Why?

Children looking at picture books at school, Santa Clara, Utah, 1940. Photo credit: Library of Congress

12:02am, 12:12am...I can't sleep. I can't seem to stop thinking about the latest school shooting, children the same age as one of mine learning their alphabet. Older children the same ages as two of mine trying to conquer a long math problem. And like many other people my mind wants to know "Why?'. A young man sits near me in the Chiropractor's office and asks his dad "Why did the shooting happen?". But his dad has no answer
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But the answer is there. If we will hear it. Sin. That is the answer. "In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth", I can hear my 3 year old quoting. Man was lovingly created in the image of God. Man chooses to ignore God and teach our children that they came from an Amoeba or from apes, just a glorified animal. Man chooses to teach our children that there is no hope after death. Man chooses Sin and evil. How can life be valued if we teach them that they are nothing more than animals and that when we die it is the end? How can we be surprised when our young people choose to sin and commit such evil?

But even in the midst of Sin and sadness, we can know we have Hope. Jesus Christ is our Hope. We can know without a doubt that this isn't all there is, that this is not our home, that we are just passing through. But we have to choose it....it isn't automatic....Jesus doesn't force Himself on anyone.

Moms and Dads, are we teaching our children about God and His great love and Hope? Are we teaching them to Love the Lord God with all their hearts and souls and minds? What is more important to teach them than that? Nothing! If they know they were created in the image of God and that they are loved by Him and by us then they will value life.

How are you doing in teaching your children? I know I have been slack about it. I have let the cares of the day take over and haven't adequately been directing my children to their Saviour. Let what happened to those children remind us that time is precious and that we have a job to do.

The Election

Just minutes after hearing the announcement that Obama was re-elected this hymn was running through my mind...

The Solid Rock

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness

I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus' name.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground is sinking sand.

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!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from our family to yours. We pray that if you do not know Jesus as your Saviour that this Christmas season you will see Him working in your life and desire to know Him better.

I mentioned in a previous post about Advent and some of the things we do during Advent. We have been reading from the Old Testament each evening after dinner about the prophecies concerning Christ's coming. Well last night I decided to take a little side trip from that to read some Scriptures about some issues we are having in our family. You see, we have developed a bad habit of allowing unloving words and attitudes between us all so I thought I would just pick some Scriptures to read to the children to see what the Bible has to say to us about this but you know what....even in reading these verses to the children they related to Christmas and the reason we even celebrate this season.

We read in Leviticus that we are to love our neighbor(siblings) as ourself. Then in 1 John 4: 7-11 we read "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

The Bible is always relevant. Praise the Lord for that. Merry CHRISTmas!!!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

We make a birthday cake for Jesus each year. Don't mind the #9 candle. That just happened to be all we had to put on top. We hope each of you will give Jesus the gift of remembering Him this Christmas and through out all of the new year.