Merry Christmas

While reflecting on the Christmas story over the past several weeks, I found myself humbled as I thought about Mary, the mother of Jesus. Her reply to the angel following the explanation that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and that she would bear the Son of God, was something that stood out to me over and over again as I heard the account of the birth of Jesus during the Christmas season at church and on radio programs:

"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her. (Luke 1: 38)

Mary did not argue with God or make excuses regarding what was about to happen, even though it could have cost her her life. In her culture a woman pregnant outside of marriage could have been stoned to death. She had a lot on the line, but humbly accepted her position as the Lord's servant. We can learn a lot from Mary's example.

As Christian women, we need to ask ourselves if we have the heart of a servant. Are we willing to accept whatever God has planned for our lives? Can we with all honesty say we are the Lord's servants? Being a servant requires that we completely give up our selfish wants. We embrace what God has called us to do without making excuses. Most of us would like to say we have the heart of a woman who is willing to serve God, but sadly our lives look rather different. Our lives reek of selfishness. Often, rather than saying, "I am the Lords servant," we could be heard saying, "I want to serve the Lord, but...."

There is no middle ground when it comes to serving God. We will either choose obedience or disobedience. Every time we make an excuse, it is simply disobedience that we are trying to disguise as a good reason for not doing something God has called us to do.Being a woman who is willing to serve the Lord and follow His ways is not easy in a culture that is overflowing with selfishness. We are constantly told that it is all about us, but God's word tells us just the opposite. It's not about us at all; it's about being women with hearts that are willing to serve.

With the Christmas season coming to a close, it would be a good time to take a look at the true condition of our hearts. I pray that we will seek to have hearts like Mary; hearts that would allow us to say with all honesty, "I am the Lord's servant, may it be to me as you have said."

The Breath Of God

The breath of God produces ice, and the broad waters become frozen~ Job 37: 10

A Faint Whisper

And these are but the outer fringe of his works; how faint the whisper we hear of him! Job 26: 14

I woke up this morning to a soft snow falling that transformed the drab winter landscape into a winter wonderland. I could not resist grabbing my camera and heading off for a walk through the woods. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning as I cautiously walked up and down the slippery hills. Everything was beautiful and snow covered! The dreary brown trees were dressed up in sparkling white attire. Pine trees bowed down under the weight of glistening snowflakes, and birds were flitting about, their colorful feathers commanding attention amidst the snowy white background.

It brought to mind the scripture that I had read in Job 26: 14 during my devotional time earlier in the day. The beauty of nature that we see all around us is just the outer fringe of God's works, and only a faint whisper of who God truly is! Not even a whisper, but a faint whisper! How amazing and how incomprehensible He is! We cannot even begin to imagine the wonderful and amazing things He has prepared for us in heaven; things too incredible for our human minds to comprehend.

It's hard to imagine anything more beautiful than the snow covered trees glistening in my mountain wonderland today. Yet, his word tells us that even this is just the outer fringe of His works....a faint whisper of Him.

Home Cooked Memories

She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family. Proverbs 31:15

There's no place like home; especially when a pot of homemade vegetable soup has been simmering on the stove all day mingling with the aroma of freshly baked yeast bread warm from the oven! I've never met anyone who didn't appreciate a good meal, and cooking and baking is a simple way to make memories for our families and show hospitality to guests in our home. We don't have to cook expensive or fancy meals. In fact, some of the most comforting foods are the simplest things. There's just something warm and inviting about a home where something good is cooking in the kitchen.

I've talked to a lot of people who speak with fondness about the comforting food prepared lovingly by their moms or grandmothers, and many moms and grandmothers are famous among their family members for certain dishes. Nobody made pork and saurkraut like my Grandma Mitchell. She was also famous for her pumpkin pies and soft sugar cookies. Her chicken rice soup was known to heal the sick. My aunt was very ill following surgery for a large brain tumor and was unable to eat. Grandma smuggled some of her chicken rice soup into the hospital one day. My aunt was able to eat it, and from that day on started to recover. I still smile when I recall grandma telling me the story about smuggling her soup into the hospital. She looked at me with a sparkle in her eye and said, "I didn't think she was going to make it, but my soup brought her back!" My mom was famous for her vegetable soup, apple pies, apple dumplings, stuffing balls, and gravy. Nobody ever came close to making pie crust like mom, and even though I have her recipe for gravy and stuffing balls, I've never been able to duplicate it. My mother-in-law made the best fried chicken I've ever tasted, and I've never found anything that even came close to hers. They have all passed on, but the special memories of the foods they prepared lives on in the hearts of family members.

As homemakers, we have the opportunity every day to make memories for our families and guests. One day our children probably won't remember how clean the house was when they were growing up, how successful we were in our career, or how many things we were involved in, but they will remember coming home to the aroma of a home cooked meal and warm cookies straight from the oven. They will recall, with fondness and smiles, the blessing of home cooked memories.

Every Winged Bird

And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky. " So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1: 20-21

Tis the Season to be Busy

As I watched a White-breasted Nuthatch and a Downy Woodpecker flying back and forth, incessantly pecking away on a suet cake this morning, it made me think about how often we fly around incessantly pecking away at all the distractions life throws our way, rarely stopping for a moment, tossed back and forth from one activity to the next. Busyness seems to have taken over our lives; we live with it, embrace it, and at times boast about it. Yet, I believe it is one of the most powerful weapons Satan uses against Christians. It’s so common today that often we aren’t even aware of its presence. It is a problem year round, but even more so as the Christmas season approaches.

The trend towards excessive busyness seems to have reached epidemic proportions in the lives of people today, and Christians are not exempt from it. Ask anybody how they are and the answer is usually the same, “Busy!” Sadly, Christians look like the rest of the world in this regard. We are stressed out, frazzled, overextended, anxious, running in circles, rushing about, short tempered, exhausted, and running on empty. Running on fumes, we fall into bed at the end of the day only to jump back up the next morning and start the vicious cycle all over again. I once heard a speaker say that BUSY stands for “burdened under Satan’s yoke.” I would have to agree!

I’m currently doing a Beth Moore Bible study called, Breaking Free. In the one chapter she talks about “the captivity of activity” and how perpetual activity leads to perpetual exhaustion. I often see this in my life and in the lives of those around me. I believe Satan uses busyness to keep Christians ineffective in their spiritual walk. It is so common and so widely accepted that it’s seldom even thought about. Since Satan works subtly and behind the scenes, we fail to notice him. If he can keep us busy and distracted by all the things going on around us, he can render us unproductive and ineffective as believers in Christ. Busy lives lead to lives void of prayer and scripture reading. Lives void of prayer and scripture reading leads to Christians with shallow faith.

When asked where our relationship with God is in our lives, most of us would proclaim, “God is first in my life!” However, when asked to share our busy schedules, we would find God in a different place. A pastor once said that our true priorities are revealed by looking at our daily schedules. The things that fill our days speak volumes about what is truly number one in our hearts. We always seem to make time for the things that are important to us. We can’t miss our favorite TV program, but we can miss our quiet time with God. We don’t have time to pray, but we can answer our cell phones and send text messages throughout the day. We don’t have time to work on a Bible study lesson, but we have time to go shopping or to surf the internet. We say we are simply too busy for God, but yet we always seem to find time for TV, cell phones, and the internet.

When was the last time you really and truly sat at His feet and listened for His voice? Being still before God and making time to sit at His feet is what’s really important. In light of eternity, it won’t matter how many TV programs we watched or how often we sent a text message or answered our cell phones. It won’t matter how much time we spent online looking things up. What will matter is our relationship with our Heavenly Father and those things that have eternal value.

This Christmas season, I pray we will keep our priorities in line amidst the hustle and bustle of shopping, decorating, baking cookies, and wrapping presents. The abundant life Jesus came to give us is waiting. We need to slow down, be still, and seek first His kingdom rather than the distractions the world has to offer. We won’t be disappointed, because Jesus is the sweetest gift of all!