We hope! (not wish)

Of course, my family loves Christmas! But one thing that bothers the three little ones is that people say wish all the time!

Mom taught them weeks ago that we should not wish but we should pray and hope! So ever since then they call wish a "bad word!" But when Christmas comes along with all the "wish lists" and "wish songs" they think that everybody says bad words. But after we explain to them that not all people know what they know, they explain to everybody, including strangers, that we should pray and hope, instead!

One example that is pretty funny is the song they sing, We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

They sing...

"We HOPE you a merry Christmas

We HOPE you a merry Christmas

We HOPE you a merry Christmas

and a happy new year

Good tidings we bring to you and your kin

We HOPE you a merry Christmas and a happy new year!"

Quite cute!

Thank you Jesus for their sweet obedience that shines to the world! :)

(These pictures were taken over a year ago!

We have all grown not only physically since then but also spiritually!)

Footprints in the sand...

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.

Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky. In each scene I

noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of

footprints, other times there was only one.

This bothered me because I notice that during the low periods of

my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow of defeat, I

could see only one set of footprints...

So I said to the Lord, "You promised me, Lord, that if I followed

you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during

the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of

footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you

not been there for me?"

The Lord replied,

"The years when you have seen

only one set of footprints,

my child, is when...

I CARRIED YOU."

"I am with you

ALWAYS

to the very end of the age!"

Matthew 28:20b

Beautiful!

"He will make everything beautiful in His timing..." Ecclesiastes 3:11

I love this verse so much! It explains that God is using us, preparing us, and will make us beautiful when His timing is right! So all we have to do is follow Him, surrender to Him everything and have true unmovable faith! And the rest will happen in His perfect time!

But when we are beautiful, we do not shine our own beauty, we shine our Heavenly Father's beauty! So it is still not about us! We are called to strive after God's own heart. To do that we must please Him and give all the glory to the glorious one! 1 Corinthians 10:31 So, let us work to have faith and to please our Father who deserves all the glory!

(These pictures are from our trip to California!

It was so amazing and such beautiful sights all over this state!

Faith without ceasing...

I just got finished reading the end of Hebrews this morning. It is so awesome how God uses His word to change our lives! For example, I don't know how exactly this helped me but, this is the new covenant God has set before us...

"I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts;

and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying,

'Know the Lord,' for all shall know Me,

from the least of them to the greatest of them.

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness,

and their sins and their lawless deeds

I will remember no more."

Hebrews 8: 10-12

A lot of the end of Hebrews is about faith. I know God wants all of His children to have faith in Him and to fully surrender their life to Him! Right now I have been going through a trial of doubt! I know I am to have faith, even as little as a mustard seed, and to trust in the Lord with all my heart. The Lord has been working on my heart lately through the book of Hebrews and now the faith book of James!

Every morning I have been getting up to be with the Lord! I read His word, pray, and just praise and worship His wonderful name! It makes the whole day way better when the beginning and end of the day is started and finished with the Lord! All the day is revolved around the Lord!

"Now therefore, our God, we thank and praise

Your glorious name."

1 Chronicles 28:13