OHMYGOSH. This never fails to make me laugh!
It's an oldie but a goodie. Enjoy! Or plug your ears, depending on your taste in music...if you can call this music. Too funny!
LINK: O Holy Night
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
The Key: Communication
After work, I needed to stop by church for a quick meeting with the pastor. Once that task was completed, I had just enough time to drive through Mickey D's for chicken sandwich and a Diet Coke before I picked the kids up from school. Imagine my embarrassment and surprise when my credit card was declined for a few pennies over $2.00!A quick phone call to the C.C. company revealed my kid's school transposed the first two numbers of the tuition fee we pay through that credit card and the mistake put us over our limit. I called the school to get them to correct the problem and was told they had voided that charge on the day the mistake was made. They even emailed me a copy of the void! I called the C.C. company with that information and, - here's a shocker - I was told there was nothing they could do about it until they could speak to the school directly to confirm the void. It appears the void shows up on the school's machine but not on the C.C. company's records. The school has to contact the company by phone to correct the error. If the school had simply called right away, this whole fiasco would have been avoided.
In this technologically advanced age where people can electronically charge beau coup bucks to a random card, the credit cannot be issued until actual voices are heard. Grrr....
Now that I am beginning to calm down, there is a definite lesson to be learned here. How many misunderstandings could be kept to a minimum or avoided completely if we would just discuss things directly with the parties involved as soon as possible? I am as guilty of that as anyone. Someone asks me to do something, I tell them I will, then promptly forget all about it. If I would contact that person as soon as I recognize my error and humbly apologize, the matter would be dealt with and we could move on. Instead, I realize I forgot, then go out of my way to avoid that person for as long as possible, creating an unnecessary strain on our relationship.
During the Christmas season, gatherings occur at least weekly. Each one of these events has the potential to be wonderful or extremely unpleasant depending on the quality of our relationships with the others in attendance. Here's an idea: If there is something I haven't communicated properly about with someone who will be there, I am going to make a point of contacting that person before the event to settle the matter. Eating a little humble pie beforehand will make all those Christmas treats taste even sweeter when we arrive without any bitter baggage to mar the flavor.
I'm off to make a phone call!
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. James 5:16
Saturday, December 08, 2007
And For Dessert...
Red Velvet Cupcakes with Whipped Cream Cream Cheese Frosting!
These just scream Christmas, don't they!My daughter has already placed her birthday cake order for next year: She doesn't care what kind of cake she has, but it must be frosted with this white fluffy stuff!
I know I overmixed the cake batter. The cupcakes shouldn't crack like that.
Fluffy frosting covers a multitude of sins! Well, at least baking sins...
I found the recipes at allrecipes.com.
Link to frosting recipe.
Link to easy, if not authentic, recipe for Easy Red Velvet Cupcakes.
These treats may become a Christmas tradition at my house!
Friday, December 07, 2007
The Hills are Alive with the Sound of H.S. Musical
Perfect, just perfect. Love it! Someone else blogged this one and I simply HAD to share it here!
Oh, Christmas Tree
These little trees served as the centerpieces at our Soup Social last night. Aren't they cute?! I made them myself, so I guess I should be more humble about them, right? Nah. They're cute.They took a bit of time to make, but they added the perfect mood to our evening. Plus, they served as door prizes. Two birds, one stone. I love that! The original instructions called for using two shades of green on each tree, but I really liked how they looked when I made them all one color. The dark green ones were nice, but I really liked the lighter green ones best. How 'bout you?
Thursday, December 06, 2007
My Delight
Praise God, the Soup Social is now history! We had a wonderful time and enjoyed amazing homemade soups and salads!
I thought I'd go ahead and share here what I shared there. I was so nervous! I am definitely a writer, not a speaker! Sorry about the length. I guess speeches are longer than what I traditionally write. Oh, well. Without further ado, here it is, in writing:
I am one of five daughters. Two sisters are a decade older than me and I am the middle daughter in the youngest grouping of three girls. We were known as "The Girls." Any of you from families with more than one female child can probably relate. We were most often seen as a single unit, "The Girls, " rather than individuals. That worked out pretty great most of the time.
We were able to share any punishments fairly evenly.
When we asked our parents to watch us, they could watch "The Girls" instead of having to watch three individual performances. Between the three of us, we could do a pretty passable rendition of the Wizard of Oz!
Sometimes "The Girls" scored a bigger present at Christmas than we would be able to coax out of my folks individually.
For example, one Christmas when we were all still elementary school-aged, we charged into the living room at the crack of dawn....OK, maybe it was still dark outside, but morning is anytime after midnight. At least, that's what we convinced our parents. We began the exciting task of discovering the treats in our Christmas stockings and opening the presents when one package - one really big package - caught our eye. It was leaning against the wall, sort of behind the tree and it had no tag; no name was attached to it. We stole glances at each other, communicating in a language only close siblings can understand. We were fairly confident it was a present for "The Girls." When I couldn't stand not knowing any longer (I may have lasted one full minute), I asked my parents who the present was for and, with a twinkle in his eye, my Dad confirmed our suspicions.
I could tell from his expression that this was something B.I.G. I knew immediately what it must be: A Barbie Townhouse! My mind snapped into warp speed, imagining my Sweet 16 Barbie riding up and down that super-cool elevator, making dinner, taking bubble baths and maybe even driving around her estate in her new convertible (my birthday is in March and I was planning ahead). After what seemed like an eternity, my dad finally picked up the box, laid it on the floor and had us sit around it. One...two...THREE!! We tore into that paper, desperate to be the first one to glimpse that townhouse. We squealed as the paper flew into the air! As the confetti settled to the ground we saw our prize:
A train set.
We tried to be happy. We really did! My dad seemed so excited. I exclaimed in my most fake/happy voice, "Oh...a train set!" Not an oscar-worthy performance, to be sure. We could tell my dad was bummed that we were disappointed, but he tried to laugh and make the best of it. Poor Dad.
Now, a model train set is a very special gift. He probably spent more on it than he would have spent for a Barbie Townhouse. So why would we be disappointed?
Because our focus was on what we wanted, not on what our father wanted for us.
Many of us struggle the same way in a spiritual sense with our Heavenly Father. Our prayers are often filled with our requests to Him.
"Help me pass that test."
"Let us be able to buy that house."
"Lord, I just want to lose these last 10 pounds!"
These are the desires of our hearts and it is certainly not wrong to want to have our desires fulfilled. Besides, who better to share our desires with than our Savior? The problem is that, just like my sisters and me, the focus is on our wants, not on what God wants for us.
As we mature in our faith, our desire often matures to become a bit more selfless, but often with conditions. As a child and into my teen years I regularly prayed, "Lord, I want to serve you, but please don't make me a missionary!" It wasn't that I didn't want to share Christ; I did. I just wasn't sure I could do it without access to running water, which, for some strange reason, was what I concluded all missionaries had to endure.
So, how do we find a way to serve God selflessly and still receive our heart's desire? The key lies in Psalm 37:4. This passage says, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desire of your heart. That word "delight" means, "To be soft, delicate, be pampered, to make merry over." I think the term "tender-hearted" sums up that definition for me. So, how can we be tender-hearted to God? We can begin by making note of how tender-hearted God is toward us.
Deuteronomy 30:9 says, "Then the LORD your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The LORD will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers..." In this passage the Lord is completely focused on us, he is tender-hearted to us...even indulgent.
And here is a promise about how delighting in Him can bless us:
Isaiah 55:2, "Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare."
And we are even given directions for how to begin delighting in God in Job 22:21-26:
Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you. Accept instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored: If you remove wickedness far from your tent and assign your nuggets to the dust, your gold of Ophir to the rocks in the ravines, then the Almighty will be your gold, the choicest silver for you. Surely then you will find delight in the Almighty and will lift up your fact to God.
From this we learn that when we study the Bible, determine to stay close to the Lord, day and day out, pursuing a holy life; when we become more concerned with the richness God offers than the riches the world offers we surely find delight in Him!
I want to revisit the story of the train set. Fast forward 15-20 years. When my sisters and I ("The Girls") reached adulthood and had children of our own, my dad made a point to give one of us a small train-themed trinket each Christmas. We treasured these gifts and hoped we'd be the one he chose to bestow the train upon each year. When we were the recipient, we felt so special. What was different? We knew our dad so much better as adults and we loved having something special to share with him. Because we were tender-hearted to our dad, because we delighted ourselves in him, his gift became special to us. We wanted to receive it: We desired it!
When we steep ourselves in God's love for us, as it is described in Job, we begin to know our Savior better and we love to have something special to share with Him. We become tender-hearted to our Heavenly Father. We delight ourselves in Him! Then His gifts become special to us. We want to receive them: We desire them!
I pray Christ is our focus - our Delight - as we enter this Christmas season. He has a wonderful gift waiting for you to open. It will be something that blesses you and something that brings you joy. What that gift is, I don't know. It will be something unexpected - something you may not have even thought you wanted. But, if He is your delight, His gift will delight you!
I thought I'd go ahead and share here what I shared there. I was so nervous! I am definitely a writer, not a speaker! Sorry about the length. I guess speeches are longer than what I traditionally write. Oh, well. Without further ado, here it is, in writing:
I am one of five daughters. Two sisters are a decade older than me and I am the middle daughter in the youngest grouping of three girls. We were known as "The Girls." Any of you from families with more than one female child can probably relate. We were most often seen as a single unit, "The Girls, " rather than individuals. That worked out pretty great most of the time.
We were able to share any punishments fairly evenly.
When we asked our parents to watch us, they could watch "The Girls" instead of having to watch three individual performances. Between the three of us, we could do a pretty passable rendition of the Wizard of Oz!
Sometimes "The Girls" scored a bigger present at Christmas than we would be able to coax out of my folks individually.
For example, one Christmas when we were all still elementary school-aged, we charged into the living room at the crack of dawn....OK, maybe it was still dark outside, but morning is anytime after midnight. At least, that's what we convinced our parents. We began the exciting task of discovering the treats in our Christmas stockings and opening the presents when one package - one really big package - caught our eye. It was leaning against the wall, sort of behind the tree and it had no tag; no name was attached to it. We stole glances at each other, communicating in a language only close siblings can understand. We were fairly confident it was a present for "The Girls." When I couldn't stand not knowing any longer (I may have lasted one full minute), I asked my parents who the present was for and, with a twinkle in his eye, my Dad confirmed our suspicions.
I could tell from his expression that this was something B.I.G. I knew immediately what it must be: A Barbie Townhouse! My mind snapped into warp speed, imagining my Sweet 16 Barbie riding up and down that super-cool elevator, making dinner, taking bubble baths and maybe even driving around her estate in her new convertible (my birthday is in March and I was planning ahead). After what seemed like an eternity, my dad finally picked up the box, laid it on the floor and had us sit around it. One...two...THREE!! We tore into that paper, desperate to be the first one to glimpse that townhouse. We squealed as the paper flew into the air! As the confetti settled to the ground we saw our prize:
A train set.
We tried to be happy. We really did! My dad seemed so excited. I exclaimed in my most fake/happy voice, "Oh...a train set!" Not an oscar-worthy performance, to be sure. We could tell my dad was bummed that we were disappointed, but he tried to laugh and make the best of it. Poor Dad.
Now, a model train set is a very special gift. He probably spent more on it than he would have spent for a Barbie Townhouse. So why would we be disappointed?
Because our focus was on what we wanted, not on what our father wanted for us.
Many of us struggle the same way in a spiritual sense with our Heavenly Father. Our prayers are often filled with our requests to Him.
"Help me pass that test."
"Let us be able to buy that house."
"Lord, I just want to lose these last 10 pounds!"
These are the desires of our hearts and it is certainly not wrong to want to have our desires fulfilled. Besides, who better to share our desires with than our Savior? The problem is that, just like my sisters and me, the focus is on our wants, not on what God wants for us.
As we mature in our faith, our desire often matures to become a bit more selfless, but often with conditions. As a child and into my teen years I regularly prayed, "Lord, I want to serve you, but please don't make me a missionary!" It wasn't that I didn't want to share Christ; I did. I just wasn't sure I could do it without access to running water, which, for some strange reason, was what I concluded all missionaries had to endure.
So, how do we find a way to serve God selflessly and still receive our heart's desire? The key lies in Psalm 37:4. This passage says, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desire of your heart. That word "delight" means, "To be soft, delicate, be pampered, to make merry over." I think the term "tender-hearted" sums up that definition for me. So, how can we be tender-hearted to God? We can begin by making note of how tender-hearted God is toward us.
Deuteronomy 30:9 says, "Then the LORD your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The LORD will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers..." In this passage the Lord is completely focused on us, he is tender-hearted to us...even indulgent.
And here is a promise about how delighting in Him can bless us:
Isaiah 55:2, "Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare."
And we are even given directions for how to begin delighting in God in Job 22:21-26:
Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you. Accept instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored: If you remove wickedness far from your tent and assign your nuggets to the dust, your gold of Ophir to the rocks in the ravines, then the Almighty will be your gold, the choicest silver for you. Surely then you will find delight in the Almighty and will lift up your fact to God.
From this we learn that when we study the Bible, determine to stay close to the Lord, day and day out, pursuing a holy life; when we become more concerned with the richness God offers than the riches the world offers we surely find delight in Him!
I want to revisit the story of the train set. Fast forward 15-20 years. When my sisters and I ("The Girls") reached adulthood and had children of our own, my dad made a point to give one of us a small train-themed trinket each Christmas. We treasured these gifts and hoped we'd be the one he chose to bestow the train upon each year. When we were the recipient, we felt so special. What was different? We knew our dad so much better as adults and we loved having something special to share with him. Because we were tender-hearted to our dad, because we delighted ourselves in him, his gift became special to us. We wanted to receive it: We desired it!
When we steep ourselves in God's love for us, as it is described in Job, we begin to know our Savior better and we love to have something special to share with Him. We become tender-hearted to our Heavenly Father. We delight ourselves in Him! Then His gifts become special to us. We want to receive them: We desire them!
I pray Christ is our focus - our Delight - as we enter this Christmas season. He has a wonderful gift waiting for you to open. It will be something that blesses you and something that brings you joy. What that gift is, I don't know. It will be something unexpected - something you may not have even thought you wanted. But, if He is your delight, His gift will delight you!
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