Value

Last month in one of my counseling times, I was challenged to make a list of what I value and then look at my life and if it lines up with those values. Obviously our values are going to adapt and change over time. I made a list a few weeks back and pulled it back out this afternoon. I am not usually a new years' resolution kind of a girl, but I thought re-reminding myself of my values at the New Year was a good thing. I decided they should have a spot written out where I can see them every day, so that is what I did.
What do you value?

I am sure this list will change and I can add to it as the year (s) go by. But it has been a good exercise in my life.

Happy Merry Christmas

I have been the biggest slacker in the blog world in the last 10 days. Between working, traveling home, being at home and some craziness that I can fill you in on later, life has been busy and honestly my mind has been far from here.
In the midst of having to work today, my least favorite day of the whole year to have to work, I tried to keep in mind what today was. When you are in the hospital at work it really doesn't feel very Christmas-y. Families are in the hospital, children are alone, people are experiencing sadness and stress and discomfort, I am feeling alone and sad to not be with family.... In the midst of all of this, plus my own grumpiness of the day :), this verse about the coming of our Lord seemed appropriate. We all have somewhere in our life, even it is simply our sinfulness and inability to save ourselves, that we need to have someone speak comfort and redemption to.
Isaiah 40:1-2
   Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
  Merry Happy Christmas!

 

Christmas

I haven't shown you our awesome decorations yet! I love our tree. As always we take the cheap way out and go to Lowe's to get it. But they always deliver and our tree, per the usual, is gorgeous.
Adrienne and I decorated while watching the Grinch, which has become our tradition. Crazy to think that this has the potential to not happen next year. But I am pretty much avoiding that thought right now :)
Our tree feels very Kenyan this year with the likes of these...

Angels and Kisuri bead snowman from Mom's store (and Adrienne's favorite ornament in the background)

This is my Tenwek Angel...getting one each year, I have decided :)

And of course the front...the inflatables are out as usual. I have stepped up my contribution to the Georgia house a bit this year. I intended to put lights on the roof but that never happened. Oh well.

Sadness

I have been reading through a book called The Voice of the Heart. It is about living abundantly by acknowledging our hearts, thus enabling us in relationships with others an God. It spends a lot of time on acknowledging feelings, which is something I am trying to do a better job with.
This last chapter on sadness hit home in many ways. I have always been one to shut down my feelings particularly ones I have labeled as "bad." Sadness and anger have always fallen into this category but I am learning to not place any emotion in that category.
Anyway this chapter on sadness eded with some self reflective questions I thought I would throw out there:
What are you sad about?
What wound has been unable to heal because of the sadness you aren't feeling?
What sadness is in your life that you fight against?
What have you been dreaming of doing that you haven't risked because you might lose?

More Advent

This passage is from Russ Ramsey's Behold the Lamb of God. He is telling the story of Moses and the Israelites and their journey through the dessert. (It is on Day 9 if you are reading it too!)
 Still, for all Moses' greatness, from the day God sent him to lead, the people complained about him. This wasn't because Moses was a bad leader, but because in order for people to be led, they must leave something behind-and people grow fond of home, even if they've only been enslaved there. For every step Moses led them to freedom, they found something to lament and complain about.
Um, yep, this pretty much sums up Me! How much do I fight where God is leading, how much do I complain about what I don't have in my life or what I want, how much do I resist listening, how much do I ask for more when God promised to give me what I need for the day?

Precious

My head space has been commandeered for the last little bit with life details. But I did come across this George MacDonald quote posted by the Rabbit Room folks:
  I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of: for to have been thought about, born in God's thought, and then made by God, is the dearest, grandest and most precious thing in all thinking.
  The holidays are always tougher for me in terms of believing that I am in the right place in general in life...it is easy for me to look around and see what others' have in life and wish for that. I think in general Christmas lends us to a lot of expectations that end up not being met...it is easy to forget about the one who loves us so intently and get caught up in whatever may be your struggle during this season.
  But I can rest in the fact that I was created to be me, which I am learning a lot about these days, and that to glorify God in all that I do I must live freely from the place of being me. And it is a dear, grand, and precious place to live.

Day 1/2

I am going to try and keep up with Russ Ramsey's Behold the Lamb of God and The Jesus Storybook Bible so I'll be sharing stuff from both of these throughout the month.
This is from the first chapter of TJSB. So good! Thankful for such truth and love today