The Christmas connection

Well It's just a couple of days after Christmas. The kids stayed up very late last night so I have some time alone. They had a blast with all of their new things. But I have missed my quiet time, so here it goes.
I knew this Christmas would be different, I knew my kids would enjoy it, they always do. You know the excitement you see on a child's face and the anticipation of presents and playing and enjoying them with their siblings there's just nothing like it. Well but I didn't know that God was going to allow me to have a very special Christmas and in this way enrich my understanding of what Christmas really is.
I'm going to start with our house. We were so busy this year I thought it was never going to get decorated, with the cheer float we built here for a week and a half and the parade, then we had Birthdays and Basketball games. Anyways next year I will be the crazy person decorating after halloween and I will enjoy my house the entire month of December, but this year was different.
Finally about two weeks before Christmas I got the playroom/sunroom where we put up our tree where I thought it looked "Christmasy". We have this huge bucket of toys in the playroom and I couldn't find anything to do with them they didn't match or fit anywhere and thus ruined the appearance of my Christmas room. When finally it hit me, I could stuff the basket with Christmas animals,which I had a huge rubber maid tote of and I was wondering where I could put them. So I called the kids in to help, "run all over the house and bring me whatever Christmas animals you have, and we will stuff them in this basket." They too were excited and went running Christopher brought me his "1998 Christmas bear" his daddy gave him the year he was born, Grace brought out penguins and her snow bears and reindeer webkinz in it's cute Santa suit, then Joey my four year old brings a big huge easter bunny. Okay first of all the easter bunny doesn't fit in my basket and second this is Christmas, not Easter!! Well he ran his huge easter bunny back to his room and then returned with a smaller pale yellow easter bunny, He placed it in the basket, and then it hit me The gift God gave us at Christmas 2000 plus yrs. ago was the promise for Easter. Without Easter there would be no Christmas and without Christmas there would be no Easter. Now most people comprehend that God sent his son to live and die for our sins. But this was just a revelation to me that "Easter was our Christmas present from God. And Christmas is our Easter present from God because without Christmas there would be no Easter. "Isn't that awesome!!!" and God showed me this through a little child trying to make room for his Easter bunny in a Christmas basket.
This vs may or may not be appropriate here but I like it.

Mark 10:14-16
"Let the Children come unto me. For the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn't receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it."
Then He took them into his arms , placed his hands on thier heads and blessed them.

Well my beautiful children are now up and going, but I thank God for what he has revealed to me this Christmas and I will have to share more later.

"Merry Christmas!!"
in your heart all year long.

Shields of Faith Needed.....

In this world God promises us we will have problems and adversaries, but he also says take heart because I have overcome the world. Sometimes when we are at war with our life, we tend to forget that the battle is not ours alone. God never meant for us to fight alone, thats why he sent Jesus to conquer all sin and how great full I am for that gift. He has overcome all of the sin in this terrible world.
However the war still rages for our testimony for Christ, Satan has lost the battle for us as Christians but he keeps up the fight to keep us from sharing with others.
So I want to ask you to stand in faith with me and pray for my situation.
A couple weeks ago in Sunday School our lesson was on the "Armor of God". It was a very good lesson, but what stuck with me the most was the "Shield of Faith". I did not know the kind of shield that God was talking about. My thoughts were of a small shield that you would have to wave around in order to protect yourself. But the Roman armor was different it was heavy and solid and the roman shield was almost as tall as the soldier. He could prop his shield up and hide behind it, and when at war soldiers would stand side-by-side with their shields to barricade them from the enemy, but they also would stand in a box so that they could shield the enemy from all sides even overhead.
When we are at war with our enemy Satan the more shields of Faith we can raise up in prayer the safer we are from the enemy. I strongly believe in the power of prayer. I want to ask a strong group of believers to pray for Russell, the children and I and the life that God has us to lead and live for him. Will you please join me with your shield of Faith to pray for our family.
I have posted a picture of the roman shields put together to barricade from the enemy.
Please reply and let me know if you will be holding up your shield of Faith for us. We appreciate all the friends God has orchestrated into our lives and the way he has placed us on so many hearts to pray for.

The Blessed Angel Came

In my search to get my paws on "Christmas" I had to start at the beginning to really reflect on the events that led up to the First Christmas. My children and I started doing this 7 day Christmas gift "Nativity" called "What God wants for Christmas". The very first box that we opened was the Angel. We read in Luke how God sent Gabriel the Angel to Mary to tell her about Jesus. The angel came from heaven to earth to tell about Jesus who was also coming from heaven to earth. God did not want Mary to find out about her child in a way that expressed normality. She could've found out by morning sickness or the way most of us find out when our monthly visitor just decides not to visit. HaHa!!! But this was not a normal Birth, it was the birth of God's only son.
But What God is showing me now is that this was also the first encounter of accepting Jesus, and Mary had to be prepared to accept Jesus not to fear the angel and to have faith to believe in what she could not see. This is the beginning of Salvation Our hearts must be prepared to hear and accept the Gospel she had to be given the faith just as God gives us the faith for salvation and she had to be given the peace and assurance that it was not what she had don but what God had done in placing this very Savior in her womb.

Paws at the Manger

There are only five days left until Christmas which is definitely my favorite holiday, but it just seemed to come so quickly this year. Christmas is always special, as a Christian we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Without a Birth there would've been no death, and without a death, there would be no Savior, and without a Savior there would be no eternal life, no heaven, no hope, nothing to have faith in, no Joy to be found, no peace, and ultimately no love. Oh!! How terrible that would be.
This Christmas I'm sure will be special, but it was supposed to be a very special Christmas, you see this was supposed to be my first Christmas as a couple united as "one" with God. Looking back I couldn't have been happier with my vision of this Christmas. I thought this time next year, I'll be married, we'll do family things like put up the tree, go to Christmas parties, take the kids to Christmas activities, cuddle up around the fireplace with cocoa and have advent devotions as a family. looking for our new home together, Go to church and praise Jesus thanking Him for the Victory of our "family"
As you can see I had some high but not outrageously impossible expectations of "my Christmas" this year. It couldn't be more opposite, what I live from where I sit this year, I am still not married
, my fiance is in jail, we put up the tree spiratically in three days, I've gone to all Christmas parties alone, taken the kids to their activities and parties, the fireplace hasn't turned on all winter, if you call the 60-70 degree weather we are having winter, but one thing is the same I will go and praise God for the "victory" he has already won, by sending his sweet son(light) to this dark world on Christmas night over 2000 yrs. ago
As this Christmas hasn't been what I expected, I have wanted so much to see Christmas through God's eyes, not completely as we could never under stand it like Him. But just a glimpse of understanding of this perfectly formed sequence orchestrated by God himself.
I feel like there is so much to absorb, and I'm like a tiny sponge that just can't get it all but I want to.
I bought my children the cutest advent count-down calendar Its called "Paws at the Manger"
There are animals around Jesus and they are dressed like the shepherds and wise men. But I'm sure the maker of this calendar saw the twist of "Paw's" and "Pause". I feel like for me, I want to get my paws around the manger, I want to understand it's simplicity in a more complex way. But in order for me to more fully understand "Christmas", I must pause p-a-u-s-e- at the Manger. God has opened up allot to me I believe. I believe everyday God wants to show us something in our commune with Him but because of our hurried life and overly full scheduled days we miss out on that blessing. So I'm trying to learn to "Pause" at the manger.
That must be why Psalms 46;10 says Be still and know that I am God Amen

"God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman"

Leading Light

Last night my father and I put up our Christmas lights, on the tallest peak of our house. It began to get dark and of course, since he was over 25' up high on our roof, I thought it would be better to stop and continue this project tomorrow. However he wanted to finish so we stood outside in the dark and continued to adorn our house. The neat part was every time we hooked in another strand of the lights we had enough light to make it to the next strand.
As I watched him from the bottom of the ladder, I thought thats kind of how God works in our life. When we are praying for his will and trying to walk in his will, yet we do not know his will completely, he reveals enough light to keep us going in the right direction.
Since Russell the father of my 3 beautiful children is currently incarcerated in middle Tn. I am a single mom trying to raise these children and living with my parents. I could make my life sound really dark, but because the Lord continues to show me positives that shine light in to my dark path, I can continue to go on.
Let me tell you of the light God has recently set in front of me to lead me on. Although he's incarcerated and has been for almost three months, He has started a bible study. It started with another guy and him then grew to four then twelve, and now last week he led his first person to the Lord. who says God can't shine in the darkness. I believe his light shines the brightest in the darkness. his shows me an example of how God works all things together for good to those who have been called according to his purpose.
Roman 8:28