this little light of mine...

dear emily,

don't you love "charlie brown's Christmas?"  charlie is moping
around for the true meaning of Christmas, and linus sums it up
quite nicely.

"there were shepherds abiding in the field . . ."

can you imagine a contemporary cartoon referring to the angel's
visitation of the shepherds?  it makes me very sad that children
have so few encounters with 'the babe' in our world.  the light
has grown very dim here.

that's why i'm so grateful to the hobby lobby and mardel stores
for purchasing an advertisement that still warms my heart.

john 1 says "the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has
not understood it."  we can make our homes illuminators to our
children's hearts by loving them, reading the scriptures to them,
and telling stories of His wonder in our lives.

psalm 104 says, "He wraps Himself in light as with a garment." i
would love to wrap that garment around my children and protect
them from all darkness.

...i'm gonna let it shine,
lea

ps.  go to pj's to see some amazing lights!

"missing"

i'm a coward, and that's why my heart is so stirred by heroism.
one of my favorite movies, "missing" with cate blanchett and 
tommy lee jones, is chock full of it.  

after her daughter is kidnapped by a depraved man and his gang 
of unmerry men, a desperate mother is forced to beg her 
estranged father for help.  the picture earns its "R" rating in a 
dozen ways but none of them can keep me from loving the 
timeless tale of courage,  devotion, and reconciliation.

when the indian grandfather is left for dead in the desert, he asks 
a hawk to guide him home.  does that seem silly?  


bruce olson, the motilone missionary, tells a story of being 
kidnapped and dragged into a south american jungle.   when he 
felt the most despair, God sent a bird to sing to him the entire 
night. 


in the final scene of "missing", the mother fiercely yells at the 
wicked men, "fuera!", which means "leave!" . . .or, "satan, i 
rebuke you in the name of Jesus!"  :)

you will have to watch the movie yourself to see if they do.


love,
lea


"even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for 
herself, where she may have her young--a place near Your altar."  
psalm 84:3

make a joyful noise!

my friend, lana from honeysuckle lane, has asked me to do a
guest post at her blog.  i know, what was she thinking?  she is
an incredibly talented artist, and i can't even draw a straight
line!

would you, please, hop over there and say, "hello?"

happy thanksgiving!

love,
lea

monday's mentoring mommy moment

dear emily,

it is terribly presumptuous of me to give you a thanksgiving craft
idea, since you are the master, but i couldn't resist.  these cards
are just so darn cute!

here's the link.

we also used to read every thanksgiving book i could get my
hands on.  here are a few you will love.

"squanto and the miracle of thanksgiving" by eric metaxas
"thanksgiving, a time to remember" by barbara rainey
"an old fashioned thanksgiving" by louisa may alcott

some great scriptures to memorize as we prepare our hearts for
thanksgiving are psalm 31:19, 95:1-6, and of course, psalm 100.
it's always an encouragement for mom and dad to tell what we
are thankful for, especially our precious children.  if the kids
want to  pipe in, that's even better.

many families forego their own meal to help serve dinner at the
homeless shelter.  i can't imagine anything to make a child's
thanksgiving richer or his heart more grateful than to help those
less fortunate.

i hope some of my friends will leave comments, because they
always have such wonderful ideas.

thankfully yours,
lea

"how great is Your goodness, which You have stored up for
those who fear You, which You bestow in the sight of men
on those who take refuge in You." psalm 31:19

hear no evil, speak no evil

when my son max was three or four and up to some orneriness, he
would say, "mommy, don't see me."

what a great illustration of how we try to hide our own ugliness.
unfortunately, "there is nothing concealed that will not be dis-
closed, or hidden that will not be made known.  what you have
said in the dark will be heard in the daylight and what you have
heard in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the rooftops."
(luke 12:2,3)

not exactly a refrigerator verse.  more of a rooftop one.

a true indicator of the state of our hearts is how we speak to our
husbands and children when no one else is listening . . . how
we talk about our friends when they aren't around . . . and how
we treat the least in the kingdom (the dog!)

Lord, have mercy!
-lea

i'm linking to spiritual sundays.

headache at walmart

my daughter, shelby, gets fussy at me for spending so much money
at my neighborhood grocery store.  "mom, that chicken costs twice
as much as at walmart."  i know, but walmart's garish flourescent
lighting, the hard floors, loud noises, and crowds of people are
such an assault.

google image

monday, however, i mustered my courage to make the thanksgiving
supply run at the local walmart.  shelby would have been so proud
of my great attitude.  "this will be fun.  there will be so many good
deals, etc."

but, 20 steps into the store and i felt like everyone was yelling at
me, the lights hurt my eyes, i couldn't find the stuffing, and my
head was pounding.  i frowned looked at a sweet elderly man,
who said, "well, it's our church singer.  yvonne would be so glad
to see you!  she just thinks you're . . ."

i immediately thought of sonja's post on the dangers of putting
Christian bumper stickers on our cars.  people expect us to act like
Christians, if our cars are saved.  :)  well, the same is true of
sunday singers.  people expect us to be as cheerful on monday,
even at walmart.

speaking of cars, when i approached mine, i saw that the front left
tire had been shredded.

are you kidding me?

love,
lea

"let your gentleness be evident to all.  the Lord is near."  philippians 4:5

crumbs from the table

when my children were quite young, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12, i took
them to hear a famous preacher.  it was important to me that they
be exposed to as many of the Lord's treasures as possible.

unfortunately, upon arrival we were told that the chapel seats
were reserved for the college students.

"we will stand in back, then, and enjoy the crumbs from the
table."

brazilian pastries

the preaching was inspiring, exhilarating really, and we hardly
noticed that we didn't have seats, when the man of God looked
back and said,

"are those children standing in the back?"

my heart dropped, because i thought we were going to be cast
out of the auditorium.  my little ones looked up at me with big
eyes.

"bring them up here so that i may lay hands on them and  pray
for them."

brazilian prosciutto and cheese wheel

our crumbs turned into a feast.

love,
lea

"let the little children come to Me, and do nothing to hinder
them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
matthew 19:14