WILMM: hands

Why I love my man reason #7

Last night my boyfriend and I went out to dinner with his precious 93(?) year old Great Grandma Kay. I feel like every time I see my boyfriend with his great grandma I fall in love with him all over again. The way that he acts with her is the perfect picture of his character. Quiet, sweet, tender, helpful, loving.

I wish I could have taken a picture of his hands with hers. His hands, young and strong, his hands that rub my back when it hurts, carry in 50 pounds of dog food, play tug of war with my dog. Those same hands that gently help his Great Grandma out of the car and eagerly open doors for her. Her hands, small and fragile, wrinkled skin from years of raising four sons, mixing cookies for her church's bake sales, holding grandkids in her lap, folded in prayer. Oh, how beautiful their hands are together, his and hers. I fall in love with him all over again.

WFMW: Christmas count down- wrapped books

Today's WFMW is a themed edition talking about the holidays.

Everyone knows that the wait for Christmas is hard for kids, and my parents knew that too. To ease the waiting for Christmas, and to build a family tradition, my mom bought (and gathered) an assortment of Christmas books (My two favorite were the Jolly Christmas Postman and The Tale of the Three Trees). She wrapped 24 books and every night as a family we would gather around the basket she had put the wrapped books in and the three of us kids would decide together which book to open. After we opened it we sat and read it together.

My mom used the same books every year, but even though we had read the books it was still exciting to unwrap something. As the years passed we would always try to figure out which books were our favorites and open them first. It was a lot of fun. :) Last year my mom put the books out unwrapped (all three of us kids are over 15) and I was like, "you didn't wrap them!?" She just looked at me and was like, 'honey, I didn't think you would need them wrapped..." I have lots of fond memories of doing this and it really did make it exciting to count down to Christmas :)

splinters

I got a splinter in my finger today. I'm not quite sure how but I am sure that it hurt. It's amazing to me how our body is designed to warn us of things that should not be there. It was not a very big splinter, in fact, it was quite small. A tiny little piece wedged right underneath the skin of my pointer finger.

I was thinking about what a big impact that little tiny piece of wood or whatever it was (I have a feeling it might have been a piece of wheat from a project I had been working on) made. It rendered that finger almost useless. Sure, I could use it, but it hurt to do so and I avoided using it all costs.

Isn't that what happens to our souls as well? Splinters. Sin, lies, gossip, envy, rage, hate, lust, wedged in our soul. And isn't it amazing that our very soul can cry out and tell us of the splinters of sin that we are embodying, just as our flesh can tell us of material splinters?

I looked up the definition of splinter. The verb is what hit me. "Veb 1. Splinter- withdraw from an orginazation or communion." (thefreedictionary.com/splinter) Isn't that what sin does? Our sin wedges it's way between us and God. It breaks our communion with the very One who made our soul.

I was quick to remove the splinter in my finger. I didn't like the way it hurt, didn't like that it disabled the use of my finger. Why then, do I not quickly remove the splinters in my soul? The things that disable my soul from being near and hearing God?

I was alone when I found the splinter in my finger. It was in my dominant hand. It was not easy to remove it and I thought to myself, "I wish someone was here to take this out for me." I have someone willing to remove the splinters from my soul. Over and over again, He will take them out, and not only will He remove them, but He will heal the hole that they have left behind. I have a groove in my finger now that will take time to heal. I have holes in my soul that need to be dealt with.

Oh Lord, help me to forget not to neglet my soul. Help me to recognize those splinters when they come and run to You for their removal.

WILMM: pumpkin carving

WILMM reason #6 Pumpkin carving

The first year that my boyfriend and I started dating we carved a pumpkin together. I've always enjoyed carving pumpkkins. We didn't do it last year, and this year I wanted to. But with a twist. I wanted to carve a cow. :)

I tried. By myself. It failed miserably. I told my boyfriend about it and then I had to leave to babysit. When I got home my boyfriend had a huge pumpkin sitting on the table and a drawing. You know, so that the pumpkin would be structurally sound. Those were his words. "I drew a plan so that it will be structurally sound." Only a boy. :)

Well, he was right. It was structurally sound (hehe, it always makes me smile when I think of him saying that!) We carved it and let me tell you, our cow pumpkin rocks! :) Even more so because we made it together. How I love him! :)

Orphan Sunday

This Sunday is Orphan Sunday. Actually, November is National Adoption Awareness Month. I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and especially James 1:27, "religion, pure and undefiled with the God and Father is this, to look after orphans and widows in their tribulation --to keep himself unspotted from the world." (emphasis my own)

Something else that I heard that hit me was the fact that if only one person from every church in Ameria adopted our foster care system would be obsolete. Imagine that, if only we would listen to God and have a heart for those whom He commanded us to care for, there would be no children waiting for homes.

As Christians we are ALL called to help orphans and widows. Does that mean we are all called to adopt? No, I don't think so. But we can each do something, in our own way, no matter how small or big. So what can we do? The Orphan Awareness Foundation suggests some of the following:

-create "love packs" for children living in foster/kinship care, orphanages, or other insitutions

-write a letter to your state representative urging them to fund issuses involving orphaned children

-create/participate in a rally or demonstration promoting children's rights

-create/participate in a forum via internet concerning children's rights

These are just a few ideas. If you want the full list visit www.orphanawareness.org

It's so easy to get wrapped up in our own little world where we worry about ourselves, our loved ones, we brush off the needs of otheres and justify it by thinking that the need isn't all that great, or that someone else will pick up the slack. That's not how Jesus lived. When he saw a need He filled it. He has commanded us to do the same. I challenge you, I challenge myself, to look outside of my little world and start to live like Jesus did.

christians are like pumpkins

I am not a huge fan of halloween. I'm not anti halloween, nor do I think those that dare to participate in things like dressing up or trick or treating are bad, I just don't personally like it. I don't have a problem with kids dressing up and getting candy. I do however, have a problem with a lot of the costumes that are out there though.

When I was younger I used to love watching horror movies. The older I get the more that I find that those movies and those images leave an impression on my mind, one that I don't really care to have. It reminds me of Philipians 4:8, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -think about such things."

I think about what I am going to do with my kids during halloween when I start a family. I will let them dress up, but nothing that is bloody or gory, shows to much skin, or is dark and evil. I will not have a half eaten zombie, a slutty kitty, or a demon. I don't know if I will let my kids go house to house (depends on the area) or if we will participate in activities through our church. I don't know a lot of how I will celebrate halloween with my children, but I do know what we will learn when we carve our pumpkins.

I had heard a little story about how christians are like pumpkins quite a while ago. I loved it so much that I bought a pumpkin and carved it with the Sunday school class that I was teaching at the time.

I gathered the class around and we looked at the pumpkin. It was dirty, and I told the kids that when I had bought it it was surrounded by a lot of other dirty pumpkins. We washed off the outside with a clean rag and then I asked the kids if it was clean. They said yes. I cut off the top and then showed them the inside of the pumpkin. I told them about how even though we could clean the outside, the inside was still very yucky.

As the kids helped me clean out the pumpkin guts we talked about how just like the inside of the pumpkin was yucky and gross, the sin that is inside of us is yucky too. We talked about how the pumpkin had lots of seeds. We talked about how we have seeds of anger, bitternes, jelousy, ect inside of us. As we scooped out the seeds we talked about how when we invite Jesus into our hearts, He comes inside of us and takes all that yucky stuff away.

Once the inside was cleaned out we carved a smiley face, and we talked about how Jesus gives us joy. Then, when we put the candle inside and lit it, we talked about how when others see us they can see the light of God shinning through us. I really liked that we could take something that was not supposed to be christian related and relate it back to God. I love that something as simple as a pumpkin can be used to relate such intricate truths.

WFMW: worksheets

Since I work at a school I am constantly trying to find good (free!) websites that have good worksheets for the beginning things like shapes, colors, numbers, ect. I found this website (www.kidzone.ws) and I really like it, there's stuff on there for older kids as well but I haven't looked at it yet.

I've printed off a lot of the pages on here, and it's basically the "curiculum" that I'm usuing right now. It works for me!