Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you all. We pray that each of you has a personal relationship with the ONE who gives us the reason for this season, Jesus Christ. As we left church yesterday we noticed one of the churches in our town had a sign saying they were not having a service on Christmas day and that struck me as so very strange. Now I know that people may choose not to attend church if Christmas falls on a Sunday, maybe visiting family etc. but for a church to choose not to have a service just struck me as strange since the reason we have Christmas is because of CHRIST. Anyway, I do hope you had a great day. We chose to open our gifts today, Monday, not only to avoid a very busy Sunday but also because our oldest and his fiance both had to work yesterday, medical people just don't always have the option to not work on holidays. We had a very nice relaxing day today with the children.

Again, Merry Christmas and we hope you all have a Happy Jesus loves you New Year.

ps Sister Kristy I would love to be invited to read your blog:)

JOY

Isn't this the most joyful time of the year? A time for us to be joyful about our Saviour, Jesus, who came to this world as a helpless baby and then He died on a cruel cross to take the punishment for our sins so we could be reconciled to the God who created us and loves us so much. Why wouldn't we be joyful at the thought of this. But are we joyful? Am I joyful?

The Lord has been bringing that word to me lately...Joy. Do I have joy? Or do I let the cares of the day rob me of my joy? Am I crabby and short tempered? I must admit that ,yes I am. I blame it on lack of sleep etc. but it just boils down to choosing to be UNJOYFUL. Is that even a word? Well now it is. One of the things I blame my lack of joy on is my children's crabbiness. But then I realize that they are only crabby because they see mama being crabby.

So for our Advent readings this year we are focusing on Scriptures about Joy. Last nights verse was from Nehemiah 8:10, the second part, where it says...

"Do not sorrow, for the JOY of the Lord is your strength"

The notes in my Bible concerning this verse, which is actually speaking to the Isrealites as they are hearing the Law read to them by Ezra, say that the joy of the Lord is the joy that springs up in our hearts because of our relationship to the Lord. It is a God-given gladness found when we are in communion with God. When our goal is to know more about the Lord, the by-product is His joy.

So what I am taking away from this is that we in America try to manufacture our joy during the Christmas season. We sing about Joy, we may even read Scriptures about joy but if we (meaning me) are not in God's Word DAILY then we will ever be striving to find our JOY. Only in Christ Jesus can we have that because everyday will have trials that want to rob us of our joy. And He is the only constant thing.

I was planning on writing out my favorite poem about my children mirroring me and how I need to have joy if I expect them to have it but then I realized that I had already written it. So if you want to refresh your memory of it or never read it to begin with, click on Poems on the side bar. I think it is an excellent reminder to us that our children will become what they see in us(most of the time).

Again, I ask us, "How's your joy?" Can I challenge you and me to daily find our joy in the Lord? Can I challenge each of us to find someone we trust to hold us accountable to be in God's word daily and to practice the joy that we know we should be exhibiting? How can we reach others for Christ when we show no joy in the life that He has given us?

I hope we each have a JOYFUL Christmas season and beyond!