I was looking at our Christmas cards received this year. We only received seven cards this year. I noted that I did not get cards from several friends and family who have sent yearly Christmas cards in past years.
I, too, have reduced the amount of Christmas cards that have sent over recent years. I sent out about 20 cards this year. This year, I tried to write at least a personal note on the card addition of just signing our names.
When I was younger, I remember sending double or triple that amount. Once or twice, I cheated and typed a letter of our year and added it to the envelope, instead of personally writing a paragraph or two on the card. I also remember getting so many Christmas cards that we strung them up on the wall mantle, and later that was reduced to a cute Christmas card holder. In the past five years or so, the cards are so few, that we just lay them on a table.
It is so easy to wish folks a generic Merry Christmas on social media. But it is certainly not as personal as receiving a card that someone took the time to mail especially to me and my husband.
Of course, there is the obligatory Christmas card sometimes sent in response to a card that I mailed to someone, that is usually received after Christmas.
Maybe as we get older, we are forgotten. But we are never forgotten by God.
“For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for Him and how you have shown your love to Him by caring for other believers as you still do. Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. Then you will not become spiritually dull or indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and endurance.” (Hebrews 6:10-12)
“”The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out, “Yahweh! The Lord! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.
I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected – even the children in the third and fourth generations.” “
After reading several commentaries, I think that the Lord is referring to the sins of the parents affecting the generations because these sin are continued down through the generations without repentance. I refer to Exodus 20:5-6, where the Lord says, “You must not bow down to them (idols) or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love on those who love Me and obey My commands.”
My daily Bible study is currently in the Book of Ezekiel. In Chapter 18, The Lord is talking to Ezekiel who was a prophet during the Judean exile in Babylon (Ezekiel 1:1) I am taking excerpts from Chapter 18, please refer to the entire chapter for further reading.
“”Then another message came to me from the Lord: “Why do you you quote this proverb concerning the land of Israel: The parents have eaten sour grapes, bu their children’s mouths pucker at the taste? As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, you will not quote this proverb anymore in Israel. For all people are Mine to judge- both parents and children alike. And this is My rule: The person who sins is the one who will die.””(Ezekiel 18: 1-4)
From commentary from www.reddit.com, I understood this verse to mean that that the Jews blamed their parents for their captivity and the Lord was telling them to stop saying this because they should express resentment of their ancestors.
The Lord give three examples in this chapter. “Suppose a certain man is righteous and does what is just and right…….. and faithfully does my decrease and regulations. Anyone who does these things is just and will sure live, says the Sovereign Lord.” (vv. 5, 9)
“But suppose that a man has a son who grows up to be a robber or a murderer and refuses to do what is right. And the son does all the evil things his father would never do-…. Should such a sinful person live.” No! He must die and must take full blame.” (vv. 10, 13B)
“But suppose that sinful son, in turn has a son who sees his father’s wickedness and decides against that kind of life….. and obeys My regulations and decrees. Such a person will not die because of his father’s sins; he will surely live. But the father will die for his many sins- for being cruel, robbing people, and doing what is wrong among his people.” (vv. 14,15, 17B, 18)
“”What” you ask, “Doesn’t the child pay for the parent’s sins?” No! For if the child does what is just and right and keeps My decrees, that child will surely live. The person who sins is the one who will die. The child will not be punished for the parent’s sins, and the parent will not be punished for the child’s sins. Righteous people will be rewarded for their own righteous behavior, and wicked people will be punished for their own wickedness. But if the wicked people turn away from all their sins and begin to obey My decrees and do what is just and right, they will surely live and not die. All their past sins will be forgotten, and they will live because of the righteous things they have done.” (vv 9-22)
“Do you think that I like to see wicked people die? says the Sovereign Lord. Of course not! I want them to turn from their wicked ways and live. However, if righteous people turn from their righteous behavior and start doing sinful things and act like the other sinners, should they be allowed to live? NO, of course not! All their righteous acts will be forgotten, and they will die for their sins.” (vv. 22-24)
“Therefore, I will judge each of you, O people of Israel, according to your actions, says the Sovereign Lord. Repent, and turn for your sins. Don’t let them destroy you! Put all your rebellion behind you, and find yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should your die, O people of Israel? I don’t want you to die, says the Sovereign Lord. Turn back and live!” (vv30-32)
In today’s world, these Scriptures surely apply as well. We should admit that we are sinners, believe that Christ died for our sins, and commit our lives to following Jesus.
(All Scripture taken from the New Living Translation)
I haven’t posted in a while, and for good reason. Somewhere during the first week of December, I caught a cold, or so I thought. The symptoms progressed to sinus congestion, but no fever. I continued my routines with a nasal decongestant and ibuprofen. I still thought nothing of it, until the day of December 14th. I had been working as part-time seasonal help at a local department store. Having standing on my feet for five hours, they began to ache. When I got home, and walked my dogs, the aching persisted. I went to bed early that night because I was so tired. During the night, I developed a sinus headache, and I noted my temperature was 99. I slept until 1:00 pm the next day. The medication helped control my symptoms and I felt better.
A few days after I caught my cold, my husband began with the same symptoms of nasal congestion. He ran no fever, but had a little cough. He started getting more fatigued around December 16th. He had to take naps during the day. He has underlying medical conditions, one of which is low sodium, which has cause confusion and memory loss in the past. While playing his favorite interactive video game, he got confused about how to play the game. This happened on several occasions over the next few days. When I got home from work on December 19th, all the lights were on outside as well as inside the house. My husband was obviously in a confused state of mind. He forgot when I was coming home from work and had been looking for me inside and outside of the house. He was very fatigued and he went to bed. Long story short, I called my son and he came over to help me convince him to go to the ER. I called the EMTs and they checked him out. By that time, he was more in his right mind. He agreed to be take to the local ER.
We got to the ER around 10:30 pm. Chest X-ray and CT scan were normal, the Flu A swab was negative. Lab work showed low sodium and magnesium which necessitated admission to the hospital. It being 1:30 PM and I had a 30-minute drive home and knowing I could not go to the room with him, I left for home. I called him when I got home. He said he was still in the ER and they had tested him for COVID, but the results were not back yet. He called me back around 4:30 AM and said he was finally in a room, and he had tested positive for COVID. I could not believe it.
Shortening the story some more, my husband was discharged home on Monday, December 21st. That night he had a major coughing spell. I made an appointment for him to be seen by one of his providers on Tuesday, December 22nd. Because of his diagnosis of COVID, he had to go to their special Sick Clinic (COVID clinic). Chest X-ray showed mild patchy groundglass and interstitial opacities in both mid to lower lungs, indicating viral COVID pneumonia. He received a shot of Rocephin and Kenalog, and added Vitamin C and Zinc to his medications (he was already on Vitamin D). I told his provider what symptoms I had and she told me that I had already had COVID. I asked her if I need to be tested, and she said no, that wasn’t necessary at this point.
They sent us home, with with home care instructions and ordered home oxygen. We bought a pulse oximeter to measure his blood oxygen levels. He was given breathing exercises and an incentive spirometer. There were four positions he had to sleep in during the night to avoid the pneumonia settling in.
Tuesday and Wednesday nights were rough.He was so weak he had to either us a walker or walking cane to move around My husband had night sweats and I had to change the bed sheets every day. Thursday night was much better. By Friday, Christmas morning, he was beginning to get stronger, no longer needed the walker, but did use the walking stick on occasions. He still is using oxygen.
Obviously, we were unable to spend Christmas with our family. But we were together and because of the multitude of people praying for my husband’s recovery, he has been able to remain at home where I can take care of him. I truly believe he would not have done as well if he had to go to the hospital and be there by himself. His quarantine ends December 30th. I imagine his recovery back to normal will take many weeks.
In light of our COVID Christmas, we cannot forget the real real reason for Christmas. The birth of Jesus, our Savior of the World. Without faith, I could not have had the strength to endure these past few weeks.
” God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.” Psalms 46:1
“Therefore, angels are only servants, spirits sent to care for people will will inherit salvation.” Hebrews 1:24
While decorating our Christmas Tree this year, I thought about some of my favorite ornaments which include ornaments from my childhood and those purchased from places we have visited around the world.
The Angel and Baby Jesus ornaments are probably the oldest ones. We always placed them at the top of the tree. These are probably from the 1950s.
These are also ones from my childhood. Probably from the 1950-1960s.
The Santa is the first ornament that I remember making and probably was in the 1959-1960s. The other is the original Elf Christmas ornament. He rarely stays on the tree anymore, and has become the Elf on a Shelf (sitting on a picture frame this year(
I purchased this butterfly from Hospice in memory of my mother (who died of cancer in 1982). The other ornaments are of our current two rescue dogs, Daisy and Tanya.
This collection of ornaments , from left to right top row – Cartigena, Columbia, Santorini, Greece, Vatican City, Italy; left to right bottom row – Victoria, Canada, Alaska, and the nativity is made of olive wood, from Israel.
This the final group- left to right t0p row: From my first and only Live Trans-Siberian Orchestra event, in memory of climbing to the top of a rock wall on a Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship, I made this wood slice ornament. – left to right bottom row; I ordered this one, but it was after I visited the Beetles Museum in Liverpool, an lastly, this is a Hallmark ornament. I had a similar Barbie case, a Barbie like the one inside the case, in the first year of issue and both of the outfits as a child.
I hope this has sparked some nostalgic memories for you. I would love to see some of your memorable ornaments! (post a feedback and/or email me at cackywalker@yahoo.com
I haven’t posted since October 3rd. A lot has been going on. On the following Monday, the water pump went out on my Toyota Solara. The good news is that I bought it new in 2006 and 120,000 miles later, this is the first time I have had any problem with my car. Fortunately, God has blessed my husband with the gift of repairing foreign cars. Due to a back injury, about 25 years ago, he had to quit his job as a mechanic. He continues to do maintenance and repair cars in the family, with the aid of a back brace.
Solaras come with a V6 or V4 engine. Mine is V6. With a bigger engine, there is less space to place things like water pumps. It took us four days to remove enough parts from the engine compartment to remove the timing belt and water pump. The thermostat was on the opposite side of the engine and more things had to be removed to get to it.
I quickly became the helper. After multiple trips back and forth to the basement, I quickly learned how to identify and find ratchets, wrenches, sockets, socket extensions, three different kinds of vice grips, screw drivers, a torque wrench, two types of magnets on sticks and a mirror on a stick, to name a few. Each day, I set up the air compressor, and learned about the different types of impact drills and ratchets.
Changing a water pump is like doing surgery. My husband would ask for different tools to do a specific job. I learned how to remove bolts and nuts in hard places that required an extension or a very small, ratchet that held in the palm of my hand to reach tight spaces. It took as long to replace the water pump and put all the parts back together again. Oh, and we had to remove the front right tire and place a jack and raise the car up high enough to wedge as steel beam underneath the car, since we obviously did not have a hydraulic jack to lift the car in the air.
Through a lot of prayer for God’s guidance for my husband repair the car without any injury, after eight days, the job was completed with only one minor skin abrasion on my husband’s arm.
On Oct 13th, we had a doctor’s appointment about an hour away from home. On the way back home, the right rear tire blew out. By God’s grace, we were able to turn around and drive a very short distance to our son’s home. Again, by God’s grace, our daughter-in-law was off work that day. They had the tools we needed to remove the tire from the car. Our son came home from work and assisted his dad in removing and putting on the spare tire. Again, by God’s grace, we called our local tire shop. They had the exact tires ( we need to replace both rear tires) we need in stock and told us if we came on over the could put the tires on immediately.
On the way home we stopped to get some lunch. This turned out be take out lunch because our car was leaking water with antifreeze in it, meaning something was wrong with either the water pump or thermostat. Again, by God’s grace, the man parked next to us, had a loose flannel shirt in his truck. He took off the hot radiator cap without any problem. The restaurant provide a gallon jug of water to fill the radiator. We were able to make it home.
We had lunch to allow the car to cool down. Again by God’s grace, my husband found the problem quickly. It was a rubber ring that had split in half, causing the leak from a pipe to the thermostat. Again, by God’s grace, a local auto store had the proper rubber ring. The next morning, he put on the rubber ring, added more water and antifreeze to the radiator and we went for a drive to check it out. Problem solved. No more problems.
The next day, we had to go to another doctor’s appointment about an hour away. Again no problems. God is good! Even though it took about 10 days for the car to be fully repaired, if we had taken it to a repair place for replacement of the water pump, timing belt and gaskets, it would have cost over $1000.00.
I will close with Ephesians 3:20-21 (NLT) “Now all glory to God, who is able, through His might power to work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to Him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.”
Meditation on God’s Word is more just reading the Scriptures. The best definition that I found while searching the Internet came from Our Daily Bread Ministries – ” Biblical meditation is pondering the words of Scripture with a receptive heart, trusting the Holy Spirit to work in you through those words.“* In their September devotion booklet for 9/29/20 “Eyes to See” goes on to say, “Christ’s parables work this way. Those who care enough to ponder them gain “eyes to see” their meaning…. and Paul told Timothy to “reflect” on his words so God would give him insight.” **
“”Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advise of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating it day and night.” (Psalm1:1-2, NLT)
“Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in Your instructions.” (Psalm 119:18, NLT)
“Oh, how I love your instructions! I think about them all day long. Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are my constant guide. Yes, I have more insight than my teachers, for I am always thinking of Your laws.” (Psalm 119: 97-99 NLT)
“”His disciples came and asked him, “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people.”
He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets for the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. To those who listen to My teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. That is why I use these parables.
For they look, but they don’t really see. They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.
This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that says, “When you hear what I say, you will not understand. When you see what I do, you’ll not comprehend, For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes- so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to Me and let me health them..
But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear.”” (Matthew 13:10- 16)
“Think about what I am saying. The Lord will help you understand all of these things. “(2 Timothy 2:7)
*Used with permission from Our Daily Bread Ministries, from “What is Biblical Meditation?”, from their website (author unknown), ourdailybread.org
**Used with permission from Our Daily Bread Ministries, “Eyes to See”, written by Sheridan Voysey, September 2020, ourdailybread.org
What blessing has God bestowed upon you recently? I invite anyone to share your feedback comments. Below are some verses of encouragement for those faithful Christians who obey God’s commandments. How do we do that, by loving others, sharing our faith, and using our spiritual gifts as the Lord directs us.
“”Jesus replied, “But even more blessed are all who hear the Word of God and put it to practice.”” Luke 11:28, NLT
“If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully keep all His commandments that I am giving you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the world. You will experience all these blessings if you obey the Lord, your God: Your towns and your fields will be blessed. Your children and your crops will be blessed. The offspring of your hearts and flocks will be blessed. Your fruit baskets and breadboards will be blessed. Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be blessed.” (Deuteronomy 28:1-6, NLT)
“”Bring all your tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord, “I will pour out a blessing so great you have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put Me to the test! Your crops will be abundant, for I will guard then from insects and disease. Your grapes will not fall from the vine before they are ripe,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “Then al nations will call you blessed, for your land will be such a delight,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”” (Malachi 4 10-12, NLT)
In every season, God’s Glory is seen in nature. “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.”(Luke 12:27)
Whenever I walk my dogs in through the paths of our property, I usually have my phone in my back pocket. I never know when I might want to take picture of the scenery which may be a pictures of our creek that flows on one boundary, trees, or flowers. The flora changes with each season. Amazingly, the simple weeds, display some of the prettiest blooms. Below are some of the autumn blooms along my walking path (and some mushrooms, too).
While on my morning walk with my dogs recently, I noticed some caterpillars in a bush besides our creek. After several days, I realized they were eating the leaves on this bush. Several days later the caterpillars where gone. I saw several chyrsalises (cocoons). About ten days later, I experienced the chance of a lifetime. I witnessed a female tiger swallowtail butterfly that had only recently emerged from her chrysalis. Her wings were sill moist. She was trying to dry them, so she could make her first flight. These butterflies spend most of their lives as caterpillars and unfortunately only live one to two weeks as butterflies.
The transformation of this caterpillar into a butterfly reminded me of the Bible verse, Romans 12:2. “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by a renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (NKJV). When I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, I was transformed with a new life.
caterpillars on the bushThe green chrysalis between the flower and the leaves the butterfly after just emerging from the chrysalis
I have been a Sunday school teacher for elementary school-aged kids and in the past I taught many years for Girls in Action (GAs). One thing that I have learned is that you have to teach these kids on their own level.
Words such as mercy, compassion, grace, and humility are very common words in found in memory verses. When teaching the memory verse, I try to explain the definition of the words so the kids will understand what they are memorizing.
Mercy- compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm.
Compassion – Sympathetic pity or concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others and shows kindness, caring, and willingness to help others.
Grace- A gift from God, given through Jesus Christ, enabling power and spiritual healing offered though mercy and the love of Jesus. It is a free gift. It can’t be earned.
God’s Mercy – God not punishing us as our sins deserve, deliverance from judgement.
God’s Grace – God’s blessing us despite the fact that we don’t deserve it. Extending kindness to the unworthy.
Humility – Modest, without and excess of pride. Appreciate others. If someone does something better than you do, compliment them for their work. Being humble is the opposite of pride.
Justly – Acting morally good.
God oppresses the proud, but shows favor with the humble..
Micah 6:8 says, “The Lord asks us to do three things, act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with the Lord.”
