Sometimes I Write

I received the following in my inbox today. I love the emails and reminders I get from Flylady. I hope you enjoy her thoughts on getting in the holiday spirit.

Dear Friends,
My heart is breaking right now. I have received a few emails from our members that just were not in the spirit of the season because they had no money for presents. In fact they were not even going to put up a tree because they had no presents to go under it. I am not upset because of feeling sorry because of their money problems. I am hurt because they feel that Christmas has to do with STUFF!

Stuff has robbed us of our lives, home and now the love that is part of this season. The very best gift you can give is you! It doesn’t take money to spend time with a friend. To tell the truth I don’t remember much about the gifts that I have given that were just more STUFF. I remember the ones that I gave when I didn’t have the money to give more clutter! So what if you don’t have money for gifts. If you will get out of this ole poor me attitude and realize that you have all you will ever need right inside of you. Love is the gift that keeps on giving! Even if you have money for gifts: stop giving the easy gift(the one you buy with money) and give you! Make up gift certificates for Date nights with your children or as some of us have done: Turn off your computer! Give your children a simple board game gift certificate and have family fun night once a week. There are lots of things you can do! Use your imagination! Life is too short to ruin the spirit of the holiday season because of a lack of money!

I remember one year my mother was so bummed out over marital problems that she didn’t even put up a tree! We were little children: I was the oldest at 9 years old. So instead of doing what she could with what we had, she chose to do nothing. She always loved going all out for the holidays. But this year she was wallowing in self-pity because her marriage was falling apart. I have always felt bad when I think about this: but now I realize that I had to know this feeling to be able to share it with you. Just so you know right now I am very thankful for this awful Christmas and I have great big tears rolling down my face because I have finally forgiven her. If you are feeling this kind of despair then step out and pretend to be in the holiday spirit. Go to a nursing home and volunteer for a day. Volunteer at a food bank putting together and delivering boxes to needy families. If you will just look you will find there are many people out there that are in worse shape than you are. If this holiday season brings back bad memories: then forget about them! My mother died on Christmas eve. I don’t let that pull me down, because it was her favorite time of year. Find something to be thankful for and celebrate the joy in living and touching others with your love!

Rita Davenport taught me many years ago that if money will fix it! It is not a problem. I want you to think very long and hard about this phrase. Now quit feeling sorry for yourself and do something that will help others. That is the fastest way to get into the spirit of the season. If you give love you will receive it in return. I want for you what I have; Peace and this peace came from letting go material possessions and reaching inside of me to find the love that I can give to others. {{{HUGS}}} I love you all!FlyLady

Some days I don’t feel like I have anything important to say, and other days I feel like I could far surpass my allotted words for the day. What is that statistic again? Women need to speak like 10,000 words a day while men only need about 3,000? I don’t know, but it’s fairly accurate at the Nowell house. (And words like “go potty” and “don’t eat your boogers” don’t count.) Thank God for girlfriends!!!

Monday night Benny and I attended a fall festival with a ninja, a very pretty princess, and an adorable roaring lion. I’ll be posting pictures soon. It was fun as far as church festivals go. It was puzzling to me to see a giant balloon sculpture with the head of a scary devil in the main fellowship room where the festivities were underway. Why on earth would you have that at a party for little kids??? Idiots. Somehow (thankfully) Zoe didn’t see it. She would have freaked!

Halloween is always a fun topic this time of the year. (insert sarcastic cough) Like JettyBetty, I have long been a fence rider on the subject. I love the idea of children playing dress up and people giving each other treats, but trick-or-treating makes absolutely no sense to me. Why would you send your kids out in local neighborhoods to collect whatever total strangers want to give them? Any other night of the year you would think that’s insane, so why on Halloween do people all of a sudden trust their fellow man to do what is best for their children? It’s crazy. I’m not anti-Halloween, just anti-trick-or-treating…Unless you know the people whose house you’re getting treats from. I wonder what Jetty Betty was handing out? 🙂 Something tells me lots of chocolate. She’s sweet like that.

My discussion group for BSF discussed Halloween at our last fellowship. It seems that I alone liked Halloween. I’m sure it won’t be the last time I stand alone in my opinions. I do think it’s interesting what and how some Christians decide to take a stand on issues like this one. I wish we’d all take a huge stand against poverty and starvation like we do on holidays and whether or not it’s a sin to celebrate them. I think our good intentions are sometimes misplaced and look a little self-righteous and stupid to those who don’t belong to the club. As always, my finger pointing includes myself (remember there’s four fingers pointing back at me) I can’t believe I’ve wasted so much of my life missing the point. The pious, perfectionistic, high and mighty mask is scarier than any mask I saw Monday night.

Are you Pro? Anti? Or Indifferent? I’ll love you anyway. Just please people, think! The Halloween issue reminds me of the issue in the NT of whether or not it was o.k. to eat meat sacrificed to idols.
Romans 14 says this:

“Those who think it is all right to eat anything must not look down on those who won’t. And those who won’t eat certain foods must not condemn those who do, for God has accepted them. Who are you to condemn God’s servants? They are responsible to the Lord, so let him tell them whether they are right or wrong. The Lord’s power will help them do as they should.” Romans 14:3-4, NLT

The meat wasn’t the issue, the condemning of other believers was. The celebrating of Halloween has been a divisive topic for so long. Can’t we all just get along? Why is it we feel the need to not only make sure others know what we believe, but then try to persuade everyone to join us in our camp? I love my BSF sisters in spite of their thinking I’m nuts, but I recognized an area that could have turned a lovely discussion quite ugly and I managed to keep my tongue in check, and not take things they said personally. The result? A harmonious lunch. Thank you and hold the onions.

The following is a daily prayer we have begun praying for ourselves and our children. Today we also begin praying on the armor of God with them every morning.

Lord Jesus,
I surrender to you now any sin in my life that permits satan a foothold or influence over me. In the name of the Lord Jesus I call now to account all entities of the enemy that have any form of hold in or over me. Lord Jesus, bind all these entities for this day and forbid them from interfering with me or my subconscious. By your greater power, cut off all their ability or right to bring retaliation or threat against me for any reason, today and permanently. I place a shield of Jesus’ blood between all of them and me. In Jesus’ name I cancel all plans satan and his army have made against me. Lord Jesus, place a seal of your blood on my sub-conscious, blocking all demonic contact today so that no new agreements can be made and bless my sub-conscious with safety, knowledge of the truth, courage, and healing. Jesus, fill me with your presence and your Holy Spirit, and bring glory to God in my life this day.
Amen.

I made my decision and I feel really good about it. I have felt peace in my heart about this and I know I’m in God’s will. That won’t stop nasty things being said about me by some in my family who won’t agree with my decision. Oh well…I’m not living my life to please them, and I know I’m doing the right thing. Thanks so much for the comments, emails, and prayers. You’re so good to me!

This morning I had the opportunity to right a wrong from my past. I jumped on it as fast as I could, trying not to worry what this person would think about getting an email from me all these years later. I don’t know what his reaction will be, but I had to try to make things right. It’s funny (strange) how things like this happen. Satan does his best to screw up our lives and we help him right along, yet God calls us back to Him, offers us total forgiveness and then gives us healing and restoration. What an awesome God! I hope my old friend understands…

I’ve been thinking a lot about spiritual warfare lately. I know people who don’t believe in it and that just amazes me. Benny and I talked about what is spiritual war in our lives, and what is just us and the decisions we’ve made and the consequences of those decisions. I think Satan is present all the time, maybe not himself, but one or more of his army, just watching, reporting, and trying to find ways to render us ineffective in God’s plan. God’s word tells us that Satan is roaming around like a lion looking for someone to devour. And that’s just one verse out of hundreds. How can anyone NOT believe in a spiritual war? I read a book by Joe Beam called, Seeing The Unseen (available for $8.00 on eBay). It’s incredible, and if you’ve not read it, I highly recommend it. I lent it to a friend, but I think I need to get it back and reread it. That is after I finish the other two I’m reading now. I see spiritual war not just in my own life, but I witness it on the streets of Denver. I see it in the lives of the street kids and even the former street kids. I’ll share more thoughts on this another time, I just wanted to say that it’s been on my mind this week.

On a lighter note, a new friend gave me a bunch of puzzles, games, and Discovery Toys for me to use in our homeschooling. What a blessing, and she saved me a lot of money. Yeah! The kids are enjoying the puzzles right now as I type away. I’m glad learning is fun for them. I hope that never changes!

Thank you for the kind words and well wishes sent my way. I’m feeling much better today! 🙂

One of the things I hate about being an adult is having to make hard decisions. It’s funny to me that I feel that way since that is precisely one of the things I looked forward to when I was a kid. I felt that I could make harder choices than I was allowed to make. Never mind that I didn’t always make wise decisions and sometimes my screw-ups were big and public.

Well, the time has come for me to make some tough decisions. I’m knee deep in emotional turmoil over them. These are not childhood dilemmas, yet I wish I could have someone else decide for me and just tell me what to do. (Like it would do any good – I’d end up doing what I want to do anyway.) I wrote a whole blog post about it, then deleted it when I decided I didn’t want everyone in cyberspace knowing that much about me and my family. For those of you who know me personally and would like more information, please email or call me and I’d be happy to fill you in and solicit your prayers. For those of you who are part of my blog family: Please, please, please pray that my decisions are based on what God has told me to do and what is best for me and my family. Just so you’re not freaked out…It involves my extended family and broken/abusive /dysfunctional relationships within it. This has been a REALLY hard week for me in this area.

So I take this moment to thank God for my spiritual family. He has blessed me beyond belief with Godly men and women to come alongside me and show me what a family is supposed to look like, act like, love like, and be.

Holy Father, I will praise you through this storm in my life. I will lean on you and wait for your wisdom to guide me. I place no blame on you for this painful time, and I seek healing and restoration from you and through those you have placed in my life. Please speak to me so loudly I cannot doubt that it is you. Thank you for your compassion and mercy and please help me show the same to others. In Jesus’ mighty name, Amen.