Thursday, December 23, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
The "magic" of Christmas
I can't believe its two days until Christmas. I look forward to this time of year every year and when it finally gets here, it feels so frantic I never enjoy any of the "magic" of Christmas. When I was growing up, it was such a special time of year. We watched Christmas movies, cranked down the air (we live in south florida) and drank hot chocolate. We went around looking at everyones Christmas lights and made Christmas cookies, with egg-nogg. And left cookies out for Santa. So special...
But since I've become an adult, a wife, and now a mother. It feels impossibly overwhelming. All the parties every weekend of the month. Heck, just buying for my family is overwhelming. My husband has a married sister with 1 baby, and a married brother with 5 children. Then his parents are divorced so, that is buying for 2 completely different families who basically buy themselves anything they actually want. Then there is my family; my parents, and my little brother. And Finally my husband who is impossible to shop for because he works so much he doesn't have time to do anything else and he doesn't really like presents. And then there is my precious 2 year old Daughter.....I can get into trouble with her.....because I just want to give her the whole world lol.
I sound a bit depressed I suppose. But it is frustrating. I feel like the real meaning of Christmas gets suffocated right out. By trying to make people happy! Do what is "appropriate" like Christmas cards and thank you cards for example (those are my personal archenemies)! ...Trying not to look cheap and trying to show love for people through gifts. I try maybe a little harder than most to show it through giving really thoughtful gifts, since I'm a little awkward and not very good at expressing my feelings :/
But I lose focus on the real reason we exchange gifts. It was because of God's sacrifice of sending His precious only Son. That alone was a miracle....Mary....the shepherds....the wise men...ancient prophecies coming to life. God sent Him as a baby, to live as we live and show us who God is and how He wants us to live our lives. Our example of the only perfection on earth. And Christmas is also supposed to be about showing our appreciation for Christ's ultimate sacrifice of dying a humiliating, painful death to give us the gift of Eternal Life!
Christmas may not be about the "magic" of Christmas, but in a way I think it is. Because in the midst of a close family and special times together, I always felt God's presence and blessing over our time. Hopefully next year I will be able to come back to this blog and remind myself what its really all about. And maybe if someone else reads this feeling overwhelmed, I hope it will help you, like writing it helped me. :)
But since I've become an adult, a wife, and now a mother. It feels impossibly overwhelming. All the parties every weekend of the month. Heck, just buying for my family is overwhelming. My husband has a married sister with 1 baby, and a married brother with 5 children. Then his parents are divorced so, that is buying for 2 completely different families who basically buy themselves anything they actually want. Then there is my family; my parents, and my little brother. And Finally my husband who is impossible to shop for because he works so much he doesn't have time to do anything else and he doesn't really like presents. And then there is my precious 2 year old Daughter.....I can get into trouble with her.....because I just want to give her the whole world lol.
I sound a bit depressed I suppose. But it is frustrating. I feel like the real meaning of Christmas gets suffocated right out. By trying to make people happy! Do what is "appropriate" like Christmas cards and thank you cards for example (those are my personal archenemies)! ...Trying not to look cheap and trying to show love for people through gifts. I try maybe a little harder than most to show it through giving really thoughtful gifts, since I'm a little awkward and not very good at expressing my feelings :/
But I lose focus on the real reason we exchange gifts. It was because of God's sacrifice of sending His precious only Son. That alone was a miracle....Mary....the shepherds....the wise men...ancient prophecies coming to life. God sent Him as a baby, to live as we live and show us who God is and how He wants us to live our lives. Our example of the only perfection on earth. And Christmas is also supposed to be about showing our appreciation for Christ's ultimate sacrifice of dying a humiliating, painful death to give us the gift of Eternal Life!
Christmas may not be about the "magic" of Christmas, but in a way I think it is. Because in the midst of a close family and special times together, I always felt God's presence and blessing over our time. Hopefully next year I will be able to come back to this blog and remind myself what its really all about. And maybe if someone else reads this feeling overwhelmed, I hope it will help you, like writing it helped me. :)
Monday, December 20, 2010
Lunar Eclipse meets Twilight Eclipse
This is absolutely not a profound post. But I absolutely LOVE the Twilight series of books and the movies. I adore Stephenie Meyers books, loved "The Host" too, but you have to read about 70 pages and then you literally CAN'T put it down.
Anyway, I just got to watch Eclipse on DVD (the movie) on the night of the Lunar Eclipse. It was completely a coincidence but isn't that awesome!?! It will be fully eclipsed in 20 minutes but very cool! Won't happen again for 80 something years and by then I will not be here to see it.
Silly Post...but thats me :)
Anyway, I just got to watch Eclipse on DVD (the movie) on the night of the Lunar Eclipse. It was completely a coincidence but isn't that awesome!?! It will be fully eclipsed in 20 minutes but very cool! Won't happen again for 80 something years and by then I will not be here to see it.
Silly Post...but thats me :)
Monday, December 13, 2010
Life is a journey
Its been a very long time since I posted anything. But I decided to take my own advice and just go for and write again. Deciding that it neither has to be perfect or profound, just original. Of course, I would love for it to be all three.
So in this long period of time I have been conquering the many things in life that I had been hiding under a chair, to afraid to fail at them so I never even started......That is a terrible way to live. But I know I'm not the only one who struggles with their fears.
One of the things I have decided to conquer my fear of and attempt to do, is learn more about music. I've always had a passion for it (it makes my heart sing) and have been writing songs since I was 13. But after graduating high school, I just put music and art away in a little box and didn't look back at it until October 09. Oddly enough at a Brad Paisley concert (I love him) God brought these hidden talents back out of the box. So despite having a 2 year old and not knowing a thing about music theory or choir, I joined the choir at church. Which then led to me writing a song for the 1st time in 4 years. The passion for the song God had given me, for my hurting friend, led to me to getting guitar lessons (to learn to write the music for the song).That led to voice lessons, and getting coaching on proper song writing. Now the song is complete and the friend, is no longer a friend.......very strange. It just shows me God has a plan, and if all of the things didn't happen just the way they happened, I wouldn't be were I am now.
To sum it all up....... it doesn't matter where we think our destination will be, we have these preconceived notions but God molds and shapes us for His own good purpose through the journey it takes to reach the destination. And 9 times out of 10, what we thought was the destination was just another part of our real journey with God, Him leading the way, us with lamp in our hand, one step at a time. Because if He ever showed us what He really had planned for our life, we would be too afraid to move forward at all.
So in this long period of time I have been conquering the many things in life that I had been hiding under a chair, to afraid to fail at them so I never even started......That is a terrible way to live. But I know I'm not the only one who struggles with their fears.
One of the things I have decided to conquer my fear of and attempt to do, is learn more about music. I've always had a passion for it (it makes my heart sing) and have been writing songs since I was 13. But after graduating high school, I just put music and art away in a little box and didn't look back at it until October 09. Oddly enough at a Brad Paisley concert (I love him) God brought these hidden talents back out of the box. So despite having a 2 year old and not knowing a thing about music theory or choir, I joined the choir at church. Which then led to me writing a song for the 1st time in 4 years. The passion for the song God had given me, for my hurting friend, led to me to getting guitar lessons (to learn to write the music for the song).That led to voice lessons, and getting coaching on proper song writing. Now the song is complete and the friend, is no longer a friend.......very strange. It just shows me God has a plan, and if all of the things didn't happen just the way they happened, I wouldn't be were I am now.
To sum it all up....... it doesn't matter where we think our destination will be, we have these preconceived notions but God molds and shapes us for His own good purpose through the journey it takes to reach the destination. And 9 times out of 10, what we thought was the destination was just another part of our real journey with God, Him leading the way, us with lamp in our hand, one step at a time. Because if He ever showed us what He really had planned for our life, we would be too afraid to move forward at all.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Not Quite Enough
This is a previous blog post from another blog but I wanted to get it out there, I hope it speaks to someone out there in cyberspace :)
Life as a mother, wife, friend, daughter, and sister can be so overwhelming at times. I really struggle with anxiety and I just plain out can't be supermom and superwife, super church woman, super friend and super daughter and sister. And that is really frustrating for my type A perfectionistic personality.
I know that God is happy with each baby step I make in a forward direction. But it can be really hard when you know, that your 100% , is just not good enough for someone or maybe more than just one person. And for me, it happens often.... But I'm trying to hold on to God's gentle voice and easy load, leading and telling me that He sees and that He's proud of me even though everyone else may stand in judgement.
"Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" Matthew 11:29-30
That verse always calms the storms of my heart, may it do that for you too.
Life as a mother, wife, friend, daughter, and sister can be so overwhelming at times. I really struggle with anxiety and I just plain out can't be supermom and superwife, super church woman, super friend and super daughter and sister. And that is really frustrating for my type A perfectionistic personality.
I know that God is happy with each baby step I make in a forward direction. But it can be really hard when you know, that your 100% , is just not good enough for someone or maybe more than just one person. And for me, it happens often.... But I'm trying to hold on to God's gentle voice and easy load, leading and telling me that He sees and that He's proud of me even though everyone else may stand in judgement.
"Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" Matthew 11:29-30
That verse always calms the storms of my heart, may it do that for you too.
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