December Happenings: Pre- Christmas Eve

Like most families, December has been a busy month for us. This year it seemed like we crammed more activities into the yuletide than usual! Here's a rundown of some of our December happenings.

At the beginning of the month we went to see the Nutcracker Ballet with Grammy and Papa. We've wanted to take her for several years, but this was the first year we felt she could handle the two hour performance. She did just fine and even said, "I can hear hear the story even though there's no talking!" She meant that she understood everything that was happening. I think it helped that we have a CD of the music and she has a book with the original Nutcracker story.

We had two trees this year, an artificial one and a real one. The fakie was new and it went in the dining room. I made all of the ornaments for that tree. I started making them back in September or October, so I could put the tree up right after Thanksgiving.

We bought our real tree and tied it to the top of our Honda Civic. It  probably looked pretty ghetto tied to the top of it, but we got it home! It went in front of the living room windows where we put it every year. I think it's the freshest tree we've ever had. We bought it the 12th and it's not dried out yet. Maybe it's just because it's the first year I've faithfully remembered to water it!

We made paper snowflakes to put on our windows one evening. Methodius especially liked the paper clippings.

For several years I've wanted to make gingerbread houses, not the kit in a box kind, but from scratch. They turned out really cute and were fun to make. Gemma ate a bunch of candy while we were making them.

On Christmas Eve Eve we went to my mom's house to make cookies with cousins, aunts, great aunts, and great grandma. The kids had a great time and I found that there's no convincing them that a pound of sprinkles won't stay on one cookie! Several times cookies were covered in mountains of sprinkles.

These are all the pre-Christmas Eve pictures I have, but we did a few more things that I don't have pictures of that I should include anyway. We went to Knott's Betty Farm and saw Snoopy on Ice. We did our traditional dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory and tour of the lights at the Mission Inn with Grammie and Papa. Gem and I made chocolate covered cherries with my mom and then had my own candy and fudge making sessions at home. There was gingerbread boy cookie decorating at Grammie's house. I went to a Christmas Tea, and of course, there was the Higgins Family Christmas Brunch  a week before Christmas.  Oh, add in some Christmas crafting and decorating into that mix too!

Phew! No wonder I was so tired after Christmas. That's a lot of activity and I haven't gone over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day yet!

Kneeling

No Christian is beyond any sin. We have a tendency to think we are holier than we actually are. When we hear of a Christian falling into the sin of adultery or embezzling  we are prone to think, "I would never do such a thing!" This passage in Isaiah tells us otherwise:

"How the faithful city has become a harlot! It was full of justice; righteousness lodged in it, but now murders. Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water." Isaiah 1:21-22

It says that those who were once faithful have become the biggest sinners. The pure are now impure. King David too, is an example of a 'righteous' man who loved the Lord falling into major sin when he had and affair with another man's wife, got her pregnant, and killed her husband to cover up his own sin.

The road that led the faithful city to harlotry and David to sin was pride; the thought that was acted upon was that they knew better than God the way to live, they knew His commandments, but choose their own way above His. I often find myself traveling along that same road. In my pride I forget about the Lord, choosing my way over His, ignoring His calling, all the while thinking that I'm some how still doing all right. 

Both the Old and New Testament warn of the danger of pride. Proverbs 16:18 says:

"Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall." Also in 1 Corinthians 10:12: "Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall."

Just because we have a propensity to sin greatly, it doesn't give us an excuse to sin greatly. 1 Corinthians 10 goes on to say in verse 13:

"No temptation has overtaken you such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it."

It seems to me that the only way to keep from falling into sin is to stand on your knees instead of on your feet. Our feet will take us in the direction in the way we want to go, but when we are on our knees before our Lord yielding to Him in prayer, we are acknowledging that His way is right and we need Him to help us to do what is right. As we do that we find that He is faithful to help us endure to the end. The only was to walk uprightly before God is on our knees.

Right

We always want to be right, don't we? Win the argument, make the other person acknowledge our superior intellect and apologize to us while we smugly forgive, but never apologize ourselves. My friend and I were just talking about how we do this to our spouses, children, families, and friends. The Lord must be doing some sanctifying in us in that area because as we've been struggling with these things, it just so happens that the section of scripture we've been studying is addressing these same issues. I love how the Lord does that!
"Come to terms quickly with your enemy before it is too late and you are dragged into court, handed over to an officer, and thrown in jail. I assure you that you won't be free again until you have paid the last penny. "
Matthew 5:25-26

Instead of insisting that we're right, we need to put out the spark of contention before is it consumes us in a fire of anger and bitterness. Be the first one to apologize, even if the other person started the fight. A simple "I'm sorry that I upset you," can stop an argument before it starts. It doesn't matter if the other person is wrong or if your way is better. Most of the things that people clash about aren't that important. By refusing to disagree about silly things we can promote peace in relationships. Humble yourself. It doesn't matter if you win the argument or not. The price of humility is much less that the price of a fractured relationship.
 
 
How many times have we gone to church or Bible study mad or irritated with our spouse, or children. Or we think as we walk into church thinking, "I hope I don't see HER. I can't believe she would do that to me! How can a Christian behave like that?" I know I'm guilty of those things. Look at what the Bible says:
 
"So if you are standing before the altar in the Temple, offering a sacrifice to God, and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there beside the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God."
Matthew 4:23-24
 
We may as well not even come to church if have an attitude of unforgiveness towards anyone!  We'll miss out on being in the presence of God, of hearing Him speak, of sweet fellowship with other believers because our hearts are consumed with anger and bitterness. We can't be right with our God unless we try to make things right with others.
 
So, got any reconciling to do? I have.