Monday, September 24, 2007
Sharing Jesus this Hallowen and a Contest!
The "Little Blots of Faith" Blog has a great idea for sharing Jesus this Halloween and to enter the contest all you have to do is write a comment to the post at Share Jesus This Halloween Contest about something fun you do around harvest time.
Halloween & Giving
Halloween is a wonderful and fun time to help teach children that giving is so very important. After all, neighbors give them candy. They should give too!
Here is a fun way to teach your children to give love from their hearts, time from their days, some of their bounty and of course the giving of their faith at Halloween and enjoy it too!
Visit an apple orchard and hunt out a little extra fruit. Buy 2 or 3 small plain brown craft paper gift bags and let your children decorate them with inspirational Christian sayings in crayon. Fill the bags with the apples and have your children deliver them to a needy family, an elderly couple who can't make it out themselves or someone who needs top feel God's love.
Here is a fun way to teach your children to give love from their hearts, time from their days, some of their bounty and of course the giving of their faith at Halloween and enjoy it too!
Visit an apple orchard and hunt out a little extra fruit. Buy 2 or 3 small plain brown craft paper gift bags and let your children decorate them with inspirational Christian sayings in crayon. Fill the bags with the apples and have your children deliver them to a needy family, an elderly couple who can't make it out themselves or someone who needs top feel God's love.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Banquet Earth Angel
For weeks all the Pioneer Girls were anticipating the annual Mother Daughter Banquet. All the girls except for me.
My Mom had just passed away a few month’s earlier and just thinking about sitting alone and watching all the other girls talking, laughing and eating with their Moms made my heart ache and tears come to my eyes. I felt so sad and alone at the thought of accepting my earned award without seeing my Mom clapping, smiling, hearing her congratulating me and feeling her hugging me when I returned to the table?
Finally the day approached. With cleaned and pressed uniform, I climbed into my group leader’s car to go to the banquet. All the way there I tried to think of ways to avoid being alone. Maybe I could sit with my group leader? Maybe I could sit with my sister who was also a Pioneer girl? Maybe I could sit with my best Pioneer Girl friend and her Mom? Maybe it wouldn‘t be so bad after all?
When we arrived at the Church, I found out my group leader had a special table in the front of the room because she was going to be giving out the awards, I couldn’t sit with her. Then I found out my sister was going to be sitting in a different room with the girls in her own age group, I couldn’t sit with her either. I found my best friend and her Mom and we went to the table with the name tags. As we pinned on our name tags, we were instructed to go to another table with place cards and to take our seats. At the place card table I found out my friend and her Mom weren’t even sitting at the same table as me!
Standing all alone with my name tag on and my place card in my hand, my heart started to ache. Just as the tears were about to escape from my eyes, a woman walked up to me. She said, “I don’t have a little girl here today. Could I sit with you?” My heart ached for her. Not having a little girl of her own must be as bad for her as not having my Mom with me was for me. I smiled at the woman and said, “Yes.“ She took my hand and helped me find our table.
It is many years later now and I can’t remember what the woman in my story said her name was. A Christian woman who took time out of her own day to search for a little girl she had never met before by name tag. A Christian woman who took my hand, sat with me, talked to me, laughed with me, shared a meal with me, clapped for me, smiled with me and congratulated me. I no longer even try to remember what her given name was. I know the name God gave her that day was Earth Angel, and so it always will be to me.
My Mom had just passed away a few month’s earlier and just thinking about sitting alone and watching all the other girls talking, laughing and eating with their Moms made my heart ache and tears come to my eyes. I felt so sad and alone at the thought of accepting my earned award without seeing my Mom clapping, smiling, hearing her congratulating me and feeling her hugging me when I returned to the table?
Finally the day approached. With cleaned and pressed uniform, I climbed into my group leader’s car to go to the banquet. All the way there I tried to think of ways to avoid being alone. Maybe I could sit with my group leader? Maybe I could sit with my sister who was also a Pioneer girl? Maybe I could sit with my best Pioneer Girl friend and her Mom? Maybe it wouldn‘t be so bad after all?
When we arrived at the Church, I found out my group leader had a special table in the front of the room because she was going to be giving out the awards, I couldn’t sit with her. Then I found out my sister was going to be sitting in a different room with the girls in her own age group, I couldn’t sit with her either. I found my best friend and her Mom and we went to the table with the name tags. As we pinned on our name tags, we were instructed to go to another table with place cards and to take our seats. At the place card table I found out my friend and her Mom weren’t even sitting at the same table as me!
Standing all alone with my name tag on and my place card in my hand, my heart started to ache. Just as the tears were about to escape from my eyes, a woman walked up to me. She said, “I don’t have a little girl here today. Could I sit with you?” My heart ached for her. Not having a little girl of her own must be as bad for her as not having my Mom with me was for me. I smiled at the woman and said, “Yes.“ She took my hand and helped me find our table.
It is many years later now and I can’t remember what the woman in my story said her name was. A Christian woman who took time out of her own day to search for a little girl she had never met before by name tag. A Christian woman who took my hand, sat with me, talked to me, laughed with me, shared a meal with me, clapped for me, smiled with me and congratulated me. I no longer even try to remember what her given name was. I know the name God gave her that day was Earth Angel, and so it always will be to me.
Saturday, September 01, 2007
What Does Labor Day & Christianity Have In Common?
It's Saturday September 1st and first thing this morning I found myself working on my Inspirational Gift Gallery web site and I couldn't help but wonder, 'What does Labor Day and Christianity have in common?'
It certainly isn't the backyard barbecues or a day at the beach that will answer my question, or is it?
It certainly isn't the backyard barbecues or a day at the beach that will answer my question, or is it?
The American Labor Day was created over 100 years ago. It was Peter McGuire, an Irish-American cabinet maker and pioneer unionist who proposed a day dedicated to all who labor. McGuire introduced his idea formally at a meeting of the Central Labor Union on May 18, 1882. "Let us have, a festive day during which a parade through the streets of the city would permit public tribute to American Industry," he said. The following September New York workers staged a parade up Broadway to Union Square. Year after year other cities followed suit and on June 28, 1894 Labor Day was passed through Congress by President Grover Cleveland. Over a century has passed since the first official Labor Day and Americans continue to lay down the tools of their trades for a holiday.
But thousand of years previous to 1894, in the book Exodus, Chapter 20, Verses 8-11 (King James Version) it is written,
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
And so it seems to me that in reality God passed the first law for the first Labor.
So while I enjoy this Labor Day weekend, especially Sunday and Monday with a day at the beach and backyard barbecues, I will smile and know in my heart that man's desires simply follow God's commandments and that's just what Labor Day and Christianity have in common!
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