Laced With Grace

As a child I can remember being spun on the merry-go-round. At first, spinning really fast was so much fun. But after awhile, I got dizzy and just wanted to get off. It seems like my life is much like a spin on a merry-go-round … it just goes around faster and faster.

Its hard to not take on too much, but if truth be told, most Christians take on more than they can handle. Many of us are juggling careers, family, hobbies, and doing ministry. The problem with taking on too much at one time is that we cannot enjoy what we are doing and even worse, we do not do the best job that we can because we feel dizzy from the whirlwind. It doesn’t take long before we feel just like riding on the merry-go-round, we get to the point of wanting to throw in the towel and jump off of the ride.

God did not intend for us to take on the world all alone. It is His desire that we slow down, sit at His feet and do what He wants us to do. The problem is we try to do the latter part but we forget to slow down to sit at His feet.

Recently, I came across a poem written by a young girl who was fighting against cancer. The poem did not list her name, so I cannot give her credit but I think the message in her writing is exactly what I need to apply to my New Years Resolution…to slow down and allow God to pace my steps.

Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly’s
erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun
into the fading night?

You better slow down.
Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won’t last.

Do you run through
each day on the fly?
When you ask, “How are you?”
Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?

You better slow down.
Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won’t last.

Ever told your child,
We’ll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die,
Cause you never had time
To call and say,’Hi’

When you run so fast
to get somewhere
You miss half the fun
of getting there.

When you worry and hurry
through your day,
It is like an unopened gift….
Thrown away.

Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.

It is my prayer for the New year that each of us will slow down enough to hear the music before the song is over!

You can find daily devo’s over at my personal blog… http://womentakingastand.blogspot.com/

Life has quieted now.

It’s two days until Christmas and the shopping, wrapping, baking, rushing, fussing….. It’s all done.

It’s pre-dawn. I’m sitting near the tree. The twinkle lights fill the room with a soft light.

My mind travels…. Back, way back in time to a memory. A precious time when Christmas was the center of my year. To the traditions which were built. The laughter, the toys, and I remember just how fun it is to be a kid at Christmas.

One time a year when my favorite television program came back to air.

A Charlie Brown Christmas.

In my memory I see myself sitting with a homemade pop cornball in my sticky hands, I munch and I watch. I grinn and get shivers. Why? Because this was the only show that told the REAL story of Christmas. I knew even then at five year’s old that Linus told the real story.

So won’t you join me and listen in. Relive that time as a gift from Jesus this season. Get the shivers and hear the REAL story again.

Merry Christmas, Be blessed, Lynn

Did you know:
A Charlie Brown Christmas is the first prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. When they first saw the show, CBS executives were horrified at the idea of an animated Christmas special with such a blatant message. They also strongly objected to the fact that the show had no canned laughter.

When viewing the rough cut of the show, both Bill Melendez and Lee Mendelson were convinced that they had a flop on their hands. After it premiered, they were happily surprised and shocked at the high ratings and excellent reviews that the show received. Today, the show remains the second longest-running Christmas special on US network television (the 1964 Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) premiered one year earlier and is still broadcast every year on US network television).

Kathy Steinberg, who did the voice of Sally Brown, had not yet learned to read at the time of production, so she had to be fed her lines, often a word or syllable at a time, which explains the rather choppy delivery of the line “All I want is what I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share”.

Linus’s speech about the true meaning of Christmas is actually Luke 2:8-14 from the King James translation of the Bible. ~IMBD

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Last year I shared a Christmas tradition I love, and thought I’d do that again this year. My girls are almost grown but this is one tradition that actually gets better with age because it grows with them.

Years ago, I had the idea of taking a pretty Christmas box and filling it with presents for Jesus. After all, it’s His birthday and He, most of all, deserves gifts on His Birthday. But what could we put in that box that would honor our Savior?

So, I encouraged my young girls to draw pictures for Jesus, or write a message, or both. As they got older, words dominated drawings and theme became more about what we could give of ourselves to Christ throughout the year. Even if it was a burden or a way we wanted to change.

The fun part of this tradition was opening the box each year and reading what we’d written. This gave us a chance to reflect back and see what God had done in our lives over the past year. This also gave us inspiration for what to give Jesus for the New Year.

These small things can have such impact on the lives of our children. I’ve seen how much our advent quilt calendar and advent wreath have come to mean to my girls. And I can’t wait to see how they carry these things into the lives of their future families.

That’s a gift I’m waiting to receive. How about you? What gifts are you giving Jesus this year? What “gifts” are you hoping to receive in the future?

Merry Christmas!
Praying and believing,
Dineen

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