will come out refined like gold.  It is not an easy process, but it is necessary to make me into the person He has destined me to be, and to fulfill the purpose He has for me. And His purpose for me is even greater than the one I have for myself.  I just have to have faith.

This isn't something I have even come close to mastering - every day I find myself having to put my faith and trust back in Him.  I have to continually place all my cares and burdens into His arms and ask Him to carry them for me, because I am giving them too much weight over my life.  And He gladly takes them.  He loves me when I am resting in His faithfulness, and He loves me when I lose sight of Him and shout WHY?!? He loves me enough to give me a purpose, and to remind me that I need to be still and let Him reveal it to me in His time.  Lord, help me to have faith that you are trustworthy with my life and my future.  Thank you for loving me enough not to just give me everything I ask for, but to give me only that which is good for me.  

There is such a freedom in realizing you cannot control your future, and you don't have to - you need only to give it all to Jesus.  

give thanks in all

" rejoice always, pray without ceasing, 

give thanks in all circumstances; 

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. " 

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

I have to be honest - I don't always want to give thanks in all circumstances.  There are times when I find it very difficult to be thankful.  Like when my girls are both having meltdowns because it is time for bed and the pajamas they just have to wear are in the wash, lunches still need to be packed, the rest of dinner is still on the stove waiting to be put away, and I can not find Charlotte's blanket anywhere.   Those are hard times to be "giving thanks in all".  However, with this month's spotlight on Thanksgiving, I am really focusing on what it means to be thankful, and how to be thankful in all circumstances.

I think what Paul had in mind for us when he wrote this was for us to keep a spirit of thanksgiving because of who God is and what He has done, regardless of what might be going on in our lives at any given time.  This is not to say that we will always feel thankful when we are knee deep in the trenches of sleepless nights with sick babies, or when we are faced with a difficult choice or mourning a loss.   However, it is important to remember that we are not slaves to our circumstances, but can rise above them because we have been given a new identity in Christ. We have been given an inheritance and a hope and a future.  He is always with us, He is always for us, and we can be always be thankful because He has set us free.

And so I give thanks.  I give thanks that He has brought me out of the mire and set my feet upon solid ground. I  give thanks that I am His daughter - a daughter with heaven in my future.  When we look past our difficulties and see Jesus, we can be truly thankful in all circumstances because He is always in control, and will never ever leave or forsake us.  He will never change and He is always working out His best for us in our lives.  He is bigger than anything that comes our way today or any other day that we are here on this earth!  And so we give thanks in all...