Be still in the presence of the Lord,
and wait patiently for Him to act.
Don't worry about ______________
or fret about _____________.
Psalm 37:7 NLT
I am thankful for a sense of peace. There are 12 days until Natalija and Vilnis come to live with us again. This time around I am so aware of how out of control I am over their well-being. Strangely enough, this has not caused more anxiety, but greater trust. I cannot know what the future will hold for us or for them. I cannot heal their hurts. I can ask God to help me love them for the month that I tuck them into bed and remind them to put their dirty clothes in the laundry chute. I can raise my eyes and heart in expectation to the one who loves them more than I ever could...and I can wait patiently for His best plan to unfold.
I love Christmas. Each year in October I start pulling out a large notebook of past ideas, recipes, decoration notes, shopping lists, addresses for cards and throw myself into the work of making the holiday season magical. If I am not careful, by Thanksgiving weekend, I have already peaked in terms of my energy and enthusiasm and am somewhat unenthused about finishing all of the tasks I have begun.
This feeling of being pooped out always brings me back to Jesus, who helps me remember who all this hoopla is for in the first place, and I settle into quiet moments with my Savior.
I love the tradition of Advent. I love lighting a candle at the table at mealtime and counting down the days until the awaited celebration. I love the season of finding a way to celebrate each day. I love sitting by the tree full of white lights and listening to the songs I have hand-selected on Pandora. I love having coffee in the morning while I read through Luke (24 chapters...roughly one for each day of the season...to focus on the life of Christ and not just the birth.) I love having cocoa or cider with my children sometime in the evening or afternoon when they desperately need some quietness too.
I have been asking Jesus for some new ideas on how to better devote myself to Him during this season of much joy and much activity.
Here are a few of the things I intend to try:
Listen and watch for opportunities.
This week I sat down with my girls and half-way watched two new holiday specials. I was not too impressed initially, since the content was completely secular. However, as I pulled clippings from holiday magazines and folded laundry alongside my t.v. watching kids, I heard messages that could honor Christ if properly noted.
In Hoops and YoYo, there is the theme of "giving up your dream so that another's dream could be realized." In Elf on the Shelf, is a song about how "Christmas is a great time for forgiveness". After we turned off the television, I took a few moments and asked my girls why they thought Christmas was a good time for forgiveness, and they were able to connect the babe in the manger with the offer of forgiveness given by God through His son. We talked about what sacrifice could mean in our lives.
I could have finished folding the laundry and missed the little opportunities hidden within a secular moment, but God is speaking all around us, even through cartoons, if we have ears to hear.
Do you hear what I hear?
Stop and consider God's wonders.
Job 37:14
O Lord, my God
When I in awesome wonder
Consider all
the worlds thy hands hath made.
I see the stars
I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout
the universe displayed.
Then sings my soul,
My Saviour God to Thee
How Great Thou Art!
Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary.
What we need is to love without getting tired.
-Mother Teresa
Again and again, the Lord keeps bringing me back to "Don't worry about doing something great, or being someone extraordinary. What I'm interested in is faithful love."
May I be acutely aware of the thousand small opportunities in front of me.
Yesterday I walked my children to their classroom. This was a rare occurrance. They are always more than happy to jump out of the mini-van door in the carpool line and hit the pavement running ahead of me. But yesterday, I walked with them, trailing their dust. And on the way back down the hallway, I saw a small girl with breakfast crumbs encrusted around her mouth, sticky substances flowing from her nose, wailing at the top of her lungs. I saw a slightly larger boy fussing at her and leaving her behind as he went on to class. As I stopped to ask her what was wrong, I realized that she was lost, grumpy, and that her brother had no patience left for her tears. I asked her if she was in kindergarten, and she managed to nod her head. Turns out that she is classmate of my youngest daughter. We walked hand-in-hand to the kindergarten hall and I felt such a sense of God saying, "This is it. Notice the people who are in front of you." At least one hundred kids passed her by, and at that moment in time, no adults were to be found in that section of the hallway. It wasn't hard at all to stop, and that was the small assignment God had for me that brought great joy. I am sure that she went about her day and forgot all about our encounter, but God etched those moments in my memory. Stop. Notice. Care. Don't think about sanitizing your hands as you hold hers. Offer my faithful love.
May I not miss the small assignments that God has for me today.
