Pray it Forward- the first day of advent

What a joy and a blessing today was! Today, gathered with my daughter, three of my grandchildren and close friends we rolled, and shaped and sprinkled and baked more than 30 dozen cookies! And so Pray it Forward has begun. We prayed over the process and forward to those who will recieve and those who will give. Our conspiracy has begun. I can say that exhausted as I am that already I see the fruit of this effort. God visited with us today in the process and this is only the beginning!

Nana Ree's Dump Together Cake
1 Cup cocoa
2 eggs
1 Cup butter
2 Cup flour
1 Cup sour milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp baking doda
2 Cup sugar
1 Cup boiling water
Preheat oven to 350 degrees; grease NINE inch cake pans. Put all ingredients in ,icing bowl in given order. Do no tmix until last item is added, then mix well. Pour into NINE inch cake pans. Bake for 30 min. Note: if you don't have sour milk on hand, add 1 TLBS of vinegar to milk before you begin' let sit until it's time to add milk to vecipe.
Very rich, dark cake. The only choclate cake recipe you will ever use!

OK, so I'm thinking about this cake thing. God is showing me something here. Listed here are all the things needed to make the most wonderful cake in the world. But alone the ingredients are not all so tasty. The cocoa alone is bitter and dry. The raw eggs are slimy and plain yucky. The milk well that starts out pretty good but then you sour it. Vanilla alone- not so good. You get my point? It is not until you follow the directions carefully and add ALL the ingredients that you make this wonderful cake.
The life of a Christian is a cake. The Lord takes all the things in our life and blends just the right amount of ingredients together to make us something wonderful. It takes the bitterness of our tears. It takes the sadness of having something that was once good that sours. It takes the sweetness of healty realationships. The heat to blend and purify. All these things brought together in our lives make us beautiful in the sight of God. HOWEVER- without the baker (God) all these experiences would just be a list of experiences. It takes the hands and intent of our loving Father to make and bake our "cake". Without Him we are a just bitter, slimmy,sour mess. Our life goes from one experience to the next. We are never able to make sense of the pain and disappointment. We have moments of what we may think of as happiness but then we have to deal with yet another disappointment/With Him we our lives make sense. We see how He can and will use all things together for our good.When He has done His work in us we look good, smell good and taste good.But only because of the hand of the baker. When we allow Him to take carge of all the things in our life He WILL create something that is attractive to others. Just like a choclate cake. They will want some for themselves. And why does God want us to do?? Like a cake, we should feed others .

chirstmas madness

this is reposted from my daughter gwenn's blog

A different way.
So I read this headline today:
Wal-Mart worker dies in rush; two killed at toy store
if(window.location.pathname.indexOf('/2008/US/11/28/week.in.irpt/index.html')!=-1){ var nxtStryCSIMgr = CSIManager.getInstance().call('/.element/ssi/auto/2.0/sect/US/nextStory0.exclude.html','','cnnNextStoryCSI');} if(window.location.pathname.indexOf('/2008/US/11/28/offbeat.images/index.html')!=-1){ var nxtStryCSIMgr = CSIManager.getInstance().call('/.element/ssi/auto/2.0/sect/US/nextStory1.exclude.html','','cnnNextStoryCSI');} if(window.location.pathname.indexOf('/2008/US/08/14/buchenwald.liberator/index.html')!=-1){ var nxtStryCSIMgr = CSIManager.getInstance().call('/.element/ssi/auto/2.0/sect/US/nextStory2.exclude.html','','cnnNextStoryCSI');}
Man, THIS WAY is looking better and better.Advent starts tomorrow.Last year, Nick and I wrote a family devotional for our church for the advent season.If you are interested in having it, email me at nickandgwenn@gmail.com and I will email it to you.

Pray it Forward. My Advent Conspiracy

Christmas 2008
I love Christmas. The music, the lights the bangles and bells, the Christmas pageants and candlelight services.But it seems that as each Christmas approaches I DO things to try and capture or recreate that sense of wonder that I had as a child. I never seem to really meet that expectation and always seem to fall short of that childlike excitement and enthusiasm. This year something has happened to me that has changed all that. My daughter Gwenn sent me a link to a short Youtube video called “The Advent Conspiracy”. I am not sure exactly what happened but it changed my whole out look on Christmas. I gave me back the desire to give creatively . I find myself asking God how He can You use me in a more effective way and He is filling my my and heart with His Christmas. So is born Pray it forward.
This is how I see this working. I have several jars of wonderful vanilla that my daughter and son-in-law brought home from Haiti. I am gathering together with my oldest daughter and her children and my best friend and her daughter. We will spend the afternoon on the first day of advent making Christmas cookies. Then I will package up as many batches of cookies as I have bottles of vanilla. I will prayerfully decide who should get these and then I will pray for them before I give them this gift. For each gift I give I will make a donation to the Haitian Children's Home. I will enclose information about this mission in the box with the vanilla. Those who receive this gift will be asked to use the vanilla to make a treat for someone on their gift list and then "Pray it forward." If each person were to make a donation instead of buying a gift then even the smallest of donations would grow and bless in a big way. I will also encourage those who pass forward this blessing to pray for each person down the road who will one day receive this bottle of vanilla. Just as Jesus said "I do not only pray for these, but for those who will believe after them." (my paraphrase)
I will use this blog for people to post pictures of their baking projects, testimonies and maybe even a running total of donations given.
I know this can work. I believe God gave me this idea. I am hoping Gwenn can bring me more vanilla but for now I will begin with the 11 bottles I have.
Do you remember when God asked Moses "What do you have in your hand?" (refering to his staff) I believe that God is asking this generation of His children to use that which is in their hand, no matter how big or small, to bless the world. We can use our talents and passions to bless others. My neice has an aution on ebay right now where she is auction an original art work to help raise funds for the Haitian Children's home. Our God is a creative God. Children are dying and we CAN make a difference. You don't need vanilla. You need a heart that is ready to say "Lord what would you have me do?" He will show you. This Christmas can be different. Don't let THEM tell you otherwise. So I ask you.."What is in your hand?"
Haitianchildrenshome.org/mangine

Christmas 2006

did i mention i love Christmas? and Jesus and grandchildren?

Finding Baby Jesus

Finding Baby Jesus
By Denise Goodale

Christmas can be a pretty hard time for me. Not because I don’t like it- but because I do. Working at the Post Office often 6 or 7 days a week does not leave me with time to do the my regular chores much less to have the time to do the fun and relaxing things that come with the season. So, I make lists. Unlike many other people who make a daily list, my list may continue for days or weeks. I am always adding to it the things that I need or want to get done. I even write down the most obvious things like cook dinner or do the laundry so I can reward myself with at least crossing off something. I even go so far as to break down the laundry into sub-lists: wash, dry, fold and put up are on the list because that way I have four things completed instead of one. It was this list that the Lord used to get my attention this Christmas season.
One afternoon I was climbing around in the attic pulling out the Christmas decorations. I unearthed the box with the wooden nativity that has been a central part of our Christmas celebrations since my daughter Gretchen was two years old in 1977. My mother bought this particular set for us that year because she thought how great it was that the kids could touch it and it wouldn’t break. Early in the season on the first day of Advent we set up the stable on one side of the room and Mary and Joseph on the other side with the kings even further away. The shepherds were positioned close to the stable where they would keep watch over their sheep. Each night during Advent the characters got closer and closer to Bethlehem until finally on Christmas Eve, Mary and Joseph arrived at the stable. On Christmas morning the children took turns putting baby Jesus in the manger. We then would sing Happy Birthday to our Savior and have a time of prayer before any gifts were exchanged. We have continued this tradition now for 28 yrs now with my grandchildren now stepping into the role that their mother played. Needless to say, this little wooden nativity set is a very dear to my heart. Its monetary value is not very much but it is priceless to me. So this year when I set up the stable I was beside myself when I got to the bottom of the box and the one-inch baby Jesus was not there. What could I have done with him? Not really having time to look other places, I added this task to my list.
Days past and the list grew, Put up the tree, go to Belk, order Micah’s gift, laundry –wash, dry, fold put up. Copy Christmas card photo. Bank, call so and so. Some things got crossed off my list only to make room for other things. Then – last week I stood at my kitchen table, exhausted and cranky I scanned the list this time only one thing jumped out at me “FIND BABY JESUS”. It hit me like a ton of bricks. All these other things that I had on my list were really of no importance. That was the only thing that mattered. It occurred to me that just as this wooden nativity piece was hidden somewhere in my attic in some box coved by some Christmas stuff that I was doing the same thing with my Jesus. I was so consumed with all the Christmas stuff that I had lost Jesus. As with the wooden nativity piece I guess I just thought that I would find Him on the way. We are surrounded by reminders of Christ at this time of year. If we are not careful it can all become just stuff to hide Jesus under. We and the world can sing Joy to the World or Silent Night and not find Jesus there. We will not necessarily just come upon Him because it is Christmas. The Bible tells us that if we search for God we will find Him. This is not a passive search but an active search. When the angel told the shepherds that Jesus was born they did not say “Cool, we will have to see if we run into him the next time we go to town for food.” It was not enough for them to just know that he was there somewhere. The shepherds left everything that was important to them and they went “AT ONCE” to Bethlehem to see this thing that the angel had told them. They searched for Jesus until they found Him, they worshipped him and they went out telling others about him. Likewise, the wise men knew that it was not enough just to know that Jesus was born – they didn’t just hope that someday they would see him. They searched for him for a long time until they found him. They worshipped him and gave to him gifts that they had prepared for Him. There was nothing passive about it. These men deliberately set out to find Christ. That is was Jesus is teaching me. I must set my heart on finding him. I cannot let the radio, TV or even my pastor tell me about Him and accept that as Christmas. I must take the time, even if this means cutting down my list and letting some other perhaps very good things go. If you set out to find Him, intent on searching until you do- you will. If I had been more careful when I put the nativity away last year I never would have lost baby Jesus. I must be careful not to put myself in the place where I cannot seem to find Jesus. I am sorry to say that as of yet I have not found my wooden nativity piece I am so glad to tell you that Jesus is right here with me.
Post Script. Christmas came and went. January arrived. I took out the box to wrap up the wooden nativity set, less the one inch baby Jesus. I picked up the stable and heard something drop to the floor. I cried tears of delight as I saw him! Somehow, someway that I will never understand baby Jesus was there all the time. I hadn’t lost him at all but the lesson I learned will be with me always. “ I will be found by those who seek me.”