Joyful, Joyful

"Joyful, Joyful we adore Thee, God of glory Lord of Love"

This describes me lately. I feel like I'm just overflowing with joy. My life feels so complete and whole. I feel like I want to erupt with joy "lava" and spew it all over everyone I meet. I love the man I'm married to and I love my three children.

But today something hit me as I was thinking about how complete and full of joy my life is right now. Why was I not this full of joy before? Seriously, the Bible tells us to be joyful in all things. We are to be content where God has us at all times, even when we think we should be somewhere else.

I'm gonna be honest, I'm a bit ashamed of myself that I only let the Joy of the Lord truly come into my life after God gave me "what I wanted". Don't get me wrong, I still should be thankful that God even did this for me. But why in the world did He give me, someone who wasn't truly content where he had me before, the desires of my heart?

He should have sat back and said, "silly, child, you aren't even happy with the things I gave you, why should I give you more?" But because I serve a God of Grace and Mercy, He instead said, "I love you my child with an everlasting love. I have seen the desires of your heart, and as your daddy in heaven I want to see you with those desires."

I am going to choose from this day on, to be joyful, even if I don't always feel like I'm where I want to be. Because if God can still give wonderful gift to an ungrateful person like me, then I can show Him that I will be content where He has me.

For example, I'll be honest, I am not really fond of the town I live in. I've wanted to move for quite a few years now, but God keeps saying no to us. We have a few people we get a long with, but I'll be honest, we don't feel we are truly accepted here. We don't fit into the cliques that exist here. I guess this is a good thing, because most of them get along for reasons we don't want to belong to them. It's just tough not having many people to do things with.

But I can choose at this point to be joyful because God gave me a house to live in and food to eat as well as many other things. Or I can wallow in self-pity and depression because I didn't get what I want. Maybe God's just waiting for me to be truly content where He has me. Or maybe, just maybe, we have a purpose here that just hasn't been fulfilled yet.

I will choose to have joy. Who knows, maybe because we don't fit in very well, we can be an example to some that we know how to have fun without living all the "earthly" ways.

"Joyful, Joyful, we adore Thee. God of glory, Lord of Love"

Christmas-time is here!

It's almost Christmas!!! My favorite holiday of the whole year! It's always been a magical time of year for me. When I was little, I always loved the idea that Santa was gonna come on Christmas Eve and leave presents for me (and eat the cookies and milk I left for him). Not sure why it has always been so magical, but it has.

Then when I got married, I still did my best to make it a magical time. I still had Santa bring presents for my husband (too bad Santa didn't get the hint and leave me gifts....lol).

Then we adopted Martie. I was so excited because I was going to get to pass on my Santa traditions with my child. But when you get a teenager, you chance them not wanting to do anything with the whole "Santa Claus thing". She humored me for 2 years and then it just wasn't fun anymore, I guess. But I still tried.

Now we have two new ones in our house. Santa is back in full force. Even though Elizabeth is 15, she missed so much of her childhood that she has started reverting back to some childish ways. Some would think this is crazy, but we found this is the only way that they are able to move forward in life. So at 15, she's gone back to believing in Santa. And I'm right there with her...I've never quit believing in Santa.

She wrote him a letter this year...and he wrote her back a very detailed letter. He even brought our family some movies already so that we can watch as a family. Ironically, he brought the "Santa Clause" movies with Tim Allen. She asks me questions quite frequently about Santa's magic and I do my best to answer. I don't know all his ways of magic, but I share what I've learned over the years. We get many answers from the "Santa" movies we watch.

I never knew how much more magical it is when you get to "be" Santa to your children. To watch their eyes light up with the joy of the Christmas season. To see them believe in things they can only imagine in their minds. I really can't wait until next year when John is a year old. Not that he will understand everything, but it will be a start of showing him the magic that happens only once a year.

I know that the real reason for celebrating is not Santa. It's about our Saviors birth. I have never neglected to at least try and teach our children that part of it as well. I just can't give up the Santa part because I just remember the feelings I used to have of awe and wonder. Almost this joy and peace that passes all understanding.

In a way, it all brought me closer to a faith in God because it taught me that there are things that we can't see and can't fully understand and you still gotta believe. Santa taught me about love. Because no matter how "naughty" I might have been, he always had the grace to leave presents under the tree. This taught me that we all make mistakes and there's always room for forgiveness.

This is what I want Santa to do for my children. To teach them about faith. That my life verse would come alive in many ways in their lives.

Hebrews 11:1 "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen."

This is why Christmas is my favorite time of year.