It's Christmas Time

It is Christmas time!  I love this season.  I love the family time, I love the decorations, I love the cold.  Yea...I do.  Mostly because I LOVE having a fire in our fireplace.

Just like the rest of you our Christmas season can get busy and hectic.  Broderick's birthday is the 1st, Rob's is the 8th, our anniversary is the 30th and then we have all the other Christmas things added in.  We always love to do the "extra" activities.  In our area, as I am sure in most, there are ALL kinds of  "extras".  Sometimes these extras can become a distraction.  Especially for us.  We feel like we have to do it ALL.  That can be overwhelming and add stress.

However, this Christmas season, Rob and I agreed we needed to shift our focus.  While doing those extra things are fun and not bad, we just needed to really check ourselves.  We found a family advent study to do which has been great.  We have also only picked a few things we really wanted to go and see.  Of course we took the kids to see Santa...

We have gone to the same place for about 4 years.  It is a park in our area where you drive through the light display and then at the end they have an indoor play area, Santa land, carolers, snacks, and a train display.

We celebrated Broderick's birthday of course.  This year he had his first sleepover.

And the family came over a different night for cake...

We did a new thing this year.  We have an old Pioneer Village in our area that does a candlelight tour for Christmas.  It was really cool...freezing, but neat.

We finished this night in a near by town that also had a special Christmas event.  We ate at a little mom and pop restaurant with home cooked food and walked around the town.  It was a fun night.
We celebrated Rob's birthday by staying home hunkered down by the fire with movies, games and family time.  (This is becoming a Sunday tradition around our house.  We LOVE chilling by the fire all day!)

One thing I have done, this Christmas season, is started Ann Voscamp's new advent devotional "The Greatest Gift."  It has been amazing.  If you are friends with me on Facebook you have seen my daily status updates have been quotes from the book.  I can not tell you how much this book is speaking right to my heart.  God is using it to speak truth to real life things I am facing...daily.  Every single day there is something she has written that God breaks me with.  If you need a devotion for next year, or want to start now...I encourage you to get it!

So far this Christmas has been different.  It is so nice to slow down and focus on Jesus more, and enjoy and not be stressed by all the stuff.  I am looking forward to the next couple weeks.

Praying your Christmas season is blessed too!

My Thoughts in Song Lyrics

Sometimes I can't find the word to express how I am feeling or what I am thinking.  Now would be one of those times.  To put into words all I saw and experienced is really hard.  Then to express my feelings and thoughts about those things are even harder.  The Lord has been using song lyrics to help me sort out my thoughts.  I thought I would just share a few of them with you...

"We go a thousand miles an hour, and we don't look back.  We go a thousand miles an hour and never stop to look around.  This is life.  This is love.  This is breath filling my lungs.  I've never felt this way about life, until I saw your love with my eyes.  There has to be much more to life than just these hands spinning round.  If our time is spent inside the lines we'll be alone standing 'round.  This is life. This is love. This is breath filling my lungs.  I've never felt this way about life, until I saw love with my eyes.  I want a live, I want to breath like it's my last before I leave.  I want to sing. I want to dance with your symphony.  If there's no pain in the offering than how can I say I lived.  When sacrifice is just daily life then joy and peace will be mine."  ~Carrollton Band

Okay...I am going to tell you a crazy story about this song.  When we got back from Mexico I heard it on a local radio station.  I immediately LOVED it.  I searched for the band and could not find it.  I figured they had to be local or something.  I heard the song like 2 more times over a couple weeks.  I almost called the radio station to see how I could get a copy of this song...I love it that much.   When I hear it, I think that my love...the breath in my lungs that he sings about...is loving the orphan child, that it is serving my Lord in another country.  Ok...back to the story.  So we went to Africa, got back and a few weeks later we went to a Digital Age concert.  We walked in and one of the bands opening up for Digital Age was the Carrollton Band.  I seriously about started jumping up and down.  Of course I bought the CD!  Turns out they are a local band and used to be called Mosteller.  Recently they changed their name and got a record deal.  That must be why I had trouble finding them.  Now that I have the CD I listen to it ALL THE TIME!  Seriously...they kids beg me to turn it off.  If you want to hear it live go here...you won't regret it.

Back to the lyrics.

This is has been a song I pray...
"Burn bright in my life.  Burn away the things I hold tight.  Give me, Eyes to see,  Your kingdom the way you want it to be.  What can be worse, more than you?  What do I have I wouldn't lose?  If it means you and I look more alike that's what I choose.  I'd give up the world to find my soul.  Pour out my life, give you control.  I just want to be what you want me to be.  I just want a heart's that true, a heart like you.  
As your waves, take shape.  All my guilt start to fade.  And your love, takes their place.  I become a well of your grace, your grace. I'd give up the world to find my soul.  Pour out my life, give you control.  I just want to be what you want me to be.  I just want a heart's that true, a heart like you.  I don't mind the price it costs. When this fades away what's true remains.What can be worse, more than you?  What do I have I wouldn't lose?    I'd give up the world to find my soul.  Pour out my life, give you control.  I just want to be what you want me to be.  I just want a heart's that true, a heart like you." 
~Love and the Outcome

This is just two of the songs God has been using to help me sort through all this.  However, there are more...maybe I will post those another day.

This is Not My Home

This is a hard place to be...stuck between worlds.

Let me make something very clear...it is not about Africa.  It isn't even about orphans.

It is about the Lord and must always remain about the Lord.  The second it becomes about Africa or orphans is the second it becomes an idol.  It is easy to focus on orphan care, the Bible tells us to care for the orphan.  It is easy to focus on the next trip, the Bible tells us to go into all the world and make disciples.  But, the Lord must always stay at the front of our mission, our calling, our purpose.  And that is hard.

God uses Africa daily to remind me that I long to be in a different place...a place that is my home.  And it is not Africa that I long to be in.  I long to be in Heaven with my Father.  I long to be in a place I was created for.  The Bible says we are aliens in this world.  I have never really felt that way or understood that.  But I do now.  I look at all the hurt, hunger and heartache and know the only thing that can fix that is the Lord's return.  I may feel stuck between Africa and here, but the truth is, I am stuck between here and Heaven.  My earthly goggles have been removed and I long to be with my Lord and Savior in a new way.

When I am feeling frustrated or angry about what I saw and can not fix, 

my Lord whispers..."this is not your home."  

When I long to hug those sweet babies I can only look at in pictures, 

my Lord whispers..."this is not your home."  

 When I feel like I can't do anything to help those I love, 

my Lord whispers..."this is not your home." 

God continues to use this place...this trip...to remind me,

"this is not my home."

 And then my heart aches to be HOME.  

I longs to be with the one I was created to worship...Jesus Christ, my Lord.