This Christmas was full of surprises. I planned to blog about all the many ways you could incorporate Christ into your celebrations. I planned to bake our annual birthday cake for Jesus. I planned a lot and got very little done. We had the stomach flu go through two weeks in a row, and then respiratory colds. Two of my children were baptized, after making a profession of faith. That was a great blessing! Things were very busy, and I spent a lot of nights up too late trying to finish making the adorable monkeys I was sewing for my kids. I entered Christmas feeling discouraged by all I had not got done.
Isn't it great that the God we serve does not look down on us and say "well you really failed this one". It's great that God gives us grace and that in reality we can celebrate his birth everyday all year through as HE is the greatest gift on the earth. Though I started out discouraged I will not end that way, for I know I can continue to celebrate all that God has done.
I'm going to celebrate by going back through the devotions we missed on the names of God during Advent season. I look forward to continually challenging my kids in their faith and spiritual growth as they live out what it means to be a follower of Jesus. I'm excited to find new tools to help me do that, new object lessons and make new memories as we explore God and his awesome power together. I'm going to keep on praising and thanking God that he came to earth for us, as a baby and went to the cross and died and rose again as a man, that we might have forgiveness, that we might actually have life.
There is so much to look forward to and more to be grateful for. I am so grateful that I have three relatively healthy children, colds are nothing compared to the struggles and diseases that so many watch their children go through. We have a place to live and food to eat. We may only live in an apartment, but praise God it's a nice one, and we have a roof when so many do not. I'm grateful that my husband can work hard so I can stay home and raise our children. I know many who are out of work. I am blessed beyond measure, my kids were here with me, I could see their faces and watch their eyes sparkle and hear their little voices. I could hold them even when they were sick and throwing up, I could hold them and feel the warmth of their little bodies snuggled in close to me. I am so blessed when I know there are so many that have empty arms this season, and long to see their children and hold them in their arms once more. I have a husband, who loves me and who is filled with integrity. I am blessed that I am not a widow or a single mom struggling to provide and care for children alone. I thank God for my many blessings. I am so thankful that God got my attention, he saved me, rescued me from my sins, took me out of my brokenness and made me into the woman I am today. I am forever grateful. God is good. I have found that when I praise the Lord and stop and thank him and see all my blessings, there is no longer room for discouragement.
Praise the LORD. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
Psalm 106:1
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