My Prayer

My prayer for today as a mom:
God, give me strength for my tasks. Give me patience with children who are still - always - learning. Give me love for tender hearts. Give me a sense of justice to teach right from wrong, but grace and mercy to forgive as abundantly as I have been forgiven. Give me compassion for hurts, comfort for sadness, and most of all, words to teach them of Your great love for them in Christ. In His holy name I ask this, and for His sake. Amen.

Tame the Fingers?

I've always tried to be careful and conscious about what I post online, on this blog, on Facebook, Twitter, and so on. However, this morning I posted about being reprimanded when dropping off the kids for school, as they were taking too long to get out of the van.

The woman in line told me that if they were having trouble getting out of the car, I should pull up and around so the other cars don't have to go around me. No sympathetic smile, (I was already frustrated with the kids for taking so long), no wording that would indicate that make it sound more like a suggestion than a command. So I was a little hurt. Yes, I know I'm too sensitive.

So I posted on Facebook that I'd been reprimanded in the pickup line for the kids being too slow, ending with what I thought was a humorous "Really?"

But then I started to get a lot of comments kinda of ragging on the person who talked to me. With each comment, I started to feel worse and worse. Was this what I'd wanted to happen? No. Was I still the cause of it? Yes. So I removed the post.

James, in his epistle describes how the tongue is impossible to tame. "For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so." (James 3:7-10 ESV)

Even though I didn't speak a word, I was still sinning in that I didn't look at the situation in the best light. Maybe she didn't smile because she was having a rough morning. Maybe someone else had complained against her for parents taking too long in drop-off and she felt she had to react to that. There are a thousand unknown variables that might affect the situation.

A good friend of mine, in teaching youth about the harmful effects of gossip and how you cannot retract what had been said, had the kids squirt toothpaste from a tube. She then asked them to try getting it back into the tube. Have you ever tried? It's impossible! Even if you manage to get some of it back in the tube, you're still left with. A big, sticky mess. So it is with our words.

With the Internet, we must be even more cautious. Words today spread with alarming speed. So what words are we spreading? Words that tear down and hurt others? Or words that build up and encourage?

James' conclusion to chapter three may be applied to the intent behind our words. "For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace." (James 3:7-10, 16-18 ESV)

May God grant us the grace and patience to spread words of peace and love, sacrificing our own pride for the sake of the Gospel of Christ.

All for Christ

Life is stressful. Sometimes more than other times. It is frustrating when things do not go how it seems they should. The demands on our time and energy seem unending. The weight of responsibilities and burdens (even good ones) add up. With all these things constantly picking at us, we can easily come to the conclusion that life is hard.

Let us consider, though, if life were easy. Would we be happy? Sure! Without a care in the world, we would never be tempted to complain, or to be discontented in this life. But comfort can easily lead to complacency. And that is a dangerous place to be. More on that another time.

When we struggle, though, for what purpose? Why not simply give up? Withdraw from the things that stress us? For us as Christians, there is one driving incentive which pushes us to persevere. It is the Gospel of Christ. We continue in this life, despite the difficulties, that we may bring hope to others for the next.

St. Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians, "I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings." (1 Corinthians 9:23 ESV) It would be so easy to never push ourselves from our comfort zones, to not care about other people, to never put ourselves out in the open for our faith to be seen. But then no one will see the hope in which we live, the Gospel which we can share. We who have struggles in this world persevere in hope that others might be touched by the love of Christ and His saving grace.

How do your particular struggles help further the kingdom of God?

Dear Lord, help us to see Your grace in our struggles. Give us strength that only You can impart, that we may persevere to the glory of Your name and the salvation of those around us. Amen.

In His Hands

As some (most?) of you know, my husband and I recently had our third child by birth (fourth including by adoption, but that is for another post). Having a baby again is an interesting experience. Of course, we are thrilled and humbled and enchanted by this tiny life entrusted into our care. However, when we are not lost in his eyes or big piles of diapers or laundry, we notice little points of interest about babies.

Our baby couldn't do very much when he was born. He could cry, suck, and expel waste. However, it was enough, together with the care of his parents, to survive. It is amazing how God has created babies, helpless little infants, with just enough knowledge to do what is necessary. He gives them instincts or reflexes that they automatically do. One of my favorites, though I don't know any health benefit or scientific significance behind it, is the reflex that causes their little hands to grab whatever is in it. Our older kids love to put their fingers in his palm and feel his tiny fingers squeeze theirs. I'll admit, I love it, too. So many things those hands will learn to do in my baby's lifetime, but for now, they can only clench.

Knowing the physical inabilities of a baby, it is astounding that the Lord of all creation, the only-begotten of God, would subject Himself to that sort of limitation. His hands, so weak and tiny at His birth, would work, bless, heal, and eventually be pierced for our sins. And it doesn't end there. Those same hands, once still and cold in death, were alive and warm and even touched by His disciple, seeking proof of His resurrection.

At Christmas, it is easy to only think of Jesus the Holy Infant. We must also remember, though, that Christmas is not the end. It is, rather, the beginning of His time with us. He came for one purpose, to reconcile us to God. And that reconciliation was only possible through Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.

Christmas Traditions

People have different things that they always to at Christmastime, traditions that they follow. For some people, it may be as simple as always exchanging gifts. For others, they may have lists of cookies to make every year, a specific place for each and every decoration, and special meals to prepare and share with others. Growing up, my family tended toward the latter.

One of my most prized Christmas decorations is a paint-your-own nativity set that my father had given my grandfather one year. Grandpa enjoyed painting it so much that the next year, he bought and painted a set for each of his five sons. Years later, shortly before my husband Karl and I were going to be married, my widowed grandmother was on hospice, diagnosed with terminal cancer. She began going through her things and listing what she wanted to go to whom. She decided that she wanted Karl and me to have the original nativity set.

This was and still is an incredibly precious gift to me. As a child and even now, I always loved setting up the pieces of the set and seeing the matching ones at my grandparents' and aunts and uncles' houses. It was also rather emblematic of our family's focus during Advent and Christmas. While we did do the whole cookies-decorations-visit Santa-give and receive gifts thing, my parents always made sure my sister and I knew that Christmas was about Christ coming to seek and save those who were lost in the darkness of sin, ourselves included.

Why lies He in such mean estate, where ox and ass are feeding? Good Christians, fear for sinners here the silent Word is pleading. Nails, spear shall pierce Him through, the cross be borne for me, for you. Hail, hail the Word made flesh, the Babe, the Son of Mary. (from What Child Is This?)

The Holy Family

Families are great things. They ideally offer a place to belong, to love and be loved, a setting in which children are raised, and a safe-haven for all of its members. Sadly, in our fallen world, not all families offer those things. Sin causes discord, difficulty, and many other things where a family member will act with less than love toward the other members. But God stepped into our less-than-ideal situation on earth when He sent His Son, born into a family, that He might bring us into he family of God the Father.

The family of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus is a great example for us. Mary submits herself to God's will, even when the path may be a difficult one (Luke 1:38); being an unwed mother was not what it is today, as she could have been stoned. Joseph demonstrates honor and love of righteousness in his plans to deal with Mary before the Lord tells him not to be afraid to take her as his wife, even though she's pregnant with a baby that isn't his (Matthew 1:19-25). They both trusted God to come to their aid and not leave them helpless in what He asked of them. Still, even with their trust in God, their family wasn't perfect either. They didn't always understand what Jesus needed to be doing, such as when He was a boy in the temple at Passover, and they couldn't find Him (Luke 2:41-52). And again when Mary asked Him to help at a wedding before His time had come (John 2:1-11).

Ofttimes, it is difficult to be part of a family. We are called to give of ourselves for the good of others. When we love, we open ourselves to the possibility of being hurt. We really cannot do this very well on our own. But God doesn't leave us without help in our families.

When we are brought into God's Family through the work of the Holy Spirit, we become members of a Family that, while still full of imperfect people, has a Father who loves each of His children very much. And the Head of that Family never will let us down. He loves us enough that He have His life that we may be freed from the sin that ruled in our lives. Through Him, we are free to love others as He has loved us both in our families and outside of them.

Of the Father's love begotten, ere the worlds began to be, He is Alpha and Omega, He the Source, the Ending He. Of the things that are, that have been, and that future years shall see, evermore and evermore.

Anticipating Christmas

I love the Advent season. And not just because of the gifts, though as a child that was a fun part of it. Now, I love finding and making gifts that friends and family will like, decorating the tree and house, and listening to the music. The whole season fills me with a sense of peace and a gentle sense of anticipation of what's to come.

And isn't that what Advent is really about? Anticipating what's to come. Specifically, the Savior. All of the decorations are fun and even meaningful. But their purpose (for me) is to heighten the sense of anticipation that Advent has about it.

The people of the Old Testament waited eagerly for their Savior. The early Christians waited eagerly for Christ to return. And we wait, as they did, for the same.

O come, O come, Emmanuel.