Fear not...for I am with YOU!

On the 21st day of December my daughter gave to me..... (my gifts to Jesus)

My Fears........ crazy emotions welling up inside me, feelings of dread, being out of control, incapacitating, overwhelming, always in the back of my mind....

I know I touched on this 2 days ago but with certain circumstances coming up in the news, my fears are in overdrive.  I cried most of yesterday evening.... my heart gripped in incapacitating fear and overwhelmed with sympathy. The craziness of the society we now live in is unfathomable to me and yet I'm forced to live in the middle of it. It makes me angry. It overwhelms me. To be honest, it takes the air out of the room and it becomes hard for me to find the joy in anything. I can't let it do that .... I have to again, give it to Jesus. He knows my heart and how it so wants to live in Mayberry. He also know what I can deal with and grow from... knowing it will be rough for me but also knowing that I can handle it IF I ask Him to help me. So without further ado I will resume Christmas... I will let the fear die down into the depths of my being.... for it will never be squelched forever ....well maybe not until I do arrive in Heavenly Mayberry. People still need hope and joy and love and by golly I'm gonna try to spread that around instead of my fears allowing me to lock myself in my room. So.. here I go on wobbly legs..... smiling thru my fears!

(peaceful, beautiful barns that calm my soul found on Pinterest ranch)

Amazing stuff

On the 16th day of December my daughter gave to me....(my gifts to Jesus)

My wonder...... awestruck, can't believe my eyes, questioning the amazingness of it all

Have you ever seen something that just hits you hard in the awesome department? The thing that leaves you amazed at how wonderful it is?  Well I have. In fact I get amazed at so many things. Things that the normal Joe might not think is very amazing.  I'm amazed at the amount of stuff that creeps into my house and scatters itself everywhere while I sleep. Those clutter elves are pretty hard workers and do a really good job. I'm also amazed and how many pairs of socks get eaten by the washer/dryer. It is so hard to comprehend how amazing that is!  Ok, I jest ... I am actually amazed at how blessed I am for having a wonderful husband and awesome boys. I just don't understand how me, a silly girl with so many imperfections, is blessed with so many wonderful things. It really does blow my mind. But how about this.....  God looks down onto the earth He created and sees this silly girl and He sees you too... and He says I need to save them so they can come live with me someday.... what shall I do?   He decides to send His son, Jesus, (now mind you, God has one Son... one!) as a teeny tiny baby that grows up in our imperfect world. Who goes on to tell everyone of God's plan  and how much He loves us. Then he dies on a cross for a silly girl, and you too, just so we can be saved and go live with Him someday. Now that is amazing..... and that is what makes Christmas so special.. It's about the giving of the most amazing gift of all time.  It kind of makes that sweater or fruitcake gift seem so insignificant doesn't it?   I hope you are all filled with God's wonder today!!

(pretty decorations on the pinterest tree ... www.jenniferhayslip.com)

Past ,Present & Future

On the 7th day of December my daughter gave to me..... (my gifts to Jesus)

My Past..... the olden days, things done that might have molded me, memories, unforgettable events.
The past... my past to be exact, was an interesting one. A good one. It molded me into who I am today, especially if I learned from any of my shenanigans growing up.  But it has also etched into me certain things that make me react in a different way than most. I was a Missionary kid and grew up in Japan... that's different, right? Well, with it comes a world view different from the normal Joe..the american Joe. To add to that, my Daddy went to live with Jesus when I was only 8 and living in Japan. My mom felt that God wanted her to stay and finish his work there so for 8 more years we lived, loved and laughed in Tokyo. That added a different perspective to life even more. I could've turned out really weird ...(ok, never mind....) So, in my weirdness, I have discovered that even thru tragedy and loneliness and even a sense of abandonment that might be hard to go thru at the time, Jesus was using all of those events and circumstances to grow me, mold me , shape me.  So today in the present I accept all of the things life hands me with the assurance that I will turn out alright if I just lean back and let Jesus mold me thru the hard times. That makes the future so bright that I might need some shades..after all my future has some gold paved roads in it !  I hope you can embrace the past, be present in the present, and hope for the future... because we are gonna be awesome after all of this character shaping molding!

(cute little pinterest cowboys of the past)