Advent Conspiracy

Click on the link.

Our family has decided due to economic times but mostly due to the invasion of the celebration of Christ arrival to refocus on how we spend our $ and time at Christmas time. Our family normally does gift exchanges and it might be looked down upon that we will not be buying exactly what was on the Christmas list but instead finding a way to spend time with them, making a gift, or donating in their name. if you haven't already bought all your gifts for Christmas, I challenge you to watch this and make a decision for yourselves on how you might be able to do Christmas differently.

www.adventconspiracy.org If for some reason this link doesn't work type in advent conspiracy to google and it should be the first listing offered.

Halloween

Yes, we are so evil. We allowed our kids to dress up and to actually do door to door trick or treating. Normally we just go to a Harvest event at a church but not really knowing where we are and what is offered around here we just oppted to hang out in our courtyard and go down just one of the streets close by.

Makayla and her friend Sarah dressed up as twin fairies. Zeke was a cowboy. He kept saying he was Woody from Toy Story. And Justus was a dragon while his sister stole the show as a pink bug.

Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin

We took the kids and Fudge kids to a pumpkin patch along with some of Greg's friends from school. We had a great time. The fudges had spent the weekend w/ us. It was a full house for 3 days!!!

* Christ followers or Christian

Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. –C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory


This quote convicts me to my core. How true it is to me that I ride the fence in my relationship to Christ. The original coined phrase of "Christian" was meant as a negative put down. It means Little Christ. We, followers of Christ, however do not find the term to be offensive. Well... maybe until now. Let me explain. There is this joy to be associated with Christ. Whether it is popular or not to be so closely associated to Christ that others might say "He (or she) is like a little Christ running around" would be a great honor. However, I do believe in today's culture the word "Christian" has gotten new associations. It no longer means a reflection of Christ but yet a devouter to rules and laws and even hypocrisy. Sounds harsh, I know. We have strayed from the idea to be so filled with His Spirit that those around us could not reject the fact of who our Lord is. But in stead have traded in a relationship and worship of and with our God for love of tradition and heritage. I do not believe Christ is honored when we forget Him in our daily doings. Are we following Christ or are we following tradition? Have we fallen in love with doing church well that we have betrayed our love with God Himself? Now don't get me wrong, this is not a church bashing session. But we have got to stop and look around and see what are we investing in. Are we investing in our love with Christ and following through with action? Or are we investing more time and energy in preforming a better, smoother program with Christ standing outside our doors. And this is not speaking of leadership but I am speaking about the whole body. You, me, the guy sitting next to you. What are you investing in? What am I investing in? If you can say Jesus, than Hallelujah. Praise God. As for me, honestly it has not been until recently when all has been striped away that I HAVE had to invest more in my relationship and not be so easily content with my mud pies in the slum. I pray that one day I will be able to truly have a better comprehension of the Holiday at Sea that the King has awaiting for me.

* Life is disappointing... Point Blank

Okay, so the title gives off this ring of being a downer, but just stay with me for a moment. Our life is well, crazy. Maybe a better word should be messy. I think that is why so many times we, meaning you, me, even Joe the Plumber, plan out our lives to go in one direction and when it doesn't happen we start stomping our feet.

As Christians, we tend to do this, "sure Lord I surrender my future to you. As if this future is this far off lofty idea. Well, what about today? Are we surrendering today, this hour, this moment? To be honest, as of late, I pretty much have come up short on that. Oh, sure when I'm praying I say things like use me today as you will Lord. Let me be flexible. And those are good things to say, I'm sure. But when I'm actually conversing with God and not just checking in for my spiritual refill, my heart is telling God you can have my long term goals, but my short term goals and desires, those are mine.

I think this is common. We come up with these perfect scenarios in our brain of how our life is going to pan out. Almost like a movie or a great book. And why not? When we watch a movie or read we get to do something that we can't do in reality-- Know the ending of the story. Everyday we are filled with new decisions, consequences from previous decisions, the ugliness of sin clashing against another sinner, mixed right in there with the joys and thrills of life.

So yes, if we continue to try to plan out and lead our own lives in this demanding spirit than we are going to be disappointed. It is not going to happen our way. Because truth is its not about our way. Its not about us. Or more pointedly, its simply not about me.

Remember how in James 4 it speaks of submitting ourselves to God and later on boasting about tomorrow? I think James hit it on the nose in chapter 4 verse 13-17
"Now listen, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, If it is the Lords will, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins."

So life is disappointing... when its about me. However, the good news is when its about Christ there is freedom. That doesn't mean that a life with Christ is not hard or will not cause great pain and suffering. Sorry, but just take a look at the guys that hung out with Christ. Most of them were killed. But were they disappointed? I would have to wonder if they felt that the only disappointing thing was that their time was cut short of sharing who the Messiah truly was.

What are your thoughts? I might be off base theologically and would welcome and ask for guidance back to the biblical interpretations.

Jen

*Occassionally there will be post marked with an *. One of my aunts is part of a group of people that take turn bloging certain topics. If you see an * it means that post is in relation to the question. Please feel free to read and respond. Actually response is nice in order to see what others are thinking and processing. And I am the first to admit that I am a layman (or simply a lame woman : 0) ) and do NOT have all the answers. Just day to day living with Christ.

Princess Balance

My friend Katie Kopp PHD sent this to me today. The article is about another woman and her daughter but for the most part it could have been me and Mak. So enjoy the following ramblings:

"I have, on occasion, heard some parents of daughters rail against the phenomenon that is the Disney and/or Barbie princess craze. I’ve heard some parents wonder if we are setting unrealistic expectations of “happily ever after” for our daughters, or if we’re teaching them to define success by someday nabbing a handsome prince.

If that’s the case, then I am hosed. Because I have a three-year-old daughter who has bought in to the entire thing, lock, stock, and barrel. She is a walking billboard for the Disney princesses. She dances all over the place in her Jasmine slippers, carrying a glittery Cinderella purse, and she makes up songs as she goes along. The tune always changes, but the words go something like this:

“Belie-e-e-e-e-e-eve in your dreams...when you wish…in your heart…and the magic happens…of the whole world…and you can shine…and don’t give u-u-u-u-u-u-u-up…and your dreams come tru-u-u-u-u-ue…”

You get the idea. It’s like a cloud of Disney princess pop psychology follows her through our house. I’m not concerned about this. It’s not like she’s choosing a husband next year – she’s three, for Pete’s sake. I have plenty of time to teach her, by my words and actions, that happily-ever-afters actually require a lot of work, and that the best handsome princes aren’t the ones with the best ballroom dancing steps – they’re the ones who unload the dishwasher.

Anyway, I don’t believe it’s a bad thing for a little girl to revel in her femininity, should she be so inclined. There are plenty of years ahead for learning a healthy personal balance between a love for pretty dresses and the more cerebral things in life. I want to teach my daughter to embrace every part of who she is, including the delightful girly-girl part. My daughter would tell you that her favorite princess is Belle. Why? Because, she would say, “of the pwetty yellow dwess, and she likes BOOKS!”

And there you go.

So we’re diving headlong into the whole princess thing, though I’m keeping my radar up for little chances to reminder her gently of what real happy endings look like. The other day I sat with her as she watched an episode of Princess Stories. At the end of it, Cinderella shared her story. “I found my handsome prince,” she sighed, “and then we lived happily ever after.”

I nudged Corrie. “I found my prince, too, you know. You know who it is?"

“Daddy!” she giggled.

“Yes!” I said. “And you know why I picked him for my prince?”

She shrugged.

“Because he’s smart, and he works hard, and he makes me laugh, and he’s kind.” I thought about explaining how he encourages me to develop my own potential, and how (talk about princely!) he does the taxes every year, too. But I could tell I was starting to lose her – she was wondering when I would get to the part about the pretty dresses.

So instead I just sang along with her as she started her song: “Be-lieeeeeeeve in your dreams….”

We’ve got years for the good stuff."

Well that sums it up for me!

Addicted

We are on the hunt for a new dining table and some chairs. Turns out that our camping chairs are not ment for everyday use--- who would have thunk? So we have turned to the amazing awesome site.... dare I even say it... "CRAIGSLIST". I love this site. You can even offer lower prices and try to find a middle ground between the owner and the looker. And because it is done on the internet, I can coward behind the screen and pretend to be bold when offering extremely low counter prices. We had been desiring a chair for Greg's office and were able to get an amazing steal for $40 for a parason chair AND ottoman!!! Now if we could just find that table and chairs....