When Getting is Good

Hello Sisters :) I want to start out by saying thank you for taking a moment to open up this blog and see what you might find. Any blog I choose to click on is like an unopened present, and each time I click I hope to find some new insight, a laugh, or best, when they are combined. I hope that you find that when your mouse moves to my link!

Speaking of presents.... (lame segue!)

Isn't the Christmas season soon to dawn upon us? In my home is already has! Oh, how the gift buying, treat making, music playing put a twinkle in my eye, and increase the happy in my heart. This year in particular I feel like I have truly mastered the best ideas for my family members: simple and sweet gifts personalized just for them. Buying for others is so fun because you get to know that person all over again. Follow me? If not, think about it. It is as if you are solving a problem. What does my human of choice need, desire, or think "no-one-will-know-they-want-this-thing" want? In penciling down these thoughts (if even in your mind), you outline the evidence of many reasons you love person A or person B, or discover new ways in which you can know them better.  It is a joy.

I have gone on about gift giving to get to just that, IT IS A JOY to give sweet ones. So, why would we dare take away from that in being guilty receivers? Guilty gift receivers not only rob themselves of joy, but the ones giving. In our christian culture we appropriately, and very necessarily,  spend much of our energy thinking about giving to those in need. But in this well intended heart, we tend to feel guilt about receiving from loved ones. I do, at least! I wake up Christmas morning with a pile full of things, and find myself feeling .... excited, at first! "Look at all this awesome stuff!! Now I have this, this, and that to add to my collection of.... STUFF!" After the high of excitement settles, the guilt settles in like a fog, in which I sulk about my excitement, and my focus leaves my present setting of family and warmth, to guilt and shame. Hmmmm. Something wrong here?

I'm typing today to suggest another venue for this guilt to be transformed. No, not to greed, not to stinginess, but to open arms freely receiving what is given with a thankful and loving heart! How free are we, sisters, to give, and be given, to love, and be loved, to share, and be shared with. This is GRACE! That we are freely given from a heart of love, that we are known in our deepest needs, and in our deepest desires. That we can replicate this transaction in a little holiday we celebrate, and that we can then again, upon every thought out gift, lift our eyes to the one who is the ultimate Gift Giver. Who knew  us deeply, who saw our need, and who provided so, so much more.

This is the Gospel, and this is Christmas.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above" - James 1:17

So receive, beloveds, what has been paid at such a high price. Then receive sweaters, receive scarves, and candy, and poorly given, unthought out gifts! Because they are more than what we hold in our hands, they are what is in a heart behind them. 

"Freely you have received; freely give."- Matthew 10:8d

And go, and give! Share in the joy of knowing a person more deeply, because we are known and loved. We get to know others, and LOVE THEM! WOOO HOO CHRISTMAS!

-A little too excited,

Phoebe

When Getting is Good

Let the Carpenter Carve

Well I told you this blog would be risky-inconsistency, did I not?

Here I am a month and a half later, and Jesus has touched my heart once again. The fact that I can speak that brings such hope to my heart. He is faithful to continually change us, and shape us, even when it seems like nothing new has come in many seasons. That is exactly when he sweeps through like a fresh breath of air and reminds you that he is always with us, in us, and working to the day of completion. HOPE is a beautiful, earth shattering and rebuilding kind of notion, my dears.

This past month, God has been preparing me to hear about boundaries.... (Doesn't quite appear hopeful... does it? READ ON!) You see, chaos has run me flat to the ground! Between school, work, hormones, and LIFE, I have been spent, running from the inside out, and back in again. The thing about chaos is it does not just want a part of you, but all of you. My diet has been insane, my sleep has been restless, and my emotional stability went out the window with the rest of the mess.
As I walked into the women's life group I attend on Tuesday night, I was aware of how fragile I felt, and I needed some serious hope. God had a message to whisper to me.

Galations 5:1
"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

I always love that freedom part. You know, the way we manipulate freedom in our humanness to declare any choice that feels best that day? I speak freedom to myself on many occasions to justify my over spending, over eating, 5th diet coke, you name it. The thing is this freedom eventually turns into just the opposite. Chaos. As the speaker so truthfully spoke, we begin to become enslaved to those things, that by themselves are not necessarily evil. Our addiction to them is what becomes a haunting enslavement. We must set boundaries around those good gifts from Jesus to truly live in freedom.

I have been so enslaved.... BY MY OWN WILL! By my fears, my schedules, my desires, that I have lost track of the freedom Christ died for! If that is not insanity, I'm not sure what is.

It's scary and uncomfortable to set boundaries.... Who likes to be told no?
But the promise of heeding instruction from the Lord is too good to pass up...
"Whoever heeds life-giving correction will be at home among the wise. Those who disregard discipline despise themselves, but the one who heeds correction gains understanding."
-Provers 15:31-32

"My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring your peace and prosperity. Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones."
-Proverbs 3:1-8

As I took small, baby steps to set boundaries from the Lord yesterday, I felt like I had failed miserably. But this morning when my eyes opened, I felt a deep refreshment in my soul. My eyes were less puffy than usual, and I felt HAPPY. The sun shone this morning after buckets of rain poured yesterday, and my leg which was LITERALLY hurt, feels healed. God honors the most humble of steps, and keeps his promises, his faithfulness, and encourages us all the more.
So step forward, move, fall, and be encouraged that the Lord is with us!!!
I love you with the heart of Jesus, and I am so glad we are in this together <3.

Til next time,
Phoebe

Let the Carpenter Carve