A letter Zach recieved from Ransomed Heart Ministries...very moving

Dearest Friends,
Advent season is upon us. (How did that happen? What happened to the fall?) Ready or not, December is here. It really can be a beautiful time of year, spiritually speaking, if we don’t let the madness of the world crowd the Spirit out. With that hope in mind, let me offer a few thoughts about what Advent might mean for us. Advent means “coming.” To celebrate Advent means to celebrate God keeping his promise. He came. Just as he said he would. For thousands of years God promised his people that he would come and rescue them. He promised it in the Garden, and kept promising it all through the Old Testament. It was a long time to wait, from their point of view. But he did come, as Jesus of Nazareth. God came, and rescued us, and brought us to his heart, to be his own forever.
It’s good to stop and remember. He kept his promise. He came. We can trust him. We need this season to remember God came because so much of life seems to shout at us, “He’s not coming now. Not in this. You are on your own.” Doesn’t it? I mean, my personal crises of faith are in the here and now. Yes, I know God has come through for me in the past. But for some reason, doubt and fear rush in with the next crisis. Will he come now? In this? That is where Advent can help us. We look at the evidence: God keeps his word. He came. He can be trusted. Whatever the evidence of the moment seems to say, God promises never to leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5, which is best understood in the light of Joshua 1:1-9).
So we can say to ourselves, This moment is no exception. God came for me. He will come for me now. But there is even more to Advent. Not only is it an opportunity to reflect – for several weeks – on the fact that God came, it is also an opportunity to lift our eyes towards his return. He will come again. This story is rapidly moving towards a climax, when Jesus returns in bodily form, mounted on a white horse, to usher in the Kingdom of God. There is a Second Advent we are waiting for. Thus in many churches the “Mystery of Faith” is pronounced every week: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. He will come again.
Reassurance, and a time of longing and hope. Reassurance because God comes. He doesn’t abandon us. Not now. Not ever. It can be a time of hope and longing when we say to ourselves, And he is coming back. And all shall be well. I do pray this is a wonderful season for you with God. Whatever else may be going on – dreams realized, dreams seemingly lost – we have God. We have his word that he will come for us. Come, Lord Jesus. Come.

My little laundry helper...... it was cute, I found her in the basket waiting to suprise me, so I pushed the basket to the dryer and started filling it! She got the biggest kick out of it! So great, the tiny moments of silliness that mean so very much to her. Play with your kids, they don't want you to be so serious about life...... I'm learning from her all the time!

You Are Dancer

Carefree and fun, you always find reasons to do a happy dance. Why You're Naughty: That dark stint you had as Santa's private dancer. Why You're Nice: You're friendly. Very friendly.

Ok, have to admit, spent quite a bit of time laughing this morning when I found this site, off a friends blog. There are all sorts of funny little quizzes, I'll definitely find some more for us. I found out what my birthdate meant (which suprise suprise was soooo not true about me!) Oh, then I found names for my ( dad stop reading at this point!) boobies.....the answer that I was given: Sigfreid and Roy..... ummmm what the heck?! Well, they do seem to magically disappear, but gay men? whatever, it's good for a laugh......click on the link and paste your answer in my comments so I can see what reindeer you are, and whatever else you come up with!

Which reindeer are you?

A Perfectionistic Mommy learning to let go!

My idea of a Christmas tree......

Maddy's idea of a Christmas tree......

As a mother you have to learn to let go of a lot of things, have patience and self- control. This was one I didn't quite anticipate...AND I am constantly telling myself, "just leave it,just leave it alone". I'm not sure all that is even stuck in here, I've found baby Jesus from the nativity set, several animals from her "little people" zoo, childhood pictures of myself, and a cat toy. She is so enamored by this tree, she doesn't need anything for Christmas, this is it! It's the new toy in the house, and she plays under it all day! I'm glad for safey sake we have it wired to the wall ( we have 3 cats, who equally share Maddy's excitement for the tree!) . We're planning on getting a small 'real' tree this weekend, and it will be Maddy's to decorate however she sees fit. I think it'll be fun to make paper chains, and string popcorn ( which maybe not, cuz if I do, it will become the dog's favorite new toy?!) Hmmm.... fun to have kids!!! Then maybe I can run back to this tree and live out my perfectionistic fairy tale of perfectly spaced ornaments( ohhhhhh, that gets me excited..... sick, huh....? I guess there are worse obesessions........ )

I'm back! Left town for 3 days for a marriage conference in Portland. Our church sponsored us to go, the pastor believed it was meant for us to go spend some time together! Too many words and emotions I have to try to put in down here in a nutshell. So I'll just let a little bit leak out at a time through the next couple of weeks! This is something every married couple should go to!
http://www.weekendtoremember.com