Here is our annual Christmas letter written by my Mom.
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not
only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” C.S. Lewis
To our dear family and friends,
It is time for our annual letter.
I have lost count as to how many years we have been doing this. It has been a good practice for us to be able
to look back upon the year and reflect upon God’s Sovereign Hand in our
lives. _____ has written all our letters
in the past. I have printed, addressed,
and mailed the Christmas cards. He is
the creative one, but he has been too busy to pen any words lately. I hope I am able to express our year- in-
review clearly and I desire to express to you, dear loved ones, our love and
appreciation for you, but most importantly I pray I bring honor and glory to
the King of Kings with, even, this little ol’ letter.
This year we saw ____ turn one, take his first steps, get his
first “buzz” haircut, and fill our hearts with great joy. He also fills our home with “great”
noise. He is by far our loudest child
yet. After having four relatively quiet
children, he has broke the mold and we find ourselves questioning whether we
should just do takeout rather than go in a restaurant and eat. But we wouldn’t change him for the world
(except I could use a little more sleep).
He is certainly all boy-a complete package of rough and tumble and puppy
dog love-our _____________!
Next up, we have _______, or as I like to call her- my “Rosie
Posie”. She is three, but can
communicate as well as an 8 or 9 year old.
She is one loveable, adorable little girl who could talk non-stop all
day long if we had time for it. She
loves playing mommy and pretending to cook.
She is very good to her baby brother and “reads” him books (by “reading”
the pictures). You would make her day if you had a job for her to do. She loves to help out. Obviously, she is
adopted, but she is so “us”, that I forget that she looks any different and
therefore, I forget, that to others, our family looks different. I’m very thankful for the gift of _______________!
Now on to our Sanguine child – ________. If you look up the description of a Sanguine
personality on the psychology chart, it well may have _____’s name in the
definition. She is our fun-loving,
people-loving, touchy-feely, tender little nine year old. One attribute she has that doesn’t fall into
that category is – she is normally quiet spoken. She loves to do crafts. She reads quite well and has finished many
child novels this year. She is able to
connect and play with her younger siblings in a wonderful way. She makes our day with her funny sayings. Oh, how we love our _____ girl!
Coming in at number four today is our resident-man-in-training,
____________. ______ is our sober,
thoughtful one. We kid him, perhaps too
much, about being too serious. It is such
a joy, though, to be able to depend upon your 13 year old son to bust wood,
load furnace, feed chickens, feed horses ,feed and milk cows, chase calves,
practice piano, do his math, and to even beat you at a chess game. He is turning into a fine young man, this
momma can’t help but be proud of him!
And last, but most certainly not least, is our _______ bug, Gracie
poo, ________ Grace McGoo, etc. (Being the first, she has all sorts of pet
names.) She is a jack (or should I say
“Jill”) of all trades. She laments the
fact that she does many things o.k., but wants to be especially fantastic at
“just something in particular”. She is
sixteen and doesn’t see what this ole’ momma sees. I see a wonderfully balanced young lady who
can wash dishes after cooking a delightful supper in record time, while singing
Judy Garland, “Meet Me in St. Louis”, while checking her email, while thinking
of a new poem to pen, while making her siblings giggle with her quick wit,
while editing her beautiful photographs she has taken of her family, while
blogging on her site www.graceinthesouthland.blogspot.com , while, while,
while….I could go on and on. She plays
piano and enjoys teaching some as well.
She is such a joy to be around!
This year, _______ had a change in employment. _____, the company he has worked for 10 years
at, closed doors in ____ and
moved. He was off for almost 4 months,
before being hired at ________in ______. During those months, he stayed
busy pursuing some farming. We gardened
quite a bit this year. We got 2 jersey
milk cows, 5 beef calves, and eventually draft horses and a wagon. He built
fences. He was mechanic for our vehicles.
He is a “doer”, but also a very creative man with a brilliant mind. ( He won’t like me bragging on him, but since
I’m writing this, it will be o.k., right?)
He writes poetry. He milks a
cow. He changes diapers. He prays with me. He reads.
He writes outlines. He can watch
a youtube video and change out the fuel pump in our Suburban. He is a marvelous storyteller. He is very thoughtful and insightful. He is a wonderful father. He is great with the chainsaw. He is an electrician. He is a preacher. He teaches our family about the “Logos”,
Jesus, the Word (logic) of Scripture. He took our older children to the
abortion mill to stand and plead with the men and women to save their
babies. He believes every life has
value. I hope my girls marry someone like him and I hope my boys turn out like
him. He recently has also been licensed by _________Presbyterian Church to
preach. I am so thankful to God for
giving me a husband that seeks to know more about Him.
We are members of ________ Presbyterian Church and love being there. The hunger and thirst for truth there is a
breath of fresh air.
I guess I have bragged on my family enough and I’m sure it seems
quite pompous and prideful of me to even take your time telling about them
all. But I know Who is the Giver of
this life I live and I know that Jesus is the Giver of this good gift of my
family to me. And He has been so good to
give us family and friends like you whom even care about our day to day
life. Thank you. Thank you for indulging
me. Thank you for praying for us. Thank
you for loving us. May you be blessed
this Christmas season and beyond. May we
all humble ourselves and not think higher of ourselves than we ought, because
all that we have and all that we ever will be is due to a Sovereign Lord that
reigns today and He is full of mercy and truth and justice.
Sincerely and with love,
_________ for us all
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No
one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:6- The Holy Bible
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing
that people often say about Him: “I’m
ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to
be God.” That is the one thing we must
not say. A man who was merely a man and
said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level
with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of
Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God,
or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can
spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord
and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a
great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” ―
C.S. Lewis
“The Old Testament contains over 300 references to the Messiah that
were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Computations using the science of probability
on just 8 of these prophecies show the chance that someone could have fulfilled
all 8 prophecies is 10 (to the 17th power), or 1 in 100 quadrillion.” –Fritz
Ridenour
“If God became incarnate, what kind of man would He be?...We would
expect Him to be sinless; we would expect him to be holy; we would expect His
words to be the greatest words ever spoken; we would expect Him to exert a
profound power over human personality; we would expect Him to perform
supernatural doings; and we would expect Him to manifest the love of God. Of
all human beings who have ever lived, Jesus Christ alone met all of those
criteria.”
–John MacArthur
The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous
rules endures forever. Psalm 119:160
– The Holy Bible
