Friday, December 20, 2013

The Christmas Letter

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                                                         

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