Filled with Thanks

"Joy to the World.....the Lord has come"

This is one of my most favorite Christmas carols.  I love being in a church where the beloved Christmas hymns are sung throughout the month of December.  My husband, teenager, and I marvel at the blessing our church is to us.....we used to attend a church where Christmas carols were not sung very often other than the Sunday before the holiday...and even then, it would only be 1 or 2.  How marvelous the words are in the old, classic Christmas carols/hymns.  How timeless the music!

My thankful list this week is short and simple.....

• Christmas carols:  how I love singing them, harmonizing with my husband on them, playing them on the piano and recently, listening to my teen and preteen play them on their violins.  I love that we sing them during our praise and worship time at our church, Grace Fellowship.  I love that both girls' Winter concerts with their schools, featured Christmas songs.  

• This Scripture:  "we have great joy and consolation in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you."  Philemon 7.  I like it because the devotional that went with this verse reminded me that true joy is only found if we know love.  I was going through a time last month where I felt "unloved" for various reasons.  Part of it was just being overtired much of the time and taking things at home too seriously or being stressed about things that were not going according to plan.  Other reasons were lack of time with close friends who build me up in my faith or not enough time for Bible study meetings.  At any rate, I was letting my feelings of being "unloved" which, in the first case, was unwarranted and in the 2nd case was just....well....life, rob me of the joy I have in the Lord.  I am slowly regaining that deep joy after a month of crying out to God and trying to trust Him in certain situations.  And by focusing on what is truly important.  I am finding that I can be thankful for the stress of last month because it has taught me several things.  Some of those things I will share as the new year approaches......God is good and He is reminding me that His promises are true.  And that when He tells us something through prayer or prayer journaling, that we can have the assurance that His Word is true.  I am clinging to words He spoke way last summer over a certain situation and I know that what He has ordained, He will not destroy.  The enemy would love to rob us of our joy and confidence in Christ.  And I am not gonna let that happen...even if  people who have promised to be there for me are no longer there or if things are chaotic at home...whatever the situations are, God remains the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow!!  And this brings me joy!!  And like this verse says:  God uses people in our lives to refresh our joy.....little things like messages, or phone calls, or gifts.....or children obeying without questioning, husband's taking time for us...whatever it is.....God uses those simple things to allow joy to come into our lives.  Glimpses of Him through people.

That is it for tonite.....

I have some gifts to finish wrapping and tomorrow evening is our candlelight service at church.  I LOVE Christmas Eve because after a beautiful service, we come home, get into lounging outfits, pop some popcorn, take out the fudge, have steaming mugs of tea or cocoa and watch "White Christmas" together.  Looks like our Christmas will be mainly a green one although we got a little dusting of snow earlier in the day today before I left the school.  We all are officially on Christmas vacation right now...even my husband has some time off until Tuesday!!  

So.....HAPPY CHRISTMAS to you all and remember where our joy comes from!!