Since my last post I feel like things have taken a turn and Christmas time is almost here. We’ve been having rain and barely making it higher than 64 degrees the last several days (this is cold weather to Californians!) And early this morning, we turned the heater on. I’m pretty hard-nosed and wanting to save money decided that we wouldn’t turn the heater on till December 1st or until it dropped under 65 degrees in the house. Then at 6:30 this morning Bobby got up because Tyler was crying and prodded me to get the heater going. I checked the thermostat and it read 63. Not so nice for the little guy, so I turned it on.

On Friday Bobby and I got out our Christmas music. Ty gave me Sarah McLaughlin’s new “Wintersong” CD for my birthday, so I’ve had that playing. Also the Bing Crosby Christmas and the a CD my brother-in-law made in college, the Hotchkiss Starlett Christmas two big favorites.

The other day Tyler and I were at Wal-Mart and he was fascinated when I walked down the seasonal isle. He loved all the ornaments and garland and especially those little animated reindeer dolls that sing carols as they rock in a little rocking chair!

Something I often think about when it’s fall and winter is how commercialized holidays have become. Everyone thinks that more is what makes you happy. But year after year, it doesn’t. At women’s Bible study this morning, Stephanie taught us from James 1:22-25 about being doers of the word and not hearers only. I was struck with this statement that she made–”Consistently doing God’s Word is happiness.” She explained that only giving up doing things my way and putting myself under Christ’s command is happiness found.

Another quote that really resonated with me was–”Freedom is entrusting ourselves fully to our faithful Creator.” Sometimes I think that if we had more money or time that we would feel more free. But this is error because only God knows what I truly need and He is faithful, and provides all that we need.

“But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom,
and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard,
but doing it–he will be blessed in what he does.”
James 1:25