Month: November 2008

Thanksgiving

This holiday is an interesting one for me. Growing up we didn’t have any kind of consistent “tradition” other than specific food items and our immediate family. Sometimes we would have extended family over, sometimes we would have church friends over, and sometimes it would just be the five of us. Whatever it was, it was always a day full of love and fun. When I got engaged, Thanksgiving was THE big holiday for Mike’s family, so we made it our tradition to have Thanksgiving dinner with the Devores at a rented hall in Mulberry Grove. Over the years the numbers have been high and low as various family members travel to different places sometimes, but the Devore Thanksgiving is always a constant. This year, the second year without Mike’s mom and Aunt Lois, there were only a select few in attendance (and no one brought mashed potatoes – a travesty in Mike’s book!), but it was a nice time of visiting and being together, even just the few of us. The afternoon nap upon returning home and just hanging out with Uncle D here at the house while I made party mix has made for a mellow Thanksgiving. But after all the busyness and craziness of the last year or two, I welcome the quietness of this day. The kids are now in bed and as I sit here and reflect, here are a few of the things I am thankful for this year:

  • My wonderful husband and the fact that we are getting closer everyday.
  • My sweet Anne, who is growing up and making me more proud of her all the time.
  • My active Ty, who makes me laugh and smile even while he’s being ornery.
  • My loving parents, who love me and my family unconditionally (and who I miss terribly this time of year!).
  • My sisters – life wouldn’t be the same if I couldn’t share it with them.
  • My nieces and nephews – those sweet voices over the phone made my heart soar today.
  • My brother-in-law, Derek – he is the best Uncle D ever!
  • My brother-in-law, Jeff – I love the fact that he is such a good husband to Steph and dad to the kids.
  • My friends – I couldn’t ask for better ones.

and most of all…

  • My Father God who has given me all these and more and who blesses me daily.

May I remember to be thankful always, and not just on Thanksgiving.

A Baby Changes Everything

(Written for the Greenville Free Methodist Church’s December newsletter)

If you know me at all, you know that music is a very important aspect of my  life. I love to hear something musically that grabs my attention, but most of the time, my initial reaction of liking a song is confirmed only when the lyrics grab me and that combination of powerful music and meaningful lyrics combine to form a piece that gets into my soul.

This phenomenon is especially true with Christmas music. I love Christmas music and listen to it every possible minute during the holiday season. My iPod boasts over 30 Christmas albums for a total of more than 375 songs. According to  iTunes, it would take me 21.4 hours to listen to my holiday playlist all the way through. And that doesn’t count the tapes and records at home that I don’t have digitized.

In all of this music, I hear different versions of the same song over and over and I love those songs, but the ones that stand out to me are the ones that are different, original, and really capture an aspect of Christmas that I hadn’t thought of in that way before.

Recently, as I was listening to the latest addition to my Christmas music collection, I found yet another one of those songs. It is sung by Faith Hill and is called, “A Baby Changes Everything.” The song tells about an unmarried teenage girl and how her life is changed by a baby. It goes on to talk of shepherds who gather around and angels who sing of this baby who has changed everything. The music is great, the lyrics fantastic, but it was the last verse of the song that gave me pause: “My whole life has turned around, I was lost but now I’m found. A baby changes everything. A baby changes everything.” I was speechless, breathless, with the gravity of that truth. A baby changed everything. The birth of Christ brought God to us in a way that wasn’t possible before. The birth of Christ made possible for us a relationship with God that we couldn’t have had before. The birth of Christ and my belief in and love for Him changes me in ways that wouldn’t be possible any other way.

Have we allowed this baby to really change us? As we walk through this season of Advent, perhaps we need to pray about and open ourselves up to the work of the Lord and really allow His spirit to penetrate our hearts and change us. Pastor Doug has been talking to us throughout the fall about harnessing the power to change. How will you harness that power and allow the birth of a baby to change everything for you?