Christmas Chaos

It never fails to amaze me how much God is in control. After all I've seen and the things my family have been through, it shouldn't surprise me how He works.

After three years of directing the children and youth Christmas program, you'd think I would learn. We had a pretty good program. We had the script written and the music picked out. But God had other plans in mind for us. One thing after another prevented rehearsals. Pretty soon we were out of time. Our program is tomorrow night. Are we using the script and music originally planned. Nope. We have exactly two kids who showed up today for a hastily planned program. And we are using music that we have done in the past. Not that that's an entirely bad thing. The two girls have fun doing it and get better each time. No, I think maybe God is planning something else to come of this night.

One lesson may be that we just need to simplify things. Our signing group is performing one song, the girls and a couple of adults are performing two songs with puppets, and their mother will be singing at least one song. Simple. The only props needed are the puppet stage and the puppets. The signers are wearing black with white gloves. A simple program for a simple story. A simple story, maybe, but full of significance and purpose.

Another lesson may be that we can plan and plot and organize for hours/days/weeks on end, but we are not in control. If we don't put God first, make Him our purpose, all that planning and organizing is wasted time. He's a jealous God. He wants our attention and when we take our attention from Him and put it on programs and presents and dinners we are not fullfilling our purpose. He wants us to love Him, to share Him with others. He wants to spend time with us. One to one.

We can't make it in this world on our own. We can try. But will we ever find the fulfillment or happiness that we think comes from making it on our own? I don't think it's possible to be truly happy without God in our lives. Even Paul was able to be happy when he was in prison because he knew the Savior. He knew what was possible with Him. I believe he wrote something about that to the Philippians. Check out Philippians 4:13. One of the many verses that bring me encouragement and hope, even in the face of seemingly impossible situations. I've seen God do wonderful things in those types of circumstances. He's done wonderful things for me in many impossible situations.

So, tomorrow, we'll go up there and put on our last minute program. And I'll be thinking of all the possibilities that God will do with it.

Dear Father, thank you for sending us Jesus. Thank you for giving us the hope that comes through believing in him. Teach us to depend on you in all things, in all circumstances and situations. Lord, you know the trials and troubles we go through. You can understand them, you went through them personally. Please forgive me when I forget to put you first. When I get so busy with life that I forget the most important thing, my relationship with you. Thank you for the people you bring into my life, for their examples and strength. I pray for them and for those that are lonely, heartbroken and disappointed. Show me how I can be an example to them, to show them your love, to maybe introduce them to you. Lord, I love you. Thank you for loving me. Amen.

Sunday Scrappin' #7

I missed last week's Sunday Scrappin'. I was so busy I couldn't stop working. I've been pretty busy this week too.

Ta-Das: I have 5 complete scrapbooks. Unfortunately, I have missed my deadline. Saturday was the Christmas Party when I was planning to give the girls their books. But I showed them the books, explained that I had a little more to do and I would let them take the books home in a couple of weeks.I also decorated a table for the Christmas party at church. People sign up to decorate a table in the Fellowship Hall for the evening. I think it's really neat. It takes a lot of stress off any one person to do all the decorating, not to mention expense. Folks bring some of their decorations from home. I made mine. I saw party tips on Lifetime or Hallmark or one of those channels and they did a dining room table that was gorgeous. So I did my version of it. Doesn't really do the original justice, but not bad for less than $20. I've also been scrapping some gift boxes for my sister. She bakes Christmas cookies and give them as gifts. So I thought I'd help out. I've taken some pictures but will have to get them developed.

To-Dos: I'll be working on some more gift boxes the rest of this week. But I hope to get back to the scrapbooks by the weekend. I have have one more book to put pictures in and 4 more to do the journaling. Technically, I will add some more pictures to all of them. We made gingerbread houses at our Christmas party and they are adorabIe I can't wait to get the pictures back. The girls want pictures in their scrapbooks of their houses. So I'll add them when the pictures come in.

Question of the week: Are you scrambling to finish Christmas gifts? Yes and no. The girls have seen their books so I don't feel rushed to finish them. I do have a family gift exchange on Christmas day. Maybe I'll try to do something for that.

I finally found a web browser that will let me upload pictures from my Mac. Now I just need to put them on my computer. As soon as I do that, I'll post some pics.

Heartbreaking

I've been led down an eye opening path the past couple of days.

I knew that a lot of the kids in my community have parents that are drug addicts, alcoholics, are in jail or a combination of all of it. I knew that almost all of the kids that come to our church are among them. I knew that it must be difficult for them. I had concerns for them. But I never fully understood what these children are going through. I never though in depth about their situations, about the effect of the indifference, the toll their parents' bad decisions have made on them. On their hearts and souls.

Yesterday my heart was broken. One of the little girls (from church) who is living with relatives other than her parents, was looking forward to going to a cheerleading afternoon "camp" with another little girl. This girl is such a sweetheart. Gentle and soft-spoken. But for reasons unknown to me, she was not allowed to go. I was taking her home and although her head was turned to the window and her hair was covering her face, I could hear her sniffles. I started to think about her life. Both parents in jail, she's living in a house full of people, some of the children close to her own age. But they resent her being there. I know the adult looking after her tries to include her and be fair to her, but she's got a lot of other people of her own to look after. So this little girl, in effect, is alone. Not getting to go to the cheerleading clinic was one more disappointment in a long line of disappointments. When the car ride was just about over, I could almost feel her push that disappointment down, square her shoulders and strap on a protective attitude. I can see her sweet disposition being ripped from her, bitterness and resentment taking its place. I know this is what's happened to our other kids at church, what's happening to thousands of kids in our community, to millions of them around the world. I prayed that God would give me words to comfort and encourage my little friend. I wanted to stop the hurt, help her in some way. I pray that my words were from God and that she will remember them. They were nothing profound, I simply told her I thought she was very brave and not to let the disappointments in her life make her any different. I wanted her to know that there is someone in her life who cares. Who appreciates who she is and her potential.

Then this morning I had a discussion with another little girl in similar circumstances. Only she has no idea who her father is. She told me about her other siblings and their situations. I know her story is from a 9 year old's perspective. Some things she may not understand yet, some things she may have confused. But the overall picture is still a life of loneliness and disappointment. I could feel more pieces of my heart breaking.

My sister and brother-in-law are missionaries in Africa. They've talked about having broken hearts for the people they are there to minister to. I have a new appreciation for what that means. We get so wrapped up in ourselves and in our own lives, we forget that other people have problems too. Many of them, worse than our own. We forget that there are children who have been abused, people who are hurting, that are alone and afraid. Who simply want and need someone to reach out, just to know they aren't alone, that they are loved, wanted and needed.

Father in Heaven, I pray for the hurting children in my community and all over the world. I pray for brokenness, for myself and other Christians to see the needs of these children. Lord, show us how to help them, how to keep them from being lost and slipping through the cracks. I pray for the people who have lost a loved one, who are alone. Help me and other Christians realize that just a kind word or a simple smile could make someone's day. Help us, in this season especially, remember that we're not the only ones with problems. That maybe that rude salesperson is one of the hurting people. Father, I pray that even only for just a little while, we can treat each other with dignity and respect.

In Jesus precious name, I pray. Amen.

Sunday Scrappin' #5

I know this is Tuesday, but this is a particularly busy week. So I am finally getting to post.

TaDa's: Well, I didn't get everything done I wanted to. And I even worked most of Saturday. I still have two more books to attach background pages and complete the first two panels. I got duplicates(and more) of most of the pictures. I ordered them online last week. There were two sets of film that I didn't have on disk. Actually, I can't find the disks for them. (See my cake decorating posts). So I dropped the film off at Wal-Mart yesterday for 1 hour development and dropped off a new roll to be developed. The new one I'm getting a disk and will be able to access the pics online. But I'm totally off topic now.

ToDo's: I'm not sure what my ToDo's for this week are. I've got something every night. In fact, I'm at the church every night except last night. I do have all day Saturday free so I'll probably scrapbook all day. I have to. I'm running out of time. I'm hoping to give them to the girls on the 15th.

I'm trying to figure out what to put them in. I'd really like to have some sort of protective sleeve to be stored in. You know, DVD sets come in a hand box to keep them together. Or some photo albums come in a protective sleeve. I'd like to have something like that b/c there's no telling where these girls will keep them.

So the question of the week: Where do I do my crafts? Right now I have a folding table set up behind my couch in the living room so I can listen to the TV as I work. I have an area set up in my bedroom, but clothes, shoes, books, papers, boxes, and a host of other things have taken over. I have a path from the door to my computer, the bed and the closet. I need that TV show "Clean Sweep" to come take control of the chaos that is my room.

So pray for me this week and I'll pray for you.