Here are a couple pictures (taken in manual! -please forgive the imperfections, I’m still learning) of our last week and more of the same to continue through this holiday weekend. I promise I will be better about posting – right after this holiday season which brings so many more plans into our everyday lives. I’m working hard to include times of rest in each day – so far that rest has come in many disguises….namely major messes, lots of sewing, and drop everything I thought I was going to do to join in taking kids ice skating (practiced more photos in manual :-D).
This is three of the girl cousins asleep in my living room, under the “lights of the Christmas tree”. This was one night last week – as the trial run for the next couple nights, because we are actually starting Christmas tonight. Yes, my “tree” is actually 3 porch decorations strung with one strand of lights. This is the space our living room can afford and how my children have done it the last few years, :-D. Tonight my cousins are coming and will spend the night, then tomorrow is a hang out day with a big dinner (dad smokes meat – yummy!) with all 16 of us. Then the cousins will go to their house and we’ll have our traditional Eve of Christmas Eve with my brothers’ families. We do our Christmas on Christmas Eve morning so they can each have their own Christmas morning and go to their wives’ families on Christmas day. This year we added one more night/morning to include my cousins :-D.
I think of this ‘pin’ when I’m trying to not go crazy when my living room looks like this! My living room is 15×15 and we do a lot of living {read: all our living – school, work, crafts} in this space. This is on Tuesday night working on Christmas presents.
{Memories in the Making!}
Yesterday was a significant day in Alaska – December 21st. It is the shortest day of the year, from here on out we gain daylight. Starting with 2 seconds today – yes, every little bit counts! This is the view from my living room, yesterday during the brightest part of the day. During the winter I don’t get any direct sunlight into my apartment. The sunlight on the trees is the most I see for many months – when there is sunlight from now on it will be inching its way down the trees. 😀 – yes!!!
I hope you are having a very merry and blessed Christmas season, even with the lessons learned and other hardships of the year. There is restoration available to all who ask – John 21:15-19. This weeks sermon is still in my mind. The reality is I will fail. Very simply we were walked through the process of Peter’s Restoration, this is after he has denied Christ three times (earlier in John, chapter 18). I’m going to note these steps of restoration with our Christ here, so I know where I can find it again later :-).
***He will confront & convict me. The Holy Spirit will. {this is not the same as others confronting, and conviction is not the same as guilt} Conviction from the Spirit always, always carries the promise of God’s affection. {it’s not my place to think (believe) my sin is too big (or too many) to be forgiven – He promises to forgive us when we ask} Conviction from the Spirit does not lead to moralistic self-help. It is not up to me to be better by doing something – I need to repent; it’s a heart issue.
***Respond with confident repentance. I am known deeply and personally by Him. He already knew I would fail, He knew before He created me. He knew I’d mess up before I became His, yet He still chose me.
***Get on with the mission He has for me. I need to keep moving through life. I will fail again and He will forgive me again. He knew this was the way it would be all along. He has a plan for me, a perfect plan (Jeremiah 29:11-13). So this is the pattern — Me: fail; Him: lovingly confront/convict; Me: repent; Him: forgive/restore; Me: fail again; Him: lovingly confront/convict; Me: repent again; Him: forgive/restore freely; repeat throughout life. {My summary: I am not perfect, I will fail Jesus. He will confront me. If I respond with repentance, He will forgive me. He will restore me. …and I will fail again. He didn’t create me to be perfect, but to have a relationship with Him. To spend time with Him on a regular basis. To love Him. To trust Him.}