Shopping with My Sweetie....

Today was a fun day. When I go shopping by myself, it is just in and out of stores to get exactly what I went for and nothing else.....there's always so much to do, I think I feel a bit guilty if I spend too much time just looking.....AND, when I go shopping with Chelsey, it is normally just for her and so we spend lots of times in her favorite stores and the junior departments of stores. BUT TODAY.....I got to go shopping with my sweetie! Just him and me......we had some Christmas money to spend too, and we hardly ever go out shopping together because I usually do the necessary shopping while he is at work. Today it is too wet for him to be tied to the yard and the massive amounts of leaves waiting to be mulched, so it is one of those times we go out and do things we don't normally do. Chelsey has some things to do at the house, so it was just the two of us, and we had a really great time together and accomplished a lot. What a blessing to be able to do some of the simple things in life together and just enjoy the company!

A Little Normalcy.....

Well, the rush and busyness of the week are winding down, and it is beginning to look and feel more "normal" around here. The tree is down, decorations and gifts put away. The only thing that remains are all of the extra foods. It has been a great week, we feel so blessed by this time, especially as we were able to focus on Jesus.

We were able to spend time together, with extended family, and with friends from church. We had a good time with this. We were even able to get together with Shelley & her family in their new downtown high rise condo -- they live in a building on West Trade Street on the 26th floor. It is definitely an amazing view of the city. AND....their surprise.......

............Yep.....we are going to have a new grandson or granddaughter in August. August is crazy! The baby is actually due on Shelley's birthday.

Well...onward and upward to a new day! Blessings everyone!

TSO

Tonight (well, technically Friday night) I was treated to the Trans Siberian Orchestra concert by two ladies in our care group. We had a great time. The TSO was great.....lots of music (3 hour concert), lots of lights, lots of fog, lots of laser light shows and pyro-technics and even snow! and at times really loud! But it was so fun! Our own Rebecca Swan was one of the local musicians in the orchestra. Now that it is late...I'm trying to wind down....it may take a while!

At Last!

Today was a day to stay at home. This is definitely not a complaint about all the busyness of life, but I love the opportunity to get to stay home for the entire day!!! It is rare these days! Sooo, I spent most of the day doing some last minute things in preparation for Christmas....along with the usual chores such as laundry, cooking and general cleaning. I'm finding I enjoy these more when I don't feel like they have to be done in a rush.

Tomorrow I will try to complete my grocery shopping so that I don't have to hit the stores again before Christmas. I'll get what I need thru Christmas, and while everyone is out doing the "day after" sales, I'll go grocery shopping....I do this at Thanksgiving and Christmas....the stores are nearly empty, but the sales remain the same!

Christmas morning we will be gathering the family that live here in Charlotte for Christmas breakfast. My contribution is Monkey Bread. It is easy, and it is sooo good when it is still warm, so I'll be getting up and baking it Christmas morning.

I've been trying to spend some time recounting the kindness of the Lord to us this year....and I am overwhelmed. I think I need to do this monthly rather than waiting for the end of the year. All I can say is -- Isn't God Good!

Ungodliness

This morning as I was reading Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate by Jerry Bridges, what he said about the sin of "ungodliness" was so good that I thought I'd share it with you. It is a bit long, but I hope you will read it anyway.

"For the godly person, God is the center and focal point of his or her life. Every circumstance and every activity of life, whether in the temporal or spiritual realms, is viewed through the lens of this God-centeredness. However, such a God-centeredness can be developed only in the context of an ever-growing intimate relationship with God. No one can genuinely desire to please God or glorify Him apart from such a relationship.

If you have followed my reasoning this far, you can see that no Christian is totally godly, and to the extent we are not, there is still some degree of ungodliness in us. The question we should honestly and humbly ask is, How ungodly am I? How much of my life do I live without any regard for God? How much of my daily activities do I go through without any reference to God?

Total godliness and utter ungodliness are the opposite ends of a continuum. All of us are somewhere between those two extremes. The only person who ever lived a totally godly life was Jesus. And probably no true believer lives a totally ungodly life. But where are we on the spectrum? As you think about your own life, remember that we are not talking about righteous versus wicked behavior. We are talking about living all of life as if God is relevant or irrelevant. Survey after survey continues to inform us that there is little difference between the values and behavior patterns of Christians and non-Christians. Why is this true? Surely it reflects the fact that we live so much of our ordinary lives with little or no thought of God, or of how we might please and glorify Him. It's not that we consciously or deliberately put God out of our minds. We just ignore Him. He is seldom in our thoughts.

I stated at the beginning of this chapter that I believe ungodliness is our most basic sin, even more basic than pride. Think how it would curb our pride for example, if we consciously lived every day in the awareness that all we are, all we have, and all we accomplish is by the grace of God. My wife and I were lamenting over two otherwise nice, decent people who are living openly immoral lives and relishing it. And then I reminded my wife and myself that "there but for the grace of God go we." Self-righteous pride, one of the more common of our acceptable sins, is a direct product of our ungodly thinking.

Sins of the tongue, such as gossip, sarcasm, and other unkind words to or about another person, cannot thrive in an awareness that God hears every word we speak. The reason we do sin with our tongues is due to the fact that we are to some degree ungodly. We don't think of living every moment of our lives in the presence of an all-seeing, all-hearing God.

I believe that all our other acceptable sins can ultimately be traced to this root sin of ungodliness. To use a tree as an illustration, we can think of all our sins, big and small, growing out of the trunk of pride. But that which sustains the life of the tree is the root system, in this case the root of ungodliness. It is ungodliness that ultimately gives life to our more visible sins.

If ungodly habits of thinking, then, are so commonplace with us, how can we deal with this sin? How can we become more godly in our daily lives? Paul wrote to Timothy, "Train yourself for godliness" (1 Timothy 4:7). The word train comes from the athletic culture of that day and refers to the practice athletes went through daily to prepare themselves to compete in their athletic contests. It implies, among other things, commitment, consistency, and discipline in training.

Paul wanted Timothy, and all believers of every age, to be just as committed to growth in godliness, and just as intentional in pursuing it, as the athletes of that day who were competing for a temporal prize. But I suspect that most Christians seldom, if ever, think about how they can grow in godliness.

I could not help but contrast our anemic desire for godliness with the attitude of young men in our city who recently camped out all night in snow and cold at the entrance to a local electronics store. They wanted to be sure they would be able to buy one of a limited supply of a new video game system. One young man arrived at 9:30 Saturday morning to wait for the doors to open at 8 a.m. Sunday. Would any of us have that kind of zeal for godliness?

Our goal in the pursuit of godliness should be to grow more in our conscious awareness that every moment of our lives is lived in the presence of God; that we are responsible to Him and dependent on Him. This goal would include a growing desire to please Him and glorify Him in the most ordinary activities of life.

............

Because ungodliness is so all-encompassing, it will help to identify specific areas of life where you tend to live without regard to God. Theses might include your work, your hobbies, your playing or watching sports, or even your driving. Scripture texts that might be helpful to memorize and pray over include 1 Timothy 4:7-8; 1 Corinthians 10:31; Colossians 1:9-10 and 2:23; as well as Psalm 42:1-2; 63:1; and 27:4.

Above all, pray that God will make you more conscious of the fact that you live every moment of every day under His all-seeing eye. While you may not be mindful of Him. He is certainly aware of you and sees every deed you do, hears every word you say, and knows every thought you think (see Psalm 139:1-4). Beyond that, He even searches out your motives. Let us then seek to be as mindful of Him as He is of us."

Rest....

This week so far has not been and should not be quite as busy as the last month has....a nice break and a bit of rest. It has all been good! We are blessed.

So, now I can't believe that Christmas is almost here. I think I'm through with my shopping, but I haven't wrapped a thing! We will have Christmas with my family at my parents house on Saturday. I have to think up some sort of food dish to take over. We mostly just do finger foods, so I'll have to come up with something good. Maybe I'll go over to Trader Joe's and find some-thing that is different from the normal stuff I usually fix. That would be fun. We have some very picky eaters, so I'll see what I can find that us yummy, quick and easy to make. On Christmas day, all of the family that is still in Charlotte always gets together for breakfast at someones house. This year, we are going to my nephew's home. His wife Torrie is a good cook, and lots of fun, we are looking forward to that! Then just relax the rest of the day and enjoy.

Sooooooo, what are y'all doing for Christmas?

Giving Jesus

It certainly has been a beautiful week! It has been kinda nice not to have to bundle up to go out. It makes all the errands a bit nicer. I certainly haven't gotten into this blogging on a regular basis. Maybe after the holidays it'll be a bit easier. It is still hard to believe that it is almost Christmas. But I've been thinking a lot this week about just how great it is that I can daily celebrate Jesus! Not just His birth....that is amazing, but His life, His sacrifice, His humility, His love, His teaching, His rejection, His pain, His death, His resurrection and the very fact that He is ALIVE! Wouldn't it be great if we could gift wrap Jesus and give Him as a gift to those we share the holidays with each year? Something to think about......just how could I do that? Gotta go....got some things to think about and things to consider giving to others!

Busy Baking....

Well, after a busy but wonderful weekend, the start of the new week has brought 80-degree weather (sure doesn't make it seem like Christmas), Christmas shopping with Chelsey, and a week of baking. Last night I made party mix...2nd batch! I just can't imagine where it disappears to so quickly! Today I made granola...which we will give to our care group....it was a special request this year! And I tried making biscotti for the first time. I found several recipes that I would like to try and give some of these as gifts as well. Today I made gingerbread biscotti. It was easy, so I'm looking forward to making some other kinds tomorrow. Chelsey has some cookies to bake for a party on Friday night, and we will be making sausage balls for a couple of parties this weekend. It is so kind of the Lord to bless us with electric/gas ovens for baking...can't imagine what it would be like without them!

Deaf Community

Tonight, CPCC's Interpreter Club held a Christmas dinner for the members of the deaf community on the Central Campus in appreciation for allowing students in the American Sign Language (ASL) classes and the Interpreter program to participate in their weekly/monthly activities. Chelsey has benefited greatly from interacting with them on a regular basis. There were probably over 150 people there....both deaf and hearing along with students and faculty. It was amazing to watch as people interacted, and I was in awe of just their ability to communicate. My mind doesn't work in a way that can watch and think without distraction. Hearing is definitely a gift from God. He has also blessed the deaf community with a common way to communicate. Chelsey is doing very well with only one semester to her credit. She is able to communicate and enjoy the interaction with the people around her. Gene has attended several events with her and he has enjoyed getting to know a few of the people as well. One guy, Dave, has really challenged him to learn enough to communicate. I met Dave tonight. He is a special man, easy to talk to and understand. The whole evening was very encouraging!

Christmas Everywhere!

Tomorrow is the annual Christmas Gift Wrap Outreach in front of Toys 'R Us across from Concord Mills. I don't really know when the first outreach was, but we have been participating every year from year one. It is great fun. We are always busy and we meet many new people. It is so neat to see how people are moved that we would do this for free. I'm not sure how many actually ever come to church, but it is great to know that whether they do or not, the Lord used this small act of kindness to touch their lives. It is amazing how fast our 2-hour shift goes! Gene is greeting, Chelsey is greeting and then caroling, and I'll be wrapping gifts once again. I'm really looking forward to it, and althought the morning is supposed to be a bit chilly, it is supposed to be a beautiful day.

Once we finish our shift, we are going to go and get our Christmas tree. This has become our tradition of sorts. We pick it out,

get it home,

and Gene will put it in the stand. He and I will get the lights on the tree,

and then while we attend the leaders' banquet tomorrow night, Chelsey will decorate the tree (and anything else she can think of).

It is nice for me....just to be able to come home and ta-da.....decorated tree!

Now....this was last year's tree....but I'm sure this year will be equally as beautiful!

*Sigh*

Life at the Miracle Place seems to continue to be quite busy. But today was Chelsey's last class at Central....she's a little sad, because she was having a great time hanging out with people from church for about an hour at the Bojangles on campus. I'm really glad she got to have some time to develop these relationships. It was always fun to pick her up laughing and hearing about the fun they had together.

Yesterday I spent most of the day with my Mom & Dad with a doctor appointment and then a couple of short errands, then some shopping. It was only a start on their Christmas shopping, and we didn't make it to the grocery store since all the shopping tired them out. We will continue that adventure on Friday.

This weekend is once again very busy. Chelsey will be babysitting on Friday morning while I'm shopping again, and then on Friday evening, she is going to a Christmas party that the Interpreter Club/Program at CPCC holds for the deaf community as a thank you for allowing the students in the ASL/IPP program at CPCC to participate in their weekly & monthly activities. Chelsey has benefitted greatly from these interactions. Her favorites were the deaf Bible study group at First Baptist Church downtown (Gene enjoyed that one too) and the group that does league bowling. She found these groups the most helpful and willing to take time with the students and to draw them in to the activities.....more so than the silent dinners at the mall. Anyway, that is Friday's schedule so far. Then, on Saturday morning all three of us will be at the gift wrap. Following that we will go and get our Christmas tree. Gene gets it in the stand and makes sure it is straight and all of that, then he and I put the lights on. Chelsey gets to decorate on Saturday night while we are at the leaders banquet at church. Then Sunday is church and couples care group.

The following weekend will be just as busy! Chelsey has been hard at work planning a Christmas party for the high schoolers at church on Friday night. It has blessed us to see how she has taken the responsibility to make sure that she has secured the proper authority and guidelines for planning this event. She had to write a proposal and submit it to the pastor over the homeschool group, plan and line up the activities and entertainment for the evening, contact people to help with refreshments, plan decorations, line up adults willing to be there to supervise the event and answer lots of questions from parents as well. We are hoping that everyone will have a great time that evening. Then on Saturday, she and I will be at the church at 9am to help with the door hanger invitations. (Gene has a meeting elsewhere). Then we will go back that evening for the Caroling/Outreach at the Trailer Park. And Sunday is church and our care group Christmas party.

All of this activity, and a picutre of a bare tree.....Gene is just wondering when he is ever going to have time to work on the 2 acres of leaves that are laying on our ground (plus the ones at my mom and dad's house next door)! God is good though. I think by the time he is able to get on the mower and start mulching up all the leaves, they will all have fallen to the ground, and he will be able to take care of it in a couple of Saturdays.

So I have to work in some time for Christmas shopping and making goodies and all of that stuff. It will be nice since CPCC morning classes are done....that will definitely make a difference! It is nice to be busy. Sometimes I have to remind myself of that so that I don't go down the road of complaining because I just want to "sit down and rest or read or something".....I still have time for that too. I am grateful for the ability to do all of the things that we have to do! Praise God for life and health and the mind to think about how good He is to allow us to have so much, so many friends to do things with, and the joy that comes from only Him! I am grateful for all of these things and more than I have time to post or that anyone will ever want to read! Well...I think I need to go get some of these things done!