One Word At A Time: Broken

By Ginny (MAD21)

One of the many things children have to learn while growing up is how to express the way they feel appropriately. Imagine what the world would be like if adults handled themselves the same way that a child does when they feel frustrated, angry or upset. Scary. Aside from one experience I had with a project manager throwing a temper tantrum in my office several years ago (I actually wondered if he was going to throw himself to the floor!), most adults I know handle themselves and their emotions a little more judiciously.

As a child, the first experience I can remember when I learned a hard lesson about self-control was after a particularly bad day. I don't remember the specifics, except it was a fight with my mother, but I remember the anger I felt, and the frustration in not knowing how to express it. The first thing I did was go to my room and start crying (of course). But then I noticed my box full of crayons.

I loved to color. I had tons of half colored coloring books and papers everywhere. Like most kids, I had a lot of crayons I had collected over the few years of my young life, and I had been keeping them neatly in one of my old metal lunch boxes (remember those?). For the most part I always took very good care of my belongings, including my crayons. What kid doesn't like to color with nice whole, unbroken, crayons? But in one fleeting, angry moment, I made a terrible decision, one that I could not undo.

Click to read more ...

One Word At A Time: Reflection

By Ginny (MAD21)

Nothing is usually ever as it appears. We may be lucky enough every now and then to have something be genuinely what we see before us, but it is unlikely to be 100% face value.

I once had someone tell me there are four different ways that we are seen:

Things only God sees in us;

Things only we see in ourselves;

Things only other see in us; and

Things everyone sees.

Only God. He knows it all. What's the "it?" Everything, that's what. The beginning, the end, and everything in between. He knows us and our children, and our children's children. He knows all the choices we have made and will make, and what choices others will make that will affect our lives forever. He knows what he wants us to become, and who we will choose to be.

Click to read more ...

One Word At A Time: Rejoice

By Ginny (MAD21)

It's easy to get weighed down this time of year. But honestly, I think it is a time that we need to seriously prioritize all the things we think we need to get done. This is a time when we should be free to truly enjoy the coming celebration on December 25th.

Our family plans long in advance of December. We purchase gifts throughout the year that we know people will love and save them for Christmas morning. As a family, we also make the majority of the gifts for the adults in our lives (yummy applesauce with special details in the wrapping). We feel that doing this teaches our kids a number of things: anticipation is a good thing; always keep others in mind and what might make them happy; delayed gratification; and the true joy in giving a thoughtful gift.

But finishing the shopping early does more than this for our family. It allows us to relax and enjoy all the wonderful things that happen around us during the holidays. We can really rejoice in all the fun and beautiful things that happen in December, and makes it so we can honestly reflect on who Christ is and was and what he did for us. It also helps to take the focus off of us (me-me-me!), and onto others who might need a little help to make the holidays wonderful for their families.

"Rejoice in the Lord always! I will say it again, Rejoice!" (Philippians 4:4)

Just as a child is full of anticipation for weeks before their birthdays, we should also be filled with the anticipation of being able to celebrate the most important birthday: that of our Savior.

"Let the heavens REJOICE, let the heavens be glad... Rise up and praise Him!"

This post is a participant in a blog carnival over at Peter Pollock's place.
Be sure to go and check out what everyone else wrote on: Rejoice.

One Word At A Time: Fellowship

By Ginny (MAD21)

I suppose it's a little like cheating. It's kind of like getting to see the test before having to take it yourself. You'll have to allow me to indulge in this tiny bit of defiance. I could come up with all kinds of good justifications as to why my posts are published the day after Bridget's carnival goes up on her site. Would you believe it's because the timing works better for my blog? Yes, that actually is the real reason.

Honestly, I've come to enjoy reading others' posts before I have published my own, sometimes even before I have finished writing it. Mostly because it makes me think deeper. Sometimes writing for blogs feels like having to complete an assignment. I really don't want it to turn into that here. I've come to enjoy reading the other posts first because then writing mine feels more like a conversation. It feels more... complete. After reading several other posts in the past day, I also realized that it feels more like... Fellowship.

We are all talking about Fellowship over at Bridget's place this week. Fellow blogger Kely over at Dangerous Breeze wrote about fellowship being the church. Amy Sorrells wrote about companionship and communion. These posts came so close to what I was going to write about myself, but then I read Glynn's post over at Faith, Fiction and Friends that I felt went one step further and really hit the nail on the head for me. In his post, "It's not Coffee Talk," he says that, "...Fellowship may be more akin to what Jesus had with the “good thief” on the cross on Golgotha than anything we define it as today."

Click to read more ...

One Word At A Time: Gratutude

By Ginny (MAD21)

Fall is my favorite season. Not that I want to offend the other seasons, because there are a lot of things to be thankful for during all of them (like SNOW!). But there is just so much about fall that I love: the smell; the colors; swearshirt weather; playing in the leaves; hiking in dry, cool (but not cold) weather; Operation Christmas Child; homemade applesauce with apples straight from the tree; going letterboxing; hayrides at the farm with my kids; fall festivals... I could go on and on but I think you get the idea.

In preparation for this post I wanted to review my list of things I was thankful for last year. And honestly a year later all of the things on that list are still the things I'm most thankful for, only I'm a year more passionate about them. I'll pause here so you can go back to read it to review.... We good? Ok.

I may live in Maryland, but I am thankful that Idaho will always be my home.

Click to read more ...