For those of you who may or may not know me well, I absolutely love the Thanksgiving and Christmas season! I am not a fan of cold weather, and especially dislike the wind (especially the way it is here, w/o hills or many trees). But I still have an incredible love for Christmas. I truly think if it were up to me, I would take off of work all of December so my house could be over-decorated, full of Christmas-type food, my favorite of which being candy (thanks to my mom for instilling that in me) and singing and dancing to Christmas music everyday.
Now Christmas is really my favorite holiday, to be honest, I think I include Thanksgiving for 2 reasons: 1. It is the day before Black Friday, which in my family is the greater than Thanksgiving and 2. After Thanksgiving has been completed it means we are officially in the Christmas season.
There will be a few new things (hopefully) added unto the Janssen household Christmas this year such as a new tree (we have huge ceilings and thus we need a bigger tree), outdoor decorations, and last but definitely not least, the amazing Christmas villages that are my Nanny's (mom's mom) that I have adored since I was a small child. My Nanny is still alive and well, she just doesn't enjoy decorating as much and apparently I asked her before I was actually tall enough to be eye to eye with the villages if I could have them when she died (sensitive child, I know).
Anyway, as I work all I can think about is wanting to go home and start getting ready to decorate for my favorite holiday that goes way too quickly for my liking.
And for fun here's a list of things I like to do or would like to do this Christmas season!
1. Go to Chickasha to see the lights (Mike proposed to me there, check out the picture) http://http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30241529&l=f7dcbd265e&id=79800937
2. Go Ice Skating & Snow Tubing in Bricktown (I've been saying I would do this for a couple of years and it has yet to happen, this year it will)
3. Drink hot chocolate and sit in with the lights out looking at the tree and various lights.
4. Yukon Christmas in the Park:attend a minimum of 4 times...
5. drive around and see other peoples Christmas lights/decorations.
6. Shop and find great deals on Christmas gifts (I do love Black Friday).
7. Watch Christmas movies, including the old TV specials such as Rudolph.
8. Wear a tacky Christmas sweater to a party (I really want to have a tacky Christmas sweater party).
9. eat lots of great food
11. My favorite: spend time with friends and family rejoicing in the birth of my Savior!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Show me thine way...
I am constantly learning more and more. More about the Lord, other people and myself. Sometimes all of the things I learn are not the things that I want to know, or even a lesson that I want to really submit to.
God has been teaching me many things through the last several months. It is amazing how some of the things I am really learning about are things I have been told from a small child. We are to forgive people. I am okay with saying, I struggle with that. There are people who I do not even know that well, who have hurt me deeply. And I find that I struggle with wanting them to hurt as well. Or more than that I want them to know how I feel and then I want them to know that they need to ask my forgiveness and the truth of it is... That is not the way life is. I have to learn to forgive outside of them. Forgiveness is not conditional upon the purpatrator, forgiveness is conditional upon the person who has been hurt. Even if they do not ask for my forgiveness I am still told to give it. I think so many times in our minds we see reconciliation as the equivilent of forgiveness and it is not. It takes two people for reconciliation, but it only takes one for forgivenss. So I pray that I continue to allow God to transform my heart to one that will listen. Even when it is difficult.
We are called to love and I have found it more difficult to love others when I hang onto the hurt in my heart. Now that I have been shown the way of the Lord I must follow. My eyes have been opened to my own sin and I can chose to either follow God and learn to forgive or to follow me and hold onto the hurt and the pain.
"You have shown me thine way Father, and now I will follow. Thank you for your ever present love, acceptance and teaching. Continue to mold me to be like you."
God has been teaching me many things through the last several months. It is amazing how some of the things I am really learning about are things I have been told from a small child. We are to forgive people. I am okay with saying, I struggle with that. There are people who I do not even know that well, who have hurt me deeply. And I find that I struggle with wanting them to hurt as well. Or more than that I want them to know how I feel and then I want them to know that they need to ask my forgiveness and the truth of it is... That is not the way life is. I have to learn to forgive outside of them. Forgiveness is not conditional upon the purpatrator, forgiveness is conditional upon the person who has been hurt. Even if they do not ask for my forgiveness I am still told to give it. I think so many times in our minds we see reconciliation as the equivilent of forgiveness and it is not. It takes two people for reconciliation, but it only takes one for forgivenss. So I pray that I continue to allow God to transform my heart to one that will listen. Even when it is difficult.
We are called to love and I have found it more difficult to love others when I hang onto the hurt in my heart. Now that I have been shown the way of the Lord I must follow. My eyes have been opened to my own sin and I can chose to either follow God and learn to forgive or to follow me and hold onto the hurt and the pain.
"You have shown me thine way Father, and now I will follow. Thank you for your ever present love, acceptance and teaching. Continue to mold me to be like you."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
