Two Days After Christmas

Praying everyone had a blessed and wonderful Christmas. So much has been going on here that I haven't been online very much lately. The week before Christmas my husband was sick so most of my time was spent taking care of him and of course my 'lil girls. He recovered pretty quickly but a week ago I came down with the same sickness and mine did not begin to vanish until today. I spent Christmas Day in the Urgent Care center. Praise God, I am doing a lot better now and we are slowly getting our house back in order. It's amazing what Christmas and a sick Mama will do to make a house quite messy! My girls were wonderful about helping out all they knew how and now my two oldest are sick and I am doing my best to take care of them as I continue to recover. They spent the morning watching cartoons which I finished off the Christmas cards. So much going on I never did get them out on time. We still need to bake the rest of our cookies too and probably will do that next week.

Despite all the illness we did have a nice Christmas. We celebrated two days early because my husband was going to be working Christmas (who knew he'd have to take the day off to take me to the doctor!). My girls enjoyed their gifts and having lots of time to just relax with mommy and daddy which we don't often have.

Well, little one is napping now so I should go rest up a little while I have time.

Holiday Time

I can't believe it's been so long since I have posted here. We have been so busy lately I rarely find time to sit and enjoy any time on-line unless it's to pay some bills or search for information for the girls for school. Today we are taking a much needed break. The girls are happily playing in the front room and I am taking a little time to unwind before we have lunch.

We are late in starting our Christmas preparations this year. Next week we will be putting up our decorations and making cookies. Dh has to work on Christmas and Christmas eve this year so we will celebrate a couple days early.

My girls are going to be singing in a Christmas Program on Sunday so if I can get my video camera to work right I will try to get it uploaded to YouTube so I can share it here. I can't wait to see them, they love to sing!

I haven't even mailed any Christmas cards yet or bought any gifts. I was telling my husband I feel kind of stressed due to those things still needing to be done and he had to gently remind me that those things are not what Christmas is all about anyhow and to just do what I am able and the rest will just have to wait. It is so true, we get all caught up in the holiday spirit often forgetting the real reason we are celebrating.

Just in case I don't get back here before Christmas, may you all have a lovely and blessed Christmas with those you love.

In Him,

Happy Late Thanksgiving!

We've had sick little ones in our house this week so I didn't get to post on Thanksgiving.

We had out Thanksgiving meal on Tuesday this year and it was a nice and quiet time with our family. My husband and I and the girls enjoyed a cozy meal together and then spent some time just hanging out and enjoying each other's company.

I pray everyone had a wonderful and blessed day!

Getting Ready

My husband always works Thanksgiving Day so we always have our meal ahead of time or the day after. This year it will be either Monday or Tuesday so I am gearing up to cook this weekend. I've already made dough for rolls and put that in the freezer and also made my pie crusts which are in the fridge. It will be a simple meal this year but as always, full of good things and love.

Tonight I made homemade pizzas so the kids are happily watching "Kung Fu Panda" and eating right now.

We're going to take next week off to de-clutter the toys and papers around here. Our town just started a new recycling program so the kids are really anxious to fill up the big blue dumpster that was delivered to us. So since they are in "toss out mode" I thought I had better take advantage of it!

School is coming along slowly for us this year... I am thinking of going through all the texts and seeing if we might just skip ahead on some things. My 8 year old seems bored with her math sometimes and spelling too so I am going to quiz her on some things to make sure we are not holding her back too much. Both 8 yo and 6 yo have read way ahead on the readers they have for this year so I will most likely be doing some major book shopping at the start of the year. It's often hard for us to keep up with their veracious bibliophilic tendencies :0)

Well, I better head off for now. 1 yo just came in holding her diaper sand saying "Ewww!" so I know what that means. :0) Have a blessed weekend y'all!

Bible Study: Romans (Part 6)

(If you missed the previous posts in this study click here to catch up. Sorry for the delay, we've been without Internet for a few days due a problem with our ISP.)

One of the outward signs that the Jews had to show their faith in God was circumcision. Paul is speaking about the significance of that outward sign. Circumcision was a sign that they were God's chosen people. It had nothing to do with their own faith in Him. (Romans 3:3)

God will judge us according to His standards, not ours. We can only be justified if we speak according to His Word. We can't assume we are more righteous than God nor can we continue on in sin "knowing that good will prevail". God wants us to do good in all things no matter what, our liberty in Christ doesn't allow us to freely sin. God will still judge all sinners. We have no room to judge others as we are all sinners. God is our only judge. (Romans 3:4 - 10).

Romans 3 : 11 - 18 really show what the world's attitude is towards God. How the "average" person thinks and acts. Really, all of us, Christians alike can have these attitudes at times because as we know there is not one person that is perfect in this world. Only God is true perfection.

"The law" as spoken of in the Bible refers to God's law (Levitical law) that was written in the Holy Scriptures before Christ was born... God's word spoken through the prophets. As we know, Jesus came to fulfill the law (Matthew 5:17), therefore Christians are not "under the law" so to speak, we are to follow the teaching of Christ as he taught when her was here on earth to fulfill prophesy and establish Himself as God's Son on earth. The law speaks of God's judgement of people on the earth. There are many works people were required to do in order to avoid God's holy wrath. No one had been justified as of yet because Jesus hadn't been born yet. The law teaches what sin is. By knowing the law, people would know what things were sin in God's eyes. (Romans 3: 19-20)

We are all sinners and fall short of God's glory. As believers, however, we are righteous in God's eyes and justified by our faith in Christ who came to fulfill the law. God freely gave His son and justified us because He wished to (by His infinite grace). (Romans 3:21-24)

God has shown His righteousness to us through Christ, by forgiving our sins that have YET to happen, through Jesus' shed blood. He shows us His justice and He justifies us. (Romans 3:25-26).

We need not seek glory for our works. It is not by works that we are glorified nor justified, it is by our faith in Christ. Whether we are Jew or Gentile, we are justified by our faith and not some outward act such as by the law. However, we aren't to abandon the law, we are to hold up the law and stand by it. (Romans 3:27- 31).