Christmas Beyond the Picket Fence

Christ-mas.


To the cashier at the store today, who listens of chit chat of holiday gatherings, yet hers is not one to chat about.  Two sons, one killed in an accident two years ago, the other in jail.


Today, May she know the Christ of Christmas


To the woman who cringes at Christmas song and holidays, because, for her, earliest memories of the Christmas ideal involves abuse from those she should have  trusted.


Today, may she know the Christ of Christmas.


For the family just receiving news of cancer.


Today, may they know the Christ of Christmas.


To the man who has just checked into rehab, spending the holiday away from his family.


Today, may he know the Christ of Christmas.


To the family receiving support this Christmas after being shunned and deemed outcasts from family and community, because people risked their own safety and reputation to say, "This is wrong."


Today, may they feel the Christ of Christmas.


Christmas conjures up many different feelings.  These are just a few of whom I am aware this holiday season brings different feelings behind the "White Christmas" postcard picture.


Regardless of what tomorrow may bring, may we lift up those in our lives who need to feel the love and grace and power of the Risen Lord Jesus, the Christ of Christmas.

No Time to Say Hello, Goodbye....

Hurry, Hurry, Hurry.
This seems to be the revolving door our life has become in the past several years.
Hurry, Hurry, Checklist, on to the Next Thing.


Be Still and Know that I am God.


In recent weeks, I have become to realize how wired I have become to 
Hurry
Checklists
Do
Do
Do


I have actually found myself with pockets of "down time" I think it's called, 
and I've found myself thinking of things to do during the down time.
One evening a thought crossed my mind
Just sit.
Watch a movie.
Or read your bible
Or sit.  Do nothing.


I argued with myself for quite a while that I was somehow lazy in just sitting.
So I picked up my bible. And read.  And sat and then went to sleep.


In reflecting over other moments like this, I have wondered how God watches us, at least me, from above, scurrying around, here and there, getting things done, wondering if we would just sit and be with him.


Or just sit and think about Him and His ways.


Or just sit to listen to Him.


I'm challenged in myself to do this, and to do it more routinely.
I wonder what a change in my countenance it might make.
I wonder if my kids would notice a more rested person.


One already has.  One evening, after being sick and lying around on the couch, one of my boys came up to give me a hug.


This was rare.


And I wondered if it was a response to me just being there.


And I wondered if I allowed myself to just hang out with God, if I would have the same response.  Hugging him, figuratively, bonding because we hung out with each other.


This holiday season, I want to practice more hang out time, with God, and the people most  important in my life.  In reflecting on what it means to "delight in the Lord" (last blog entry), I think part of it is being...and not doing all the time.


Be still and know that I am God. (psalm46:10)


(Shhh.....I think I might hear Him speaking).....

What's Love Got to Do with It?

Delight Yourself In the Lord (Psalm 37:4)

My mentor mentioned this to me this week.

Delight yourself in the Lord.

As I have been dwelling on this concept, I keep coming back to the first commandment...

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your strength. (Mark 12:29-31)

Love, Delight, Love, Delight, Love, Delight.

Can it be any more simple?

So many times I find myself coming to God, wanting to have things figured out, wondering why certain things happen, how I should respond, etc.  And here are the same words again....

Love me, delight in me.  Thats all.

I am challenged at how focused I become on doing everything else for God....serving....doing this, doing that, realizing I don't put as much and attention into loving God as I do serving Him.

I have to think of the different ways I try to make my children feel loved, showing them they are worthy of my time and attention.  Though I fail often at this, it is one thing I strive for in parenting - spending time uniquely with each of my children.  Letting them know they are loved.

I'm challenged to spend as much time with my Lord, learning to love Him as I do my children.

Delighting in Him above all else.  Even above serving.  I wonder how my relationship with the Creator would change if I spend as much time in His word and silent before Him as I do serving him.  I bet I would learn more about what it means to delight in Him.

As a new year approaches, I'm challenged to do this - to spend time getting to know Him more, learning what it means to love him, to delight in Him.  I can't say I have it perfected now, because it will involves action, not just sentiment.  Similar to having congruent actions to follow the "I love yous" I say to my children.  Otherwise, it won't be authentic.  

The same is true for my Lord.

Father, please show me what it means to Love you, to delight in you.

Road Kill, Billy Goats, and Butcher Knives. All in a Week's work.

Some days you need to reflect on the humor in life, not the discouraging moments.  Today is one of those days where I need to remind myself of the brighter side of life, so here are the echoes from the Yoder house.

• Yesterday we had five 10 year old boys here for my youngest's birthday party.  After an afternoon of lazertag, they went outside to expend their energy.  The next thing I know, my husband observes from the kitchen window some are riding the back of the billy goat.  Now to you city slickers, one thing you need to know about billy goats in the incredible stench they carry because their macho mating call is to pee on themselves.  Yep, we  had a couple of boys who walked in with this lovely aroma.  Oh, and not to mention the dog poop dragged in on one of the shoes.  In the ranking of animal feces, doggie doo doo ranks must worse than cow or pig poop.  Just in case you ever wondered.  If this talk offends  you, my apologies.  I live with farm boys.
• 
  
• Last Monday morning, as I'm getting ready for school, I hear the doorbell ring.....I open the front door to see an Amish man standing in the dark.  A nice man, very friendly, stating that a nice buck just got hit on the road near our house, and he hates to see the meat go to waste, would I mind if he took the meat?   No problem at all, I said, seeing as it was not on my agenda to slice some deer before I start my day.  So he follows the formal protocol of calling the Sheriff to get the ok, and he's good to go... or gut.... or whatever you do with fresh road kill.   I go back to getting ready, and upon leaving for school, I open my garage door to get into my car, only to see the nice gentleman on his bike in my drive way behind my car..."I know this is a strange question, but you wouldn't happen to have a butcher knife that I could use?"  Now, granted I do have a nice Cutco knife in my drawer that we recently bought from our just-graduated-from-college nephew that we payed a pretty penny for, and could probably slice fresh road kill pretty easily.  But, the visual picture of loaning my butcher knife out to a random passer-by to cut road kill deer just didn't seem like a thing I wanted to tackle as a start to the work week, so I politely said, "Not really."  Regardless, the deer was gone at the end of the day, so he must have found another knife somewhere.  I love happy endings.
• 
  

Not sure what tomorrow will bring, hoping your days are filled with some adventures in life, too.  They are always there if we look for them.  Today, I needed to be reminded of that.