thanksgiving 2 0 1 4

Wow. So Thanksgiving Day is almost over. So much beauty to take in. It was so full of family and food and fellowship and flklsjf. I feel exhausted. But good exhausted. Like drove-three-hours-down-and-then-back-so-we-could-spend-thanksgiving-with-both-sides-of-our-family exhausted. 

I just feel satisfied and thankful. Which I think is how Thanksgiving Day should leave you feeling.

[also it was the last thanksgiving with Abby and Garrett in high school. WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN. WE WERE ALL SUPPOSED TO STAY NEXT DOOR NEIGHBORS IN THE WOODS OF NORTH CAROLINA AND NEVER GROW UP. WHAT.]

whatevs.

so I thought I'd do a small thanksgiving post. Just some things I thought of when Dad mentioned the question of what we're thankful for...

<< my own room >>
I live in a family of 8. We are all homeschooled. We keep an 8 month old baby for most of the week. I think this is pretty self-explanatory. It's so nice just to have my own space to escape, to organize, or even do school. Also-- my bed. Praise Jesus.

<< my church // it's leaders >>
This could take up a couple volumes if that's okay with you all. No--I'm just gonna try to summarize. [hah.] Most importantly, they love//serve God above all. They are incredibly gifted. They take God's Word seriously. And they have a profound love for not only the universal church, but for the whole body and individual members of Grace Reformed Baptist. God has blessed me in a way I can never fully conceive or appreciate by placing me here from a young age. Inconceivable.

<< the promise of heaven >>
sometimes I just want to cry [yeah, it's that time of the month] thinking about the goodness of God in giving us this hope for a new day of no sorrow, no pain, no sin. No matter how bad it gets in this world, we can look beyond it to a day that's greater than we could ever imagine. Not only will we glory in Christ and his glorification we will be glorified ourselves in new renewed bodies and minds. I can't imagine living life without that constant comfort and guide-- that there is something more. And because of Christ, that something is mine.

<< the christmas season >>
well duh. there's so much I could say here. but guess what? I'm not going to because I want to go to bed. #nohate

<< G R A C E >>
the fact that God not only withholds the wrath we earned, but gives us so much infinitely more at the highest of costs to himself. his grace is an ocean-- we're all sinking. how could I ever have any right at any moment of any day to have even a twinge of complaint? I should be bursting and glowing with thankfulness every second of everyday, a thankfulness that this world cannot comprehend. A thankfulness that points ever, only, always to Christ.

Now, to sustain this level of thankfulness throughout the year... ha ha. yeah, I think it's time to start praying....

seasonal nostalgia

Is it possible to be nostalgic for summer, autumn, and winter all at the same time? Apparently so because that's how I'm feeling right now. So here we go, let's go ahead and get my feelings out on paper [instead of doing what I should be doing: school].

Summer is hot, a shimmering layer of heat between us and a blue sky. Summer is sun beating down on you, highlighting your hair, and browning your skin. It's eating popsicles on the porch and half of it melting over your sticky hand before you can finish. It's leaping into the pool, into liquid bliss, a relief from the scorching heat. It's dirty feet and sweaty faces, running barefoot through the yard. It's the beach-- wind tangling your hair, salt on your lips, sun kissing your cheeks. It's the heat on the seashore, swept away by the salty breeze. It's heat and thunderstorms, and running in the pouring rain. It's water balloon fights with your cousins, drinking from the hose, and it's freedom. Freedom from school, from responsibilities. Freedom to run through the woods, over the creek, through the fields, and far away, leaving your troubles behind.

         

"Autumn-- the years last, loveliest smile." Agh, but the smile is fading at last. *tearssss* Fall.....well, fall is perfect. Fall is glorious, vibrant colors decorating the world all around. It's jumping into a pile of leaves and scattering them all over again. It's a sky of perfect blue, stretching vivid to the ends of the earth. But it's also a sky of platinum gray, dreary rainy days to stay snug inside with baked goods and hot beverages. It's bonfires and s'mores in the crisp fall air. The smell of smoke and dry leaves. It's Halloween and Thanksgiving and the start of the holiday season! And [I think I can say this in all confidence] it's my favorite season of all.

          

Winter is frigid. Winter is sharp winds, a clear night sky, a silvery moon, and an icy frost. It's bare trees and bare forest floors. But while winter may not be nature's loveliest smile, it's lit up by our smiles, enough to warm the long winter days. For winter is Christmas, and snow, and blankets, and fires. Christmas is excitement, exhilaration, ecstatic anticipation. It is joy in it's purest form: in the delight of another, in the giving of gifts. Winter is Christmas music and presents building up under the tree. It's the giddy thrill of not revealing the secrets of the presents you wrapped. Christmas is a warmth within that defies the cold without. And then winter is snow, powdery, white delight. Snow means bitter cold and freezing toes; it means burning your hands on the heat of a mug. It's the warmth of hot chocolate as you swallow your first sip, marshmallow tipping your nose. It's scrounging up enough snow for snowmen and snow balls and snow forts and so much more. Winter is winter and winter is cold but that's what makes it winter.

         

And for some reason, at this point I'm not feeling Spring that much. Sorry Spring. But spring reminds me of fair weather, budding plants, nearing the end of school, and getting out spring/summer clothes.

So there we go. *breathes a sigh of relief* Nice to get that off my chest. and-- WOW. I posted two days in a row! YAY. Let's just hope the pattern continues... ☺

before the throne of God

This morning when I came to the point of prayer in my devotions I just had an overwhelming sense of unworthiness. how could I even dare to approach the throne of God? 

But then I remembered why-- because to Him I am perfect because Christ swallowed my sin in his holiness. He took my rags of filth and evil [the ones that incurred the wrath of God] and gave me a robe of pure, holy white, untarnished for they're His own. He took the rags of my rebellion and disbelief and He took responsibility for the sins he had never committed and for the wrath that was meant for me. He took an eternity of wrath in space of under a day, beaten and mocked by the very people He had created. As the Father turned his face away, the Father turned to me, as my Father, accepting me into his eternity of perfect holiness and bliss in His presence, worshiping him and the One who died for me, forever. 

And that's when I remember how I can come before that throne-- for that very same throne is a throne of grace, the throne that allowed its Son to die that I might live. I can come because the One on the throne loves me enough punish his Son for sins I committed. I can come before this throne of grace because He made me his child so that I could come before that throne.

              

Okay that might have sounded a bit dramatic, but, let's face it-- this is a pretty dramatic act on God's part. Well, one more blog post checked off the proverbial list. I have got to post on here more often.... 

*doesn't post for 10 weeks*