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Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Virtue Of The Month: Gratitude

     The Virtue for this month is:

Gratitude: Letting others know
you see how they've
helped you
     
So far, to kick things off, we have made a "Gratitude Box".  I basically covered a shoe box in pretty paper.  It's really Christmas paper, but I think we can use our imagination from LAST month and pretend that it's just random green trees...right?  RIGHT!

In "real life", it is hard to see the words because the Sharpie I used is apparently running out.  But as you can see in the picture, it comes out looking a little like grati"fude".  Weird.

The plan is to use the slit in the top of the box for slips of paper containing things we are grateful for.  So far we are grateful for the following things:

DS #2: (Dear Son #2) is grateful for...his fork.  I am serious.  He said without it, his hands would get all dirty eating his pot pie for dinner.  Not as profound as I was looking for, but I will refrain from judging.  He does have a point.  No one wants gooey beef gravy between his fingers.

DH (Dear Husband) is grateful for being able to spend a few moments alone with individual members of the family in the past few days.  This is a rare occurrence in our household.  We tend to always be together...and if we are NOT all together, then the person or people who are not with us are out in the world somewhere.  

DD (Dear Daughter) is grateful for her family.  (awww....) I don't think she knows yet that I will not be allowing repeats.  ;-)

DS #1 is grateful that he gets to breathe another day...he probably knows that he will not be able to repeat, so he is getting the really profound ones out of the way at the beginning - while they are fresh in his mind.  Then when he can't think of anything "good" he'll resort to thanking God for his fork.  

And I am grateful that I did not have to make OR buy lunch for the family...nor did I have to serve it.  I got to have a piece of pizza with peppers and onions and sausage...and I don't even know what else, but it was SO TASTY. I washed it down with a Dr. Pepper, which is my FAVORITE poison, er, I mean...soda.  Afterward, I was told that I am a rock star just because I get to do stuff I LOVE - like pretending to be a super-cool human being on a stage twice a month...and smooching babies once a month...and now I even get to support the small group leaders every week!  

These are all volunteer opportunities in the Family Ministries department at my church.  It started out as a favor for a friend, and now I can't imagine NOT doing it.  How dull my life must have been before...  I may need to revise this statement in a few years, but at this current time in my life, my theory is this:  If you have found your spiritual gift, and you are able to take advantage of using that gift to serve others, I don't think you will get burned out.  Because you are in God's will and everything is in balance...and He will just work miracles through you.  I can't wait until a year from now so I can look back and think "Wow.  It's been a year already?  That time FLEW".  Of course, I could be completely wrong and be burned out in 6 months.  Or maybe I got my gift wrong?  But I really don't think so.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Conversations With a Five Year Old

DD:  Mom, does God ever make mistakes?
ME: Nope.  God never makes mistakes.  That's what makes him God.
DD: Does Jesus ever make mistakes?
ME: No. And you want to know what's extra-cool about that? He was HUMAN for 33 years...and he STILL never made a mistake! That's what makes him SO worthy of our praise.
DD: (eyes huge) Wow!  I wish I could be like Jesus.
ME: Me too, Dolly.  But I think if we TRY to be like Jesus, even though we will fail miserably, we'll probably turn out to be pretty decent people, don't you think?
DD: Yeah.  But what if we make mistakes while we're trying to be like Jesus?
ME:  That's what grace and forgiveness are for.  God will forgive us...even though we don't deserve it.
DD:  God is really awesome!
ME: He really is.
DD:  Did you put half and half in here? (looking at her hot cocoa)

And just as quickly as the deep, poignant conversation started, it was OVER!  But, WOW.  Where did I learn to say stuff like that? It almost sounded like a Hallmark movie. If you had told me ten years ago that I would be having a discussion like that with my daughter, I wouldn't have believed it.  I probably wouldn't have even believed I would HAVE a daughter, much less be having such a thoughtful, important conversation about the God of the universe with her.  That is the power of the Spirit.  He works constantly, but I don't notice a lot of the time.  Then I get little glimpses of the importance of my role as mother to my children...and am blown away.  I don't want to waste a moment of our time together!

Just Amy