Struggling To Find Ourselves

This was something that I found in one of the old bulletins from the church that someone had left in the back of one of their service books.  I thought it was a NEAT story!!!

Just a week before Christmas, I had a visitor.  This is how it happened.  I just finished the household chores for the night and was preparing to go to bed, when I heard a noise in the front of the house.  I opened the door to the front room and to my surprise, Santa himself stepped out next to the fireplace.

“What are you doing?” I started to ask.  The words choked up in my throat and I saw he had tears in his eyes.  His usual jolly manner was gone.  Gone was the eager, boisterous sould we all know.

He then answered me with a simple statement….”TEACH THE CHILDREN!”

I was puzzled.  What did he mean?

He anticipated my question and with one quick movement brought forth a miniature toy bag from behind the tree.  As I stood bewildered, Santa said, “Teach the children!  Teach them the old meaning of Christmas. The meaning that now-a-days Christmas has forgotten.”

Santa then reached in his bag and pulled out a FIR TREE and placed it before the mantle.  “Teach the children that the pure green color of the stately fir tree remains green all year ’round, depicting the everlasting hope of mankind, all needles point heavenward, making it a symbol of man’s thoughts turning toward Heaven.”

He again reached into his bag and pulled out a brilliant STAR.  “Teach the children that the star was the heavenly sign of promises long ago.  God promised a Savior for the world, and the star was the sign of fulfillment of His promise.”

He then reached into his bag and pulled out a CANDLE.  “Teach the children that the candle symbolizes that Christ is the light of the world, and when we see this great light we are reminded of He who displaces the darkness.”

Once again he reached into his bag and removed a WREATH and placed it on the tree.  “Teach the children that the wreath symbolizes the real nature of love.  Real love never ceases.  Love is one continuous round of affection.”

He then pulled from his bag an ORNAMENT of himself.  “Teach the children that I, Santa Claus, symbolize the generosity and good will we feel during the month of December.”

He then brought out a HOLLY LEAF.  “Teach the children that the holly plan represents immortality.  It represents the crown of thorns worn by our Savior.  The red holly berries represent the blood shed by Him.”

Next he pulled from his bag a GIFT and said, “Teach the children that God so loved the world that He gave His begotten Son.” Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift.

Santa then reached in his bag and pulled out a CANDY CANE and hung it on the tree.  “Teach the children that the candy cane represents the shepherds’ crook.  The crook on the staff helps to bring back strayed sheep to the flock. The candy cane is the symbol that we are our brother’s keeper.”

He reached in again and pulled out an ANGEL.  “Teach the children that it was the angels that heralded in the glorious news of the Savior’s birth.  The angels sang Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace and good will toward men.”

Suddenly I heard a soft twinkling sound, and from his bag he pulled out a BELL.  “Teach the children that as the lost sheep are found by the sound of the bell, it should ring mankind to the fold.  The bell symbolizes guidance and return.”

Santa looked back and was pleased.  He looked back at me and I saw that the twinkle was back in his eyes.  He said, “Remember, teach the children the true meaning of Christmas and do not put me in the center, for I am but a humble servant of the One that is, and I bow down to worship Him, our Lord, our God.”  -Author Unknown

….What you would do if you could do a certain decision in your life over?  I think most all of us have, at SOME point.  Would you do things the same?  Or would you change that decision you made and hope for a better outcome?  I think it’s hard to say, really, because you DON’T know that the outcome would have been better if you had chosen NOT to do this instead of doing it.  But, who really knows? 

Whoever said “Hindsight is 20/20″ was TOTALLY right, in my opinion!!!  Sometimes, after the fact, it’s easy to see that you SHOULD have done this, or gone this way, instead of what you ended up doing.  But, then again, us stubborn humans have a tendency to look at only today, and we forget to look at the possible consequences of our decisions, until it’s too late.

There’s your “Food For Thought” for the day, me thinks!!!

God Bless!!

If you haven’t noticed lately, I’ve been making some of my entries into like a series of stories.  Okay, so some of them, like the last one, are a bit longer than what is probably needed, but I figure…”Whatever works!!!”.

I’ve kind of gotten the urge to work on my stories again, but haven’t been able to find the time or inclination to yet, so I guess this may be my way of writing stories, and taking care of some other necessary computer stuff too.  What do you think?  Are they entertaining enough for you?

More later…maybe….God Bless!!!

Well, it’s still a little early to tell if that’s what it’s going to be, since it’s not even noon yet, but I’ve got a good start on it being at least a halfway productive day!!!  No appointments today for anybody…No shopping that we are going to do unless it’s after I pick my boy up after school.  So basically, it’s a stay-home-and-try-to-get-caught-up-on-things day!!!  It is MUCH needed as today is the first day I have felt almost human this week.  My son decided to share his cold with me…wasn’t that sweet?  He is kind of the road to recovery…he still has a nasty cough and some congestion, but that’s about it.  I’m just glad it’s ALMOST Christmas break!!!  That will HOPEFULLY give him a chance to get completely over it before school starts again.

We have SOOOOOO much planned over Christmas break!!!  It should be a REALLY fun time for us, although I have NO doubts that it will go too fast!!!

Read my Bible for the first time in 2 or 3 days.  Just haven’t been reading because I haven’t felt good.  Kind of made up for it some this morning, though, and might make up some more ground before the day is out.

More later….God Bless!!!

Yep, we got a couple of inches of snow last night.  It’s made the neighborhood a white Winter wonderland.  Even the roads weren’t in to bad of shape when I took my son to school this morning!!!  According to the weather report, though, I guess it’s supposed to get kind of nasty later this afternoon, though, with some freezing drizzle on top of all of this nice, white, cold snow.  THAT could make things interesting!!!

Saw an acquaintance in passing today.  I hadn’t seen him since his Mother’s funeral 3 or 4 weeks ago.  He seemed to be doing okay, though that can probably be debated since he was with his work crew when I saw him this morning.  It was nice to see him, even if we didn’t get a chance to talk!!  At least I know he’s still surviving!!!  Keep praying for him and the rest of his family, I guess is about all I can do at this point in time!!

More later….maybe…God Bless!!!

…Get dinner started, I think.  And reboot my laundry and maybe the dishes.  I need to get some reading done in another book that I’ve been working on for months too, as well as a BUNCH of typing stuff that’s off-line (for the most part).

You all have a GOOD weekend, if I don’t make it back in here.  Take care, stay warm, and God Bless!!!

Yep, my son and I have been EXTREMELY busy with books the last few months!!!  You can probably tell that by looking at my sidebar and seeing what we have read.  And that’s not even a complete list, at this point.  I have about 15 more to put on there that we’ve read, and I just haven’t gotten on there yet!!!  I will PROBABLY end up making another page for our book lists, rather than put the entire list in my side bar.  What do you think?

God Bless!!!

I finished reading Joshua in my Bible a little bit ago!!!  We’re moving right along, don’t you think?

Other than that, not much going on here so far this morning.  Got my son to school, and have to be home most of the day because I am SUPPOSED to have a delivery guy coming that I have to sign for, so I need to try to be home that for that.

Will get dinner going here pretty soon, so it’s done before I go pick up my son from school this afternoon.  That makes it easier to make sure he has something to eat before he has to go to his Father’s tonight.

Have to take care of some stuff here on the computer, which I’m working on right now.

Other than that, and a bit of cleaning, I don’t have a whole lot planned for today.

More later…maybe…God Bless!!!

…the book of Joshua in my Bible reading this morning!!!  Yep, we are moving right along, even though it hasn’t been quite as consistent as I’d like some days.

The Pastor at the church across the street has been doing a couple of pretty good sermons in the last 3 or 4 weeks!!!  I’m GOING to HAVE to do entries about them one of these days, but I’m NOT sure when I will get that done just yet.  One of these days, though!!

God Bless!!

…this last week, just before the weekend, to check in on a friend….and found out that she has moved and left no forwarding address.  Her moving is NOT really all that surprising to me…I had figured it was coming…but her not contacting us and letting us know IS surprising.  I guess all we can do now is pray for her and wait and see to see if she contacts us again at some point.  If she doesn’t, I will be SORELY disappointed…but that’s life, I guess.  People seem to have lost the knowledge of what it means to be a friend, even if it IS long distance.  No, this wouldn’t be the first time that this will have happened if this friend doesn’t contact me…and it probably won’t be the last.  After awhile, you just kind of get used to it, I guess.

More later, maybe….God Bless!!