Thanksgiving, Inspiration, Christmas Preparations, Giggles, and Songs

Our 10-Year-Old Deep Thinker's Recent Thoughts
While listening to Christmas songs on the radio, our 10-year-old said, "I think the song, 'O Christmas Tree' is too disrespectful. The way it proclaims 'OH Christmas tree' and 'how lovely are thy branches' sounds like tree worship."

Her insight that morning was a gift to me. (Gift #794)  Ironically, I was relating this comment to my Bible study later that evening, and she had heard the same song come on the radio at the same time (7:55am to be exact), my daughter heard it on the radio and she too had thought the same thing about the song as my daughter had said.  Gloria and I have been attending LAMBS together for many years, and we have been assigned to the same small group most years.  She and I would usually discuss Biblical truths at a wavelength the others either thought was strange or did not understand.  We've joked over the years about how we share the same brain, so I found it very interesting indeed that she would have the same thoughts that my daughter spoke at the same time. 

My daughter tends to be deeply reflective and highly sensitive like I am, so it has been fascinating to hear about what she's been thinking as she grows and matures. (Gift #795)  She'll find that being wired mentally like that is a double edged sword.  On one hand, you have profound insights and can easily develop critical thinking skills.  On the other hand, you can't turn your mind off when it is time to sleep, and you tend to over-analyze everything which makes decision-making very difficult.  There are a lot of pros and cons to thinking too much.

Recently, she's been pondering the Lordship of Christ (a good thing about which to think too much) and how salvation is not just about belief, for even the pagans believe, but about surrendering one's entire life to the Lord....not as a dead sacrifice but as a living sacrifice. (Gift #796)  Making Jesus Lord of your life is giving Him control and authority over your choices and doing all your work for His glory, not your own.

Over dinner last night, she explained that while reading about Josiah and the Passover sacrifices in 2 Chronicles during her personal Bible study, she was reminded that professing Christ as Lord is costly. She mused, "What if God asked me to sacrifice our bunny, Muffin? Would I give her up willingly for Him?"

Apparently Muffin overheard our conversation.

 So she did some fact checking.

While she knows that Christ's perfect sacrifice fully atoned for her sin so that animal sacrifices are no longer necessary (Gift #797), those thoughts inspired her to write a song about her decision to make Jesus Lord over her life (Gift #798).  She gave me permission to share her lyrics as a way of setting up a memorial stone for this place in her faith journey.  She's working on the music now.  Perhaps I can add a video of her singing it later.

Why should I fear when evil days come
When wicked deceivers surround me?
Well, I feel like I'm living that day now.
Everything is so soulless and empty.

Listen to our music! Look at our dances!
What is this world coming to?
I feel like something's missing.
I feel like my life's not true.

I've not been listening to my Holy Guide.
I've been letting the world decide.
What is wrong and what is right?
I want God to lead my life!

I've already decided!
So let's put the past behind.
Keep moving forward.
There's no stopping now.

Why should I fear when wicked deceivers surround me?
I'll keep moving forward
Thoughts swirling around in my head
My life in is His hands now!

Don't you see what I see?
I'm letting my God decide
I'm not the only one with choices!
He's for everyone!

(One of these stanzas is the chorus that she keeps repeating, but I'm not sure which one, so I left out all the chorus repeats.)

Christmas is approaching, and the kiddos are so excited.  While singing Christmas carols, our kid started singing the Christmas classic, "Let It Snow", to the tune of "Let It Go"....as if we can stand to hear the melody one more time. It's all your fault, Disney.

Tis the Season....
I recently had a realization....our daughter, who already has 12 hours of gymnastics a week & school/church responsibilities, also has 10 different drama/chorus productions, TKD belt testing, countless rehearsals, & various parties and doctor's appointments all within the next two weeks when I need to be lesson planning, teaching, Christmas decorating/shopping/cooking/card sending and packing for the family to fly to OK.  If she's been too sick to leave the house and audition, how did she end up in so many Christmas productions?  I can't figure it out, so I'm just staying up late and working down the punch list. Although this is the list I would rather follow:

Since we moved over Christmas last year, we did not get to decorate.  So this year, we get to figure out how to decorate a brand new house for Christmas.  We paid big bucks to move (twice) and store a house full of furniture while this house was being built.  Then when the house was done, we ended up replacing most of what we had stored with new furniture and decor since the old items did not match the new house.  Ugh...so much time and money wasted!  The same principle applied to our Christmas tree.  It needed to be replaced.   We finally bought a new tree after missing all the great Black Friday deals and settling for a meager 20% off a floor model whose lights stopped working as soon as we got home.  My husband spent two days (or approximately 6 football/basketball games) checking every bulb twice until he finally found the problem.  Here's our new tree in our living room next to the snow village that belonged to my late grandparents. 

We still need to refinish that buffet, but that's a very nice solid wood (almost antique) piece that has sentimental value and is in better condition that any of my brand new furniture, so I'm afraid I'll mess it up if I try to sand, stain or paint it.  The eclectic art work in our fine art room is the result of marrying into a family of Native American artists while I am still holding on to my more traditional European style pieces.

The mantel is almost done.  I want to put a light up glass present and a wreath, or a cross or something to that effect in the middle where the portrait is now.  The fact that the wooden train set is off center bothers me in this picture, but it's also proof my son has been playing with the decorations and enjoying them, so that makes me happy.

 

We moved the advent lighthouse to the breakfast nook dining table so the kids can enjoy it from all sides.  That tradition means so much to the kids.  (Gift #799) We change out the advent readings each year to keep it interesting for them.  This year's selected advent verses have associated family activities to go along with them.  I'm all for some kinesthetic learning to reinforce the reading passage. (Gift #800)

We have also been trying to take more pics of the kids with the hope of using one for our Christmas cards.   I also needed an 8-year photo of our November birthday boy.

Looking great at 8!

We attempted some family shots at my aunt and uncle's house.  He's a big hunter (bear, deer, ducks), so the gun on the mantel may possibly offend some of our Christmas card recipients, so we  used the lake view shot instead.

This one looks like my pants are on fire! :-)

At least Nana got a photo of all her grandchildren for her Christmas cards.

We ended up using a collage showing snapshots of all the many changes for our family since we sent out Christmas cards last year.  Some of those changes include:

• We said goodbye to Cody and welcomed Muffin into our family.

• We FINALLY moved into a new house!
• We stopped homeschooling, and my son enrolled into the same private Christian school his sister had started attending a semester earlier.  That was hard for all of us.  It was quite a transition for everyone, and both kids and I often wish we were homeschooling so we could sleep in, move at a much faster pace, have flexible hours, stop wearing uniforms, enjoy much shorter school days, have MUCH more money in our pockets, and have more control over the kids' education.  But for reasons I will not go into, my husband felt it was best for the kids to go to this school for now.
• Then I started teaching at the school this past fall, and I realized it's a much better place that I initially thought.  What they may lack in academics, they more than make up for in discipleship and loving nurture, and we have a team in place, which includes myself, working to greatly improve the math/science program.  God is doing great things there, and I feel privileged to be teaching seniors and tutoring students of all ages at this school. (Gift #801)

Where I teach and our kids learn

• Our daughter started competitive gymnastics and showed us that she has quite a bit of God given athletic ability.  (Gift #802)  Through gymnastics, she has learned to face her fears and turn her weaknesses into strengths (beam example). (Gift #803)
• Our kids and my husband all started studying Tae Kwon Do together with the venerable Master Lee (who we believe is a committed Christian though he isn't very vocal about it).  They are all green belts now. How our daughter keeps progressing when she goes only about 10% as often as the guys go (due to so much time at gymnastics) is amazing to me.  I love to watch them exercising and growing in discipline together. (Gift #804)  That alone is worth all the high costs.  I wish I was taking lessons too, but with all the kids' extracurricular activities costing us almost as much as tuition, I denied myself.  Besides, I need that time alone at home to do lesson plans and to train with my own faster, high intensity mixed martial arts and weight lifting programs.

 

Thanksgiving
We had the best Thanksgiving ever this year.  It was busy and hectic, mind you, as I did all my usual Christmas  deal shopping and cooking, and I also hosted a super fun dinner party (Gift #805) for new teacher friends I call the A-Team (two days of cooking & cleaning for the 4 hour party).  In addition, I made time to design and create 95 detailed PowerPoint slides, 5 handouts, 2 experiments, 3 simulations, and 3 games to teach my beloved students the intricacies of probability theory.  But in the midst of all the rush, God had a wonderful surprise in store for all of us.

When I was a very little girl, I had a favorite cousin.  I guess that isn't saying a whole lot since I only had two cousins, one brother and a few aunts and uncles on both sides of my family combined, but this cousin was someone I admired.  He was kind to me when the others teased me.  He was charming, handsome, and devoted to our family.  He was considerably older than me. He enlisted in the army when I was still in elementary school, soI never got to know him well.  Something changed when he returned.  He got married and left our family. We never heard from him again, not even when our grandparents and great-grandma died. It's been probably 30 years since I last saw him.  I was an awkward middle schooler in braces with wings cut in the front of my short hair and a tight perm in the back.  It was a hideous way for him to remember me, but thankfully, I don't think he remembered me at all.

Over the past few years, his first wife fell ill and died, and he later married a wonderful woman who encouraged him to rejoin our family.  He walked back into our family for real on Thanksgiving Day, and I was so excited I could hardly stand it. (Gift #806)  And then when I consider that our Abba Father rejoices infinitely more than I ever could when one of His precious children comes home, I am completely undone. How great is the Father's love for us!  (Gift #807) I was reminded of the father in the parable of the prodigal son (though I would not dare call my cousin a prodigal) wanting to run out to meet him and serve him the best I had to offer.  All has been long forgiven, so it was time to celebrate.  Welcome home, Jeffrey!  We love you!

My husband took this picture just as he and his wife walked into my aunt and uncle's front door.  He did not recognize me at all.  He looked the exact same to me except he had less hair.

The Thanksgiving food was delicious as always.

And the kids were silly as expected.

 Nana kept her ornament tradition for the grandchildren.

Personalized Tae Kwon Do black belt figures!

 

Inspirational
I was so thankful for these double rainbows one recent afternoon which served as a double reminder that He is always faithful and always keeps His promises. (Gift #808)

After waiting nine years for my sailor to come home (spiritually & logistically), several years to conceive our first child, five years to sell our last house, and enduring countless other episodes of waiting, we've learned a lot about waiting.  This article sums up those lessons quite well.

Probability and Apologetics
While preparing to introduce a new unit on probability to my statistics class, I have been digging up some probability calculations. This process has me thanking God for the way he reveals Himself through probability and statistics.  Consider the evidence that Jesus is the Messiah. We know of at least 353 prophecies that Jesus fulfilled, though Edersheim claimed that there were 456. The probability of Jesus fulfilling only 8 is 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000.

The calculated probability for Him fulfilling only 48 is 1 in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000!

Imagine what the probability would be of fulfilling all 456!

The probability of a single protein molecule coming into existence by mere chance is "1 in 10 to the 300th power,” or 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000!

Yet, the probability that an omniscient, omnipotent God could create every molecule in the universe is 1 to 1! (Gift #809)

Parenting
"Deresiewicz claims that..... Instead of being nurtured towards real curiosity and a genuine sense of citizenship, these millennials are conditioned to think that everything they do is for the purpose of looking good in the eyes of admissions officers and employers: you earn good grades not because they mean you are learning something, but rather because they will help you stand out from your peers when applying to the Ivies. You engage in community service not because you wish genuinely to make a positive difference in the lives of others but rather because that is how you burnish your resume -- service as check-off box. You play sports not because they build character and teamwork and are a whole lot of fun, but because you want to try to get recruited for a college team. You study art or music not because you wish to refine your understanding of human nature, creativity and culture but because it will help you look smarter. There is little intrinsic value in what you do." 

This article totally leaves out that the key component to joy & fulfillment & realizing true meaning and purpose in life is through total trust in, commitment to, and vibrant relationship with Christ as we glorify Him, but it still raises much needed awareness over the sad state of many students of this age.  I'm including the quote and link here as a reminder to keep my kids focused on what really matters.