The Olive Grove

Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the very heart of your house, your children like olive plants all around your table. ~Psalm 128:3

Saturday 28 November 2009 - Keeping Advent ~ What's Missing?

Thanksgiving is over and Christmas begins, right?
Wait! What about Advent?
What is Advent?

from Latin Adventus which means "coming": a season of preparation and anticipation of Jesus' coming...to the manger at His nativity, in the clouds at His returning, and into our hearts at this time

Perhaps the most important thing for me (a baptist girl with liturgical longings) in trying to keep Advent is making a conscious effort to postpone Christmas. I must admit that when I first began doing Advent it was more as a way to prolong Christmas. This shift from "doing" to "keeping" and from "prolonging" to "postponing" has been slow but significant. I started out adding things to our late November/December season: a St. Nicholas Day celebration, an Advent calendar, an Advent wreath, but over the past couple of years my focus has changed. I have begun to remove things from this time of year. What things?

Christmas decorations ~ we wait to trim the tree until the 23rd (our wedding anniversary) or Christmas Eve (I would actually like to do it Christmas morning, but that is too weird for the rest of my family)
Christmas music ~ I have loved discovering the difference between Advent and Christmas music
Christmas Activities ~ not all of them, of course, but I have become much more deliberate and selective with how we spend our time both outside and inside of home
Christmas Shopping ~ nothing like crowds and commercialism to steal my peace; I am not a Scrooge, but I do try to give small, handmade or thrifted, and thoughtful

So, what have we gained in our giving up? Much as during a fast from food, I find that I am able to direct my time and my energy toward God, meditating on His word and His love. This putting-off rather than dragging-out of Christmas means that we are less likely to become weary of it all and thereby lose the meaning in the mania.

There is much more I would like to say, and I hope to do several additional Advent posts. This is probably my favourite time of year! I will end with a new-to-me-this-year link: Rediscovering Advent.

Of Course, don't miss the rest of the Carnival!

Thank you, Kerry!

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Saturday 28 November 2009 - Thankful Saturday

"Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom;
you are exalted as head over all.
Wealth and honor come from you;
you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power
to exalt and give strength to all.

Now, our God, we give you thanks,
and praise your glorious name."

~1 Chronicles 29:11-13~

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Friday 27 November 2009 - Thankful Friday ~ little(ish) things

I am thankful for:

my kitchen table
my dishwasher
Longhorn victories
children who will talk to me
children's friends who like to hang out at my house
a couch for a friend to sleep on
the blogworld
pumpkin pie
apple pie
pillows
stretching

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Thursday 26 November 2009 - Thankful Thursday ~ Happy Thanksgiving!

Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
Serve the LORD with gladness:
come before his presence with singing.
Know ye that the LORD he is God:
it is he that hath made us,
and not we ourselves;
we are his people,
and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving,
and into his courts with praise:
be thankful unto him,
and bless his name.
For the LORD is good;
his mercy is everlasting;
and his truth endureth to all generations.

~Psalm 100~

Enjoy your feast and your family!

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Wednesday 25 November 2009 - Thankful Wednesday ~

This isn't the post that I thought I would be writing. Something traumatic happened tonight that truly has me thanking God with almost every breath. One of my daughters was attacked. She is okay, but it could have been so much worse.

Thank you, God, for being with my children and watching over them and protecting them all of the time. I know that you created them and that you love them even more than I do. I am so grateful that you spared ____ tonight from any further harm. Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

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Tuesday 24 November 2009 - Thankful Tuesday ~ 10 years with Lulapalooza

LORD, thank you for this wonderful boy you blessed me with 10 years ago! I Thank you for his easy-going personality and his Snoopy-like laugh. I thank you for his desire to play games with me or cuddle with me on the couch. I thank You for his quiet, calm, contemplative side as well as his exuberant, jumping-up-and-down, living-every-moment-to-its-fullest side.

I pray that he will grow in wisdom and stature and in favour with You and with men. I pray that he will hunger and thirst for righteousness, and that he will be a man after Your own heart. Bless him and keep him and cause Your face to shine upon him and be gracious unto him, O LORD.

And please help me to be the mama that he needs each and every day and never to forget what a blessing he is.

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Monday 23 November 2009 - Thankful Monday ~ Counting My Blessings

I thought that counting my blessings would be a most appropriate way to start this Thanksgiving week.

I truly am blessed with a wonderful husband and seven beautiful children.

And I have so very much in my life to be grateful for; we are all healthy; my husband has a job, and we have a comfortable home and enough food to eat.

Most importantly, I have a God who forgives all my iniquities...redeems my life from destruction and crowns me with lovingkindness and mercies...{Psalm 103}

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