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LoveGodsWay2
Member



Joined: 2008/10/9
Posts: 143
Ohio, USA

 Re: Your favorite Christmas memory

One of my past memories of Christmas is this:

When my wife & I got married, I couldn't afford a diamond ring. I got her a gold band.

Well a few years later, I was able to get her a small diamond ring for Christmas. So I put it into a balloon. I blew up the balloon and wrapped it up for her. So on Christmas morning, she opens up her balloon, thinking it was an odd gift. Shortly later, I told her she needed to shake the balloon. She then realized something was in it, her ring.

I also have a great wife. She loves the Lord and she is fun to be with.

Concerning this current Christmas, our budget is much, much smaller than prior years. So we have something here in NE Ohio called “freecycle.” There are several websites for this.

Anyway, you can get good things that other people don’t want it anymore, who live in your area. Well we have been getting Christmas gifts for our kids. And our kids know this. But what is really neat, now our kids & my wife are giving some of their things/toys to others who have needs, so that they can be given away for Christmas. Today, someone picking up some Legos that my kids don’t play with anymore.

But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 2 Cor. 9:6

Now godliness with contentment is great gain. 1 Tim 6:6


MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

 2008/12/19 10:34Profile









 Re:

Quote:
Anyway, you can get good things that other people don’t want it anymore, who live in your area. Well we have been getting Christmas gifts for our kids. And our kids know this. But what is really neat, now our kids & my wife are giving some of their things/toys to others who have needs, so that they can be given away for Christmas. Today, someone picking up some Legos that my kids don’t play with anymore.



Thats really cool. We have a large network of homeschoolers who do similar things. Also... [b]yardsales[/b]! My wife picks up things at yardsales all year and put them away for Christmas.

We're big time yardsalers. Most of my tools have come from yardsales, estate sales and flea markets. Best thing I ever got at a yardsale was a leaf blower for $5. We live way back in the woods so I am constantly having to clean out the gutters. Used to do it by hand... now I just walk along the edge of the roof and blow them out. Takes about 10 minutes instead of 2 hours. Best $5 I ever spent.

Love the story about the ring... very cool and clever!

Krispy

 2008/12/19 10:50
ginnyrose
Member



Joined: 2004/7/7
Posts: 7534
Mississippi

 Re:

Quote:
By the way... I dont want to make my wife out to be perfect. She isnt. Her one flaw is that she is partial to the Atlanta Falcons.



I don't think I will pray that she will change her mind about the Atlanta Falcons. That is your problem!! lol On the other hand, how can a woman [i]like[/i] football? or even enjoy watching a game? Oh, sigh, I know I am likely only one of maybe a dozen females on ,. my boys think I am dumb, crazy, stupid or something weird. Anyhow, I enjoy life anyways!

I am glad Christy is not perfect....actually I do not care for perfect people so that means I think she would be an interesting lady to meet! Take good care of her so she can love you to death!!;-)

ginnyrose




_________________
Sandra Miller

 2008/12/19 15:35Profile
crsschk
Member



Joined: 2003/6/11
Posts: 9192
Santa Clara, CA

 Your favorite Christmas memory

So many past mentions here not sure how to go about this. For myself and the rather long drawn out conversion, the lines blur greatly and not easily divided into 'before and after', though after coming to grips and coming to terms looking back really is very sweet and precious now.

My folks did a wonderful Christmas - It started very early, likely just before Thanksgiving. Christmas music was always on, piping out at just the perfect background volume from one of those old furniture pieces that surrounded a record player and radio combination - as big as a dresser. It was an atmosphere absolutely. I love my folks so very much. My Ma is no longer on this sad planet but looking back - Joy - Love - Great givers of heart and on Christmas ... A big deal. A big production. My Pa with his old fashioned 8mm camera, the big flood lights - the thrills and chills of the 3 of us up all the night before whispering, daring each other to wake them up probably close to 4am - "You kids go back to bed!"- The three of us siting up on the stair landing which by design kept just about everything just out of eye sight, inching a little closer - no one wanting to ruin whatever surprises might be set-out - A bike, something to big to wrap.

As many are already aware, was raised Catholic and I am thankful for that. I can hear the audible gasps but it's not what it seems. My Ma taught what they called Catechism when we were young. We did the Advent candle thing. We alternated between the three of us just who got to put the baby Jesus into the manager on Christmas eve. My parents were also kind enough to switch from going on Christmas day to church to Christmas Eve -Antsy, over excited and sugar laden kids who just wanted to get through the thing on Christmas day was better met with on the eve. Looking back I appreciate it more now and recall the sobriety at least in my thoughts of what this all meant even if I harbored a certain resentment that the church was overloaded by 'those people who only show up twice a year'.

Things are not always so simple, so cut and dried. I realize all the matters and issues, the theology and associated problems - To a kid, who knows nothing of all these things, you come up through what you do, you catch those things that are not always spoken, 'caught rather than taught'.

Maybe this should been put up at the start as something of a disclaimer but I will borrow it from Philologos as it speaks better than I could:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi Markso
your quote:I must confess brothers and sisters that this is a topic I struggle with. I can find no scriptural support for celebrating the birth of our Lord. (If I am wrong, please advise).


I often share your feelings and have often asked the Lord to do something to clear out the rubbish so that the gospel could be preached without all the historical baggage and new-age syncretistic nonsense. The answer I get in my heart is that it has always been like this. Christianity was always in the marketplace (not the study) competing with other so-called solutions. In the era of the New Testament we have evidence of gnostic attempts to take over the gospel (Colossians), Judaistic preversions of the truth (Galatians), false brethren sneaking in unseen trying to enslave the Christians (Galatians), the beginnnings of decadence in church life (3John)... Why doesn't God just silence all this false witness?

Time and again God takes me to this astonishing statement of Paul, and like the disciples I plead 'Lord, increase my faith'..

Php 1:15-18 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel; the former proclaim Christ out of partisanship, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in that I rejoice.

What kind of perverted witness could have come from people who only preached Christ so that they could get Paul into more trouble? Paul's statement sounds very much like 'any publicity is good publicity'. I'm sure Paul is right and my reactions are defensive, so I continue to pray.. Lord, increase my faith.

There is another statement that challenges my view of how things 'ought to be'. It is the comment of the leader of the town council in Ephesus For ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers of your goddess. Paul spent more than 2 years in Ephesus and the local 'mayor' says 'they have not blasphemed your goddess'. This can only mean that Paul and the early Christians were not preaching 'against idolatry' but were preaching 'for Christ'. Of course, they were 'against idolatry' but they did not publically attack it they 'preached Christ'. Since I saw this a few years ago, my street preaching has not been 'against' the rubbish and the error but has been a witness to Christ which, after all, is part of the reason as to why the Spirit came (Acts 1:8).

[url=https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=835&forum=36&start=10&viewmode=flat&order=0]christmas and the christian[/url]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Note this is a 5 year post, we do go through this exercise every year. But reading this again, that passage, the last one .. really is a challenge isn't it?

One of the other points of great controversy around here has to do with the 'unsaved' singing\preforming 'our' music\hymns and so forth. So I put this forward carefully and with respect to those opinions. It has been posted here by myself numerous times over the years and just recently by one of our brothers - [i]O Holy Nite[/i]

For me, for one who has practically quit listening to almost all forms of music due to my past, due to my soulish traits, due to something that I cannot put into proper words just why ... It goes far beyond sentiment for me, there is just something incredibly powerful about this hymn\song. One of my fond memories was in the rather poor theological churches I once attended, (WOF) yet on Christmas eve they always passed out the candles and sang this song. One year it was a very young child, about 10 or 11 years old who sang his heart out ... [i]Fall on your knees[/i] and I did.

I am impressed that my local 'secular' radio station that turns their programming over to all Christmas music for the season has the verve to actually play the [u]full[/u] version and I await with some anticipation that it might come on during the short commute to work. Yesterday, partaking in that pagan revelry know as Christmas shopping, it came on.

[i]Praise His Holy Name[/i]

After all these years, I never really knew just who it was that sang it with such ... [i]force[/i], with those breaks and pace, timing.

This morning I went about searching;

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Jr-2eyRtV4]Celine Dion-Oh Holy night[/url]

The cadence, the expulsion at;

[i]Christ is the Lord!

Then ever, ever praise we,[/i]

She apparently inserts some variation towards the end and there are a variety of versions out there;

[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Holy_Night]O Holy Night[/url]

What am I trying to say? I guess I am trying to just be forthcoming and honest about it all. To come full circle, not everything is as it seems, not so easily cut and dried - That you never know just what might grab hold of a soul and draw them out, make them gaze in wonder - Even that Tozer like comment about amateurs in the church preforming when they have no talent whatsoever - And yet a child can still bring one to his knees.

[i]With all our hearts we praise His holy name.[/i]


_________________
Mike Balog

 2008/12/22 9:39Profile









 Re:

Quote:
I don't think I will pray that she will change her mind about the Atlanta Falcons. That is your problem!! lol On the other hand, how can a woman like football? or even enjoy watching a game? Oh, sigh, I know I am likely only one of maybe a dozen females on ,. my boys think I am dumb, crazy, stupid or something weird. Anyhow, I enjoy life anyways!



Ginnyrose,

When you grow up with older brothers like I did you learn to enjoy things like football. I grew up on football and nascar in GA. Bill Elliot, or as he is known back home "Awesome Bill From Dawsonville" (in GA) is actually kin to my daddy. He is a race car driver for those who have no idea what I am talking about.

So I grew up around sports. And now I have a house full of athletes. Stinky socks & sneakers, smelly pads. You get used to it. I gave up a long time ago trying to get them to leave the toilet seat down.

If I didn't love football I would be a lonely gal from August until Thanksgiving time. Hubby and our two oldest are at the field every evening until 9pm or so. Saturdays are spent at the field. Why be miserable? Might as well decide early on to love it.

But I do all this while keeping my femininity very much intact. Why do you think we have 4 children? ;-) I am a southern belle at heart. I have my time with my girlfriends, and the gals in our church. I am a woman of many talents! LOL

Mrs. Krispy

 2008/12/22 16:03









 Re: Your favorite Christmas memory

crsschk,

What you wrote was lovely. You have a gift of written expression.

Merry Christmas to you too.

Mrs. Krispy

 2008/12/22 16:20





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