You are currently browsing the monthly archive for December, 2008.
This came in an email…
The “W” in Christmas Each December, I vowed to make Christmas a calm and peaceful experience. I had cut back on nonessential obligations—extensive card writing,
endless baking, decorating, and even overspending. Yet still, I found myself exhausted, unable to appreciate the precious
family moments, and of course, the true meaning of Christmas.
My son, Nicholas, was in kindergarten that year. It was an exciting
season for a six year old. For weeks, he’d been memorizing songs for his school’s “Winter Pageant”. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I’d be working the night of the
production, unwilling to miss his shining moment, I spoke with his
Teacher, she assured me there’d be a dress rehearsal the morning of the
presentation. All parents unable to attend that evening were welcome to come then.
Fortunately, Nicholas seemed happy with the compromise. So, the morning of the dress rehearsal, I filed in ten minutes early,
found a spot on the cafeteria floor and sat down. Around the room I saw
several other parents quietly scampering to their seats. As I waited, the students were led into the room. Each class, accompanied
by their teacher, sat cross-legged on the floor. Then, each group, one by
one, rose to perform their song. Because the public school system had long stopped referring to the
holiday as “Christmas,” I didn’t expect anything other than fun,
commercial entertainment songs of reindeer, Santa Claus, snowflakes and
good cheer. So, when my son’s class rose to sing, “Christmas Love,” I was slightly
taken aback by its bold title. Nicholas was aglow, as were all of his classmates, adorned in fuzzy
mittens, red sweaters, and bright snowcaps upon their heads.
Those in the front row—center stage—held up large letters, one by one, to
spell out the title of the song. As the class would sing “C is for Christmas,” a child would hold up the
letter C. Then, “H is for Happy,” and on and on, until each child holding
up his portion had presented the complete message, “Christmas Love.”
The performance was going smoothly, until suddenly, we noticed her; a
small, quiet, girl in the front row holding the letter “M” upside down -
totally unaware her letter “M” appeared as a “W”. The audience of 1st through 6th graders snickered at this little one’s
mistake. But she had no idea they were laughing at her, so she stood
tall, proudly holding her “W”.
Although many teachers tried to shush the children, the laughter
continued until the last letter was raised, and we all saw it together.
A hush came over the audience and eyes began to widen. In that instant,
we understood the reason we were there, why we celebrated the holiday in
the first place, why even in the chaos, there was a purpose for our
festivities. For when the last letter was held high, the message read loud and clear: “C H R I S T W A S L O V E”
And, I believe, He still is. Amazed in His presence . . . humbled by His
love.
The “W” in Christmas Each December, I vowed to make Christmas a calm and peaceful experience. I had cut back on nonessential obligations—extensive card writing,
endless baking, decorating, and even overspending. Yet still, I found myself exhausted, unable to appreciate the precious
family moments, and of course, the true meaning of Christmas.
My son, Nicholas, was in kindergarten that year. It was an exciting
season for a six year old. For weeks, he’d been memorizing songs for his school’s “Winter Pageant”. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I’d be working the night of the
production, unwilling to miss his shining moment, I spoke with his
Teacher, she assured me there’d be a dress rehearsal the morning of the
presentation. All parents unable to attend that evening were welcome to come then.
Fortunately, Nicholas seemed happy with the compromise. So, the morning of the dress rehearsal, I filed in ten minutes early,
found a spot on the cafeteria floor and sat down. Around the room I saw
several other parents quietly scampering to their seats. As I waited, the students were led into the room. Each class, accompanied
by their teacher, sat cross-legged on the floor. Then, each group, one by
one, rose to perform their song. Because the public school system had long stopped referring to the
holiday as “Christmas,” I didn’t expect anything other than fun,
commercial entertainment songs of reindeer, Santa Claus, snowflakes and
good cheer. So, when my son’s class rose to sing, “Christmas Love,” I was slightly
taken aback by its bold title. Nicholas was aglow, as were all of his classmates, adorned in fuzzy
mittens, red sweaters, and bright snowcaps upon their heads.
Those in the front row—center stage—held up large letters, one by one, to
spell out the title of the song. As the class would sing “C is for Christmas,” a child would hold up the
letter C. Then, “H is for Happy,” and on and on, until each child holding
up his portion had presented the complete message, “Christmas Love.”
The performance was going smoothly, until suddenly, we noticed her; a
small, quiet, girl in the front row holding the letter “M” upside down -
totally unaware her letter “M” appeared as a “W”. The audience of 1st through 6th graders snickered at this little one’s
mistake. But she had no idea they were laughing at her, so she stood
tall, proudly holding her “W”.
Although many teachers tried to shush the children, the laughter
continued until the last letter was raised, and we all saw it together.
A hush came over the audience and eyes began to widen. In that instant,
we understood the reason we were there, why we celebrated the holiday in
the first place, why even in the chaos, there was a purpose for our
festivities. For when the last letter was held high, the message read loud and clear: “C H R I S T W A S L O V E”
And, I believe, He still is. Amazed in His presence . . . humbled by His
love.
Sunday at church one of our female singers fabulously sang for us Faith Hill’s new song “A Baby Changes Everything” ( I highly recommend you Google it if you have not heard it) and Pastor Brian’s message was titled “The Name That Changes Everything”. It was an incredible message, as they always are from our pastors at Westridge Church who open their hearts to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Here’s the deal (from Pastor Brian’s message):
When you accept Jesus as Lord of your life, it changes everything.
It changes how you look at the world around you
It changes your personal goals and desires
It changes the way you relate to people
It changes your desire to know Him more personally
It changes the way you live your life
My husband and I know this to be true because we have witnessed all of those changes in our lives since accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior. That’s why we see Christmas from a spiritual perspective instead of a commercial perspective and celebrate it every day of the year, not just at Christmas time.
I love what I read from one of Max Lucado’s books this year, One Incredible Moment.
“An ordinary night with ordinary sheep and ordinary shepherds. And were it not for a God who loves to hook an “extra” on the front of ordinary, the night would have gone unnoticed. The sheep would have been forgotten and the shepherds would have slept the night away.
But God dances amidst the common. And that night He did a waltz.”
That has made an awestruck impression on my heart this season and I shared it with many. God did that for us because He loves us that much! You know the rest of the story. Hold that story close in your hearts this Christmas season, understanding exactly what it means to us. And do not let this Christmas slip past without knowing that gracious Gift God sent to us personally, after all knowing that “baby” changes everything.
Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday, Jesus. My greatest gift is what You have done for me, for all of us. I love you.
Living life temporarily with crutches has been an entertaining experience for me and my hubby. We have laughed a lot at my “crutches calamities” while in my mind I think of so many people that crutches are a part of their every day life. I have conquered every day tasks with the assistance of crutches, like needing to grip something out of my reach and using the top of my crutch to get to it or knocking something off a shelf higher than I can reach. I have used a crutch to reach one of our dogs to get her to come in the house and reached for a light switch and turned it on with my crutch.
When I wanted to carry something in my hand I have learned to push my hip out enough to knock the crutch forward so I can take a step and even though it looks kooky it works quite well. Every time I have to stop to figure out a way to accomplish what I want to get done, I always think tenderly of my Mom when we were trying to do something that seemed like there was just no way it was going to happen. “I can’t” were two words Mom would not allow us to use, instead she taught us “where there’s a will, there’s a way”. I am so grateful that she did because when I get into a situation I will always stop and think of a way to overcome the obstacle before ever thinking ” I can’t” as I have done in my present circumstances. I only have a few more weeks of walking with my new found and appreciated “buddies” and look forward to the freedom of no assistance but it sure has reminded me so much of my Momma and I smile each time I feel like I hear her say, remember…”where there’s a will there’s a way!”
Thanks, Mom and thank you Father for my wonderful parents and the years we did have with them.
Before my surgery, my ankle had gotten so bad that any time I moved it there was a major crunching sound and it felt like thousands of big needles poking me, not much fun. I have started PT and one of my exercises is rotating my ankle counter and clockwise. First time I tried it….silence!!!! No crunching at all!!!! I was SO EXCITED!!!!!! I know my surgeon, God bless him, said he removed a lot of excess bone that was causing the trouble. I felt like Helen Hunt in that movie As Good As It Gets with Jack Nicholson when that doctor came to her apartment to help her son. Remember? She got up and hugged the doctor. Well, the thing I did was to praise God for giving my doctor the gift to do that kind of surgery and then that my Great Physician was healing me!!!!!!!
I am able to now at least put my left leg on the floor and put a little weight on it and had to stop myself from dancing a jig over the excitement of it all!!!! I am still in my big clunky black boot that goes up to my knee except when I am just hanging out around the house. I thought about decorating the thing for Christmas but that didn’t fly too well with hubby, I just got a funny look from him. I did put smiley stickers on my crutches that I had left over from a project. So I named my crutches Miley and Faye, kinda sounds like smiley face. Hey, I know. I think it might be a symptom of cabin fever.
I actually went out with my husband yesterday and braved the Christmas crowds walking around Walmart on crutches.Very little walking I might add, more like standing to the side as people were crazily panning the aisles in stressed out mode not aware of others around them. Sure gave me a different perspective when I almost got knocked over without any kind of acknowledgement of an apology but instead an irritated look that I was in their way. I stayed in the truck the rest of the errands.
Now,I could get on a soapbox about that but instead I will just be grateful of the greatest Christmas gift of all and where it came from, I should say where He came from. Thank You, Father…..for many things!
Just finished week 3 and I’m just grateful I made it through another week!
My friend Brandi came up last Wes. and we plopped down on the couches, got cozy and had a severe attack of, as one of my doctors would say, “mandibular tacycardia”!( Which means we talked our heads off!) Then she helped me get presentable to go out in the public and we went out for lunch at Jim N Nick’s. We chowed down on some delish mac and cheese, fried green tomatoes and good ol’ BBQ. It felt so good to get out and Brandi was timidly entertained by my tactics of getting in and out of the house. I went down our steps on my butt and back up into the house on my butt and we both laughed at the oddity of it all.
Folks were amused at us making such a big deal of me getting up on the curb. It was a fun day and felt great to get out of the house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Alan and I had one of the best Thanksgiving’s we’ve ever had. I hope you all had a nice one. It was very peaceful and relaxing. We (meaning us and our 4 legged “girls”) sat on our deck with the back door open the whole time the turkey was baking and just enjoyed being still and indulging in lots of quality conversation. He did a fabulous job on the meal!
I’m getting spoiled having my very own waiter. I just go sit down and my meal is set in front of me and when I’m done dishes are gone and kitchen is cleaned up! He’s been the best!!
I have discovered so many ways to conquer dealing with crutches!
I have figured out that when I want a bowl of cereal and a glass of milk in the morning I can get a plastic grocery bag and put all my utensils in the bag and take it to the table and sitting in my chair in our small appreciated kitchen can get to the fridge to get the milk. So now I use plastic grocery bags for a lot of things and have become quite self sufficient if I say so myself!
I have also found out the hard way that it’s not a good idea to go to bed with the lights off when you have a blonde dog laying on the floor in your pathway that you can not see! I tripped over her and lost my balance and my crutches went flying! It was a little spooky for a sec until I landed on the bed! Whew, soft landing and all was intact and my left leg never hit the floor. Simba was a little miffed that I disturbed her sleep, though.
I think I might could gather enough movements to do a yoga on crutches class! I have had plenty of stretching for things and balancing acts when I realized that I stretched a little too far!
If Alan is here and watches me he just cracks up laughing. When he left for work this morning he put his finger in my face and said “now you behave yourself today and BE CAREFUL!!”
We go to the doctor soon and man, I’m hoping he takes this big lug off my leg and puts a boot on my leg! How did I ever wear a cast for 10 months?! Oh yeah, I was only 22. sigh.
Well, I better get on with my very busy day! Laying on the couch with my leg propped up, going to the bathroom, getting back on the couch, yep, you get the picture! I did stop taking the Percocet (except at bedtime) so my mind has less fuzziness now, just the regular “fuzz” I’ve learned to live with 
so hopefully I can focus on my cross stitch which I have one stitch done so far!
God constantly overwhelms me with the miracle of healing that He gave our bodies, thank You, Father!
