Little Brown House Christmas

There is a verse in the Bible that says God is able to give us more than we ask or think. Over at The Bargain Shopper Lady there is a story about her Christmas and how a stranger gave her and her husband a real blessing. She has challenged us bloggers to share a story of when strangers helped us and blessed us so that our stories may encourage and bless others.

I decided to share two stories of the many with you. One is on this blog and then another on my blog Ain't No Place To Put A Sticker .

My most memorable Christmas, and I know the one my kids remember the most also, was because of strangers. Let me share the story.

My first husband was a pastor and at one point decided to take a year off and return to Seminary for his next degree. We had 5 kids and this was truly a move of faith. We could not find housing before we moved so we lived in our pop up camper. 21 feet long, five kids, two dogs a guinea pig and my husband and I. We were sure it would be for a week or two and then we would find something. My husband did have a job lined up and so the housing seemed minor. First thing that happened was the job fell through. It took him some time to find another job and we were down to pennies, no home, kids to feed and he was trying to study as well. We would come back to bags of food setting on our picnic table. We had no idea where they came from, and never did find out. Blessings!

Finally in mid October, with ice on the puddles and the winter setting in, we found a place to live. He was working such a low paying job we needed something cheap, and that was what we got! A 22 X 24 house, built on a hill with a garage door under it to get to the space under. The little brown house as we called it.

Once we brought in our furniture and boxes of stuff from the 13 room house we moved out of, all we had was a walkway in the room. Stuff was stored everywhere. Money was to the penny tight and Christmas was coming.

A friend gave us some money which allowed us to tell the kids we could spend $15 on each child, so we wanted them to tell us what they wanted since that was all we had. The girls immediately asked for Cabbage Patch dolls! They were just out and cost over $30 each! I am sure you can remember the war there was over these dolls when they came out!

I went to the craft shop and for the $15 I was able to get the heads and body fabric and make them each their doll. I then dressed the doll in the outfit they wore when they came home from the hospital. It was special to me and I hoped it satisfied the girls. Right now, I can't remember what the boys wanted, but I am sure it was equally as expensive!

About a week before Christmas I got a phone call from the school saying that they wanted to provide us with a Christmas meal. The kids had been collecting food for the needy and we sent some in with them, only to find we were the "needy". I went to the school to pick up the "meal" and there was boxes of food! Not only food, but boxes and boxes of presents!

Here we were in this little house, filled with all our junk and cramped so much our Christmas tree was a little pre-decorated one that stood about 18 inches high, including the container and now I had boxes and boxes of food a presents!

I "hid" the presents on our boxes of stuff, all in plain sight and shoved the food into the little bit of cabinet space we had and the rest sat on boxes too.

When Christmas came and we put out all the gifts they were flowing every where! Our kids were so blessed that year with things they wanted, needed and loved. There is no way to tell you the endless amount of items that was there. It was the most beautiful Christmas we had and all because of total strangers.

When God says He supplies your needs and gives abundantly above all you can ask or think, He really does. When you know He cares this much, trusting Him should be easy.

Laced With Grace Giveaway

Laced with Grace is starting out the New Year with a giveaway.

The package will include a Women of Faith study Bible (NIV/Hardcover); Lisa Whelchel’s Bible study tool for busy moms; a coffee mug from “Mugs of Truth“; the DVD “The Nativity Story“; the book “Love and Respect“; and a music CD by Becky Knight, who just released her first CD.

You do not need to have a blog to compete for the giveaway, just go to the site and sign up for a chance to win.

Giveaways are not only fun, but they give us all a chance to find other blogs to read as well as a chance to win some nice and useful gifts. I try to participate when I find them and then offer the chance to my readers as well.

Hope on over to Laced with Grace for full details and to sign up!

Child-likeness

How was your Christmas? It is hard to believe you go through all the preparing and it is done in no time and gone. This year I also came down sick and spent much of the weekend before in bed. I am still dragging and needing a rest every day. I had the flu vaccine and ended up with flu like sickness. I think I will take my chances next year!

I did enjoy having family together. Everybody pitched in with the meal and all I had to do was the ham and potato salad. My husband made brisket and the rest was brought by the kids and my sister in law. We had 13 of us here, counting the three babies.

One thing that I am always amazed at is the little ones. They take everything in and try to figure it all out. The are awed by the lights and decorations, intrigued by the gifts and try to figure out why there is candy hanging on the tree and not being eaten.

I have never shied away from a Christmas tree when the kids were little, and I do not now with the grand kids. I just try to make them a bit child friendly. All my ornaments are non breakable, I have candy canes and other things for decorations. I found it rather amusing when I found the one year old granddaughter sitting under the tree with the dog. She would grab a candy cane off the tree, eat it to the hook and then let the dog finish it while she went for another.

Today I took her into the store to look for some sales and see what was there. She wanted to look at everything. In training her not to beg (at least I hope so!) I let her look at things, touch them and then we put the back. So far she is a great shopper! We look, feel, say ahhhhhh over and put it back and go to the next thing. I had so much fun with her today looking at all the Christmas stuff and then putting it back.

I was doing a bit of thinking as I watched her face and as I watched the others on Christmas day. God says we are to be like little children, and must come to Him as a child. Do we? Do we look at life for its beauty? To we look at His word for all we can find out? Are we awed by Him? Or are we clinging to the world, or our grown up attitudes and answers?

I found my self examining me and asking how much was I like this child? Or am I rushing through life not looking for what is there, what God may have for me, or want to say to me.

As the New year approaches, let's get our child like faith in line with Him. Become as children in our faith, awe and discovery of what He has and Who He is.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is tomorrow, can you believe this year will be over in a week? It is hard to believe that Christmas is here already. For me it just seems to hit so quickly this year. I am sure there are others out there who's family is as separated as mine is and wonder how you all handle it. For me, I have family here in Texas, a daughter in NC, mom and siblings in the NJ-PA area and 4 kids, spouses and grand kids in ME. I want to be with everyone!

Friday I finally got our tree up. For the first time in my life I have an artificial tree. I could not find a nice one for a decent price in our area. See my story here. TO me the tree has a meaning and it all points to Christ. To see an evergreen tree cut down reminds me of the everlasting savior being hung on a tree for me. The lights remind me that HE is the light of the world, the everlasting light to guide us through the darkness that the world lives in. We put ornaments on the tree, different color balls, small packages etc. Christ gave the greatest gift, our small packages remind us of those gifts. Some say the colored balls stand for all the peoples of the world and how Christ died for everyone.

The beauty of the tree reminds me of Christ and His beauty that He came to die and we can have that beauty in us if we trust Him and follow Him.

I am sure there are more symbols I am not mentioning, like the star at the top of the tree or the angel. They all signify His birth and coming to this earth to die for us.

Be sure to spend time with your family talking over the real meaning of Christmas.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Santa or Christ?

Is Christmas this:

OR

It can't be both.

I have a real problem at Christmas. We teach our children not to lie, yet we lie to them about Santa giving presents. I would like to explain my convictions.

Besides the lying, there is a real plan by Satan himself to take away from anything to do with Christ. He wants to confuse us, make things seem harmless that are really anti-God and get our minds to ok things that are substitutes for true Christian living.

Santa draws a bigger crowd that Christ. How does he do it? By becoming a tangible counterfeit. I just made a small list of some of the attributes of God and of Santa.

Christ/God	SANTA
Loving	Loving
Knows everything	Knows everything
God is Good	Santa is Good
God is faithful	Santa is faithful, once a year
God is personal	Santa knows each person
Is from a different world, yet lives here	From a different place, yet travels here
All powerful	Can make reindeer fly.
Loves to give to His Children	Loves to give to all who are good
Watches us all the time	Watches us all the time and records what we are doing, good or bad

Satan has designed him to counterfeit our Lord, yet Christians find him harmless to tell their children.

If we are telling our children that there is a Santa and later they find there is not how will this not only conflict with you telling them not to lie, but also their relationship with the Lord? We can't see God. Yet it takes faith in an unseen being to be saved. Will this not throw doubts on their faith?

I look at anything that is a counterfeit Christ, or anything that pulls our attention from the real meaning of the day (same goes for Easter bunny etc) as a form of an anti-Christ that is put there by Satan's design.

I know it is hard to buck the world. I never told my kids there was a Santa, they never believed it and thought it was just something funny that people believed in. I remember one year I had my 2 yr. old in the shopping cart and a man behind us was asking her if Santa was going to come and bring her lots of things. She just smiled, and then the man , maybe in his 40's, went on for a bit and she just smiled some more. As we were leaving him, my 2 year old said "I guess his mommy never told him there was no Santa"!

We had people not want our kids to play with their kids when it was near Christmas, Christian parents! who thought that it would ruin the day for their kids if our kids told them.

"Speak the truth in Love" "Teach your children" "Lie not to one another", the Bible is clear about what we should be telling our Children and teaching them. Take a stand for the Lord and bring out the joy of what God did for us and that we give because HE gave the greatest gift of all HIS SON!

Stress Less

Today's Works for me Wednesday and Rocks in My Dryer is supposed to be about Christmas. I have been thinking about Christmas anyway and decided to play along on the Christmas theme.

I have been busy, as I am sure most of you have, trying to get everything done and ready. I am doing something different this year though, I am not getting all upset and stressed over the day.

Most years I am so stressed as I try to make this, do that, get the stuff for a big meal and try to have it all together. This is the first year in a long time that I can remember not being all stressed about getting things done and perfect.

I still have some gifts to get together and some things to make, but not anything that has me stressed. It will take some time, but I believe it is all under control. If not, I am not stressing anyway!

It has taken many years, but I finally realized the meal will be there, people will eat and everything does not have to be perfect, nor does there need to be 25 different foods on the table. Keep it simple! I am having a big meal, but I am keeping it simple. I also have others bringing some of the meal too.

My gifts will be done, the food will be fairly easy and it should work our for a nice relaxing time.

Are you getting all stressed and ready to bite every one's head off? STOP!!! Relax. It will work out, it does not need to be anything but simple, but simple can be elegant and easy! Enjoy the day, enjoy the family and make it all less stressful.

What is a godly grandmother?

I have been asked this question, along with a number of others as people read my blog. I want to answer what I can and will do my best to hunt down what I do not know. Soon I am planning to have an e-zine out once or twice a month to begin and will have questions and answers on it as well as more than I put in my blog. I am having trouble getting the sign up on the blog itself without sending you to another page to sign up, if anyone knows how to put a phplist sign up on several blogs with it hosted on a website let me know!



Now,

"What is a godly grandmother? For example: my own mom got a college degree after her kids were grown and is now a teacher at a Christian school. She rarely has time for us. On the other hand my aunt practically raises her grand kids, drives them to school, cleans her daughter's house while her daughter is at work, and takes all the kids to their various activities. She even takes them a lot on weekends too. What is the biblical model of a Grandma? Should my mom be staying at home (the best place for a woman, in my opinion, wherever possible) and try to help more in mentoring me and being a godly influence to her grandchildren? Or is it right that I do it on my own with no help? I realize my aunt's method is unhealthy and don't want that either!"

Today's world has made life a dilemma. The world says go get what you can and be all you can be (in the world) and has become very self centered. When we look back on the way things were, women stayed home, took care of family, each generation training the next one down. Men did the same with the boys, turning them into men. Now, families are split, boys have no father roll models and girls have a mom that is away and letting someone else watch them. However, what about when a woman has raised her children, is her roll done? Can she now do whatever she wants because the children are not there and she is free? What does the Bible say?

Again I go to Titus 3:5:

"Let the older women teach the younger women to love their husbands, love their children, be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be dishonored"

What does the Bible say about a grandmother? I find one reference and that is in 2 Timothy 1:5

"For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well."

Here Paul is talking about Timothy's grandmother and the her faith being taught to Timothy. Apparently she was a real woman of God who had a lot of contact with her grandson and taught him the ways of God.

A Biblical woman follows what God has set for her. Scripture clearly says the older is to teach the younger, go back and read Titus 3:5 again. How do the younger learn? How does anyone learn? We learn by seeing it in practice as well as being told.

I take my position of wife and mother to be the highest calling I, as a woman, can have. I believe each has a commitment, responsibility and debt to the next generation. We have failed greatly in this over the last few generations. People have become more independent, more self-centered and as a result there is the mess there is today with families.

Now, back to the full question asked me. I am glad you see that what your aunt is doing is wrong. It is not teaching, it is doing and controlling. It is letting a mom get out of her responsibilities to her family. What your mom is doing I will not say is wrong, but there needs to be a balance. There should be teaching and helping.

All this said, I know there are times when a mom has to work, death, divorce and such leave a family needing the mom out there. This should be when the family steps in and cares for the children so they do not need to go to day care. If this is possible.

I do not live near most of my kids, but when I was there I kept them and tried to teach and help. Now, I babysit a precious granddaughter for her mom and we work together for her good. I have a good relationship with my step daughter and she looks to me for help and teaching, both of her and her baby.

The world has come into the family and is dividing it up, confusing the roles of parents and grandparents , making God's ways appear old fashioned or out dated. His ways are not, and I would love to see us move back to what He says.

If we read Proverbs 31 and see what a godly woman is (mother, grandmother, single) we see she works from home, puts family first and is someone that can be looked up to. Moms and grand moms we need to become what God has set out for us. For our children and grandchildren to be whole this is needed.