Isn’t this scripture from John 1.16 just so TRUE!??
Really, despite inconveniences and yucky stuff life can throw at us, even though every single day may not be perfect and there might be unbelievable challenges in our lives, whether we need new jobs, healing, relationships mended, financial breakthroughs, more sunshine – whatever: we HAVE been blessed, all of us in millions of ways! We GIVE THANKS to You, Lord!
From the fullness of His grace, we have all received one blessing after another (John 1.16)
after another…after another…after another…
To all who happen by today ~ Be blessed, be whole, be healed, be awesome, today and always!
I find it crazy the amount of food we gobble-gobble up on Thanksgiving. But there is something so ingrained about it, isn’t there? I was watching an old movie the other day and they mentioned the Thanksgiving meal: there was turkey and ham and stuffing and mashed potatoes and gravy and cranberry, too. For all the dishes that come and go, the menu doesn’t stray too much. Even when we get crazy and add Cajun or Mexican sides (or even go vegetarian), it is pretty hard for most people I know to do away with these traditional fixings all together.
My own very cosmopolitan and trend-setting children by day, at Thanksgiving, are among the most traditional in their desires. They will gather here today, Dave and Tara and Hunter magoo, Steph and Tris and the three Kelley kids (Guini, as always, will have first dibs on the wishbone), Tredessa and Ryan (this is their first Thanksgiving as a married couple, because the wedding was 2 days after Thanksgiving last year). Rocky and Jovan and the 2 little girlies will be here and Stormie and Saber-the-German (Shepherd) and The Garcias and Leif (Ryan’s younger brother) will join us, too.
And as I stood at the counter this morning chopping vegetables and mixing ingredients in a quiet, sunny kitchen (Christmas music drifting in from the room where Dave is rearranging every piece of furniture we own to accommodate our little table for 23), I just found myself loving that we go to the trouble anyway. There is something in the ritual of it, in fixing this huge meal that reminds us of the sacred and sweet and all the blessings we have had and all the blessings that will come to be. And it is just this bountiful moment in time to thank God for all of it.
In everything GIVE THANKS for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1 Thessalonians 5. 18
And standing there, knowing we will have more than we need to eat and eat too much, I remembered all the Thankskgivings of my life (there have been more than 50, now) and how the crowd has changed so much. All the Grandmas and Grandpas are gone now. Some of the aunts and uncles have passed, too. I remember thinking as a kid they were all trying to starve me to death because the meal was never ready “on time,” but when finally we could eat, ooooooh-delish! Then later: mommy, my tummy hurts, I ate too much (Tara was 4 the first time this happened to her). How glorious to have all the pumpkin pie I could ever want (and my mom always made THE BEST pumpkin pie, until Stormie came along).
I thank God for it all, the family I was born into and all the times they crammed all of us into tiny house with tables and tables and food and we ate all day long (pre-microwave, people!). Mostly at Grandma Bakers, we also met Aunt Sue’s once. But Aunt Rosie’s quite a bit, too…Aunt Rosie introduced me to the romantic notion of one very long table for all of us eat together – no kid table! I am doing that for my grandbebes now. They like it! And I love that the aunts and uncles and all the cousins would descend from near and far because even though we were wall-to-wall people, the importance of all of us together saying “Thank-you, Lord,” was valued. Stop life and say thanks – this was the message imparted to my heart. We may not have a lot, we are just regular people, but we are blessed and we say thanks to You, Lord.
Oh my, in spite of their humanness and mistakes and oddities as a family (plentiful, for sure), oh how I cherish the fact that they all helped me settle on the solid foundation that is Jesus Christ.
Then there were the years the extended family times dissipated as grandparents died, and my siblings and I, with our growing families, would gather with my parents (the new matriarch and patriarch). The last time were all together for Thanksgiving was 1991, I believe. That era ended too soon as we were living all over the nation, but we’d always touch base and today I think of each of them with so much love my heart actually hurts. Happy Thanksgiving, my brothers (by birth and the one we got when my sister married you) and my little sister and all my beautiful sisters by God’s design (and marriage to my little brothers). Happy Thanksgiving to the nieces and nephews and to the whole big, colorful family I married into. Be blessed, I decree it.
And how blessed and grateful I am to get to have this Thanksgiving feast with my own babies and their families today. The little cousins will file away so many details of this day as trivial: running up and down the stairs, playing dress-up, maybe coloring and painting together or playing a board game. They will eat and eat and be back in an hour for more. They will go home totally unaware that in 40 or 50 years they will be standing at their kitchen counter assembling food on a sunny morning for a Thanksgiving meal for their beloveds and suddenly the memories in sharp detail, of being at Nonna’s house so many Thanksgivings past, will suddenly rush back in “like waves upon the shore” and they will, like I am today, thank God for all the Thanksgiving Thursdays family gathered just to show gratefulness. And they will know that is it good to give thanks unto the Lord.
Psalm 71.17-19
Since my youth, God, you have taught me,
and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.
Even when I am old and gray,
do not forsake me, my God,
till I declare your power to the next generation,
your mighty acts to all who are to come.
Your righteousness, God, reaches to the heavens,
you who have done great things.
Who is like you, God?
My intent in writing this blog, when I began it a thousand words ago, was to say this (I am so wordy, huh?) in ONE paragraph: Happy Thanksgiving, from our family to yours. Like all families, the treasure must be guarded and tended like a garden to make sure it lives and thrives. We are just normal people with issues and oddities, too. But today, we gather in His name to tell Him we are grateful. This foundation is firm. So, I pray you will be blessed and happy in all things today, just as I am praying for my family.
I simply cannot help being so graphomaniacal. Just can’t. xxoo
I get melancholy in the fall. I fall in love with the smells and sights and sounds and the changing leaves. It is ridiculous. But true. Below are parts of a few different things I mentioned about fall and the autumn leaves along the way…
Glory. That is the color of fall. What started green and bright and light, unfurling after a stark winter, now reaches its’ full and most beautiful stage, and having held on with strength and determination throughout the summer, through both drought and drenching rains, now falls, now tumbles. Now, peacefully and content with itself, dances right down before me, a gift. Glory. {{READ ENTIRE POST HERE}}
I feel things more deeply at this ripe and fruitful time of my life. I feel like a full-grown woman, as opposed to some foolish girl, a woman who knows her mind and risks her thunderous-beating heart to more vulnerability and tenderness than I’d have allowed when younger. And my experience in life and love and heartbreak and second chances have made me more deeply passionate and compassionate and warm. I’m old enough now to understand the rich treasure my nurturing provides for those who are lucky enough to be planted in my heart and the wildly increased ability I now have to love. {{SEE FULL POST HERE}}
I have chased autumn into a Missouri mood that lingers like musk on my skin. I have escaped to turning-leaves on proud trees and the deep intensity of autumn colors that hold both the memory of exuberant youth with its’ fresh, green-spring growth, and the exploding red-to-the-core ripeness of the late summer tomato, now seasoned to a complex beauty, indisputably richer and wiser for the aging. The blazing urgency of the season, so much to experience before it all passes into winter, is salty on my tongue. I inhale the cinnamon-scented air, and taste the pungent, spicy and intangible gift of the equinox while the crickets sing that haunting song I have always loved.
Burnt sienna and ochre rustle restlessly as autumn falls and the cool night air sprinkles wet diamonds onto my keyboard and into my mouth filling my lungs with cool, brisk air and enduring toasted warmth at once. Halley’s Comet spilled burning meteor fragments in the wee hours, punctuating the night sky with light, a spectacle for late-night lovers young and old. {{SEE FULL POST HERE}}
Hey, remember the meteor showers that year? CLICK HERE
I got to spend the weekend at the Powers family cabin near Peaceful Valley in the Rocky Mountains (thank-you! thank-you! thank-you!). For over 11 hours on Saturday, I sat near the rushing river tumbling down boulders and powering it’s way through fallen branches and sharp rocks in dappled sunlight that warmed my skin while the gentlest of breezes brought cool refreshment. I read and sang and thought and rested and listened and wondered and cried and smiled and prayed. In that setting, you cannot help but be drawn into spontaneous conversations with God. The evergreens, greatly varied in their hues, all strong and tall were punctuated by Aspens I am certain I could actually see changing color before my eyes – a bit more colorful hour by hour.
The underbrush, having gotten an earlier start is already deep oranges and reds, even browns and purples. Brilliant berries are being found out by small birds which, having swiped a treasure as such from the bush quickly flies to a needle-rich pine branch nearby and looks for all the world as if I have just opened a Christmas card…”Oh! May the God of green-hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing-lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!” (That’s in The Message, Romans 15) {{SEE ENTIRE POST HERE}}
Then just some miscellaneous quotes about the fall season from various blog posts:
“I like October for the crimson and pumpkin, for the eggplant and rust, and all the colors of the deepening, mature, lusty, whole and passionate part of the year when the autumn moon hangs heavy in the sky like the warm embraces of a tattered, weighty quilt sewn years ago for the need of heat and not some contest of a county fair. Have you ever been covered in one of those?” {{10.22.13}}
“Today is mostly yellow with a smattering of red, turning into deep wine by late afternoon. A steady falling of leaves with a call for possible white-flakes on Thursday afternoon and a blast of cold-blue air which will effectively ruin the perfectly coiffed-in-color hues for Autumn 2012.” {{10.23.12}}
October is orange. Of course. But it is also a red that is so full of depth and dimension and fiery-variance it can hardly be described.
My neighbor’s Maple has languoriously (not a real word, I know), gone from deep late-summer green, the leaves still fully affixed due to mild fall days and nights, to a light-to-deepening golden peach-to-orange over the past week. Then yesterday, I swear, as I walked back into the family room with a hot cup of coffee, it went red. Just like that, before my eyes. It nearly took my breath away. Moments before, a glowing, lovely amber-rusty orange, then, poof.
Red. A fully florid, cherry, sanguine scarlet. A puce, a rufescent russet, a bloody, blushing, gushing, infrared hot pink mixed with flaming chestnut and rubies and gleaming copper, all at once. It is shimmering and iridescent fuchsia, yet dense and heavy garnet, a ruby. It is bittersweet in both color and the evoking of raw autumn melancholy. [So, it’s red, right?] {{10.17.11}}
My mom and I were drinking coffee on the deck this morning and enjoying the rustling leaves in their fall coat-of-many-colors. Autumn is romantic. This is from my mama’s heart and mind:
“The butterflies are taking one last dance across the meadow. Please hurry back, I’ll see you in the spring…” -Norma Moslander {{10.21.09}}
I quite obviously become a waterfall of words come autumn. This year has been splendid! Good job, Autumn!
You lucky, lucky people, you. I am going to share how you can bake and enjoy three amazing cakes that are so easy to make (because you get to start with a boxed mix), and yet so moist and rich and dense and tasty ~ people will think you’ve been mixing an old, secret family recipe and baking all day long.
I like making cakes from scratch…sort of. Developing unique flavors and pairing them with tantalizing fillings brings me a special joy – way more so than “decorating” a cake does, which actually gives me anxiety hives – even when they turn out really well. I have found that using a Duncan Hines mix and adding a special ingredient or two gives me something a grocery-store bakery cannot hope to achieve.
Here are three yumm-il-i-scious (and I do not use that word lightly) cakes…
Pumpkin Spice Cake
I first created this one for Audrey’s wedding a few years back. She requested 3 off-set square tiers, each a unique flavor and custom filling. Like this: cake-filling-cake-filling-cake-buttercream x 3 tiers! She allowed me to test out a cake dream I was having based on a very fortuitous mistake I’d once made on another recipe and a pumpkin-spice cake with cream cheese filling family-recipe was born! It totally turned out, scrumptious!
1 box Duncan Hines Spice Cake made according to box instructions, except, add an additional egg and use milk in place of water. Then add:
1/2 teaspoon almond or coconut extract
1-3 teaspoons cinnamon (you might think it is overkill here, but I love cinnamon with a passion, so mine gets 3)
1/2 teaspoon each of ginger and nutmeg
1 15 oz. can pumpkin
Blend well with an electric mixer for 3 minutes. Pour into prepared pans. I used 3 9″ rounds. Bake for 30 minutes.
I basically doubled Martha Stewart’s Cream Cheese Frosting recipe, so I’d have lots for filling between the layers, but for Jovan’s birthday I also added a few drops (just a very tiny bit) of orange extract and it was so so so good. It added just the right twist of fresh and tangy and sweet and surprise.
Aunt Dawn’s Banana Cake
The one thing I missed on my last visit to northwest Indiana (in the greater-Chicago region), was my sister-in-law’s rich, dense, but somehow still light banana cake.
Basically, Dawn just prepares a boxed banana cake mix and adds a mashed, ripe banana and bakes it in a regular 9 x 13 cake pan. That is what makes it denser and so moist. Then she whips up a simple buttercream, made with real butter, please. Use about 2 sticks of softened butter, 3-4 cups of powdered sugar, which is about a pound (sift this in as you beat the butter), a teaspoon of vanilla or almond extract, and 3 tablespoons of milk (more if you want it softer). Dawn says she is still tweaking the icing recipe, but all I can tell you – I still think about how good it tastes and want to make one soon!
There is no picture because – well, we ate it. Fast.
Aunt Robin’s Chocolate-Cherry Cake with To-die-for-Frosting {the quick, “cheater” version}
There is no picture of this one, either and Stormie just made two last week for her workmates. But no evidence can be found…
Since the official Ross-and-Norma-Moslander Family reunions got into full-swing in 1995, Aunt Robin has always been our go-to dessert and baked goods specialist. She has surprised us many times with fresh-baked cookies and a variety of cakes and this Chocolate-Cherry Cake with a cooked icing you just cannot get out of a can, people! So- well – it’s a treat! On my recent trip to Indiana, my sweet-niece-Elise replicated her mom’s amazing cake using a boxed mix and it was still, as ever, amazingly delicious! Because anything you spread that icing over is crowned with royal goodness. DO NOT let the fact that it is cooked scare you away. Make this and serve it warm from the oven the next time you have company and they will talk about you behind your back for days to come – really good things about how amazing dessert was. :)
Cake:
1 Betty Crocker Super Moist Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
1 20 oz. can of cherry pie filling
Mix well and put in a greased, floured cake pan. Bake at 350° for about 30 minutes. While it’s baking, make frosting on the stove.
Frosting:
5 Tablespoons of butter
5 Tablespoons of milk
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of chocolate chips
Bring the first three ingredients to a boil for one minute. Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate chips.
Want my advice? Double this recipe so you can just eat some of this frosting because it is soooooooo good!
There you have it: 3 amazingly delicious, scrumptious cakes.
If you’re very sweet, I may try to get some of Patrice’s cake recipes to share, too. One year Patrice made a different cake every single day for a week for the staff and leadership at the church where I worked. Everyday she increased the WOW level!
Bonus:
And just for good measure, don’t forget the world’s moistest, richest, creamiest, richest Coconut Cake by Heather, see {{HERE}}.
You are such a great daughter-in-law. I mean, that sounds so legal, when really, when Rocky stood in the piercing rays of the setting sun that September evening and took you as his wife, we really, truly received you as a new daughter. We are so pleased he made that choice 7+ years ago and as seasons and time pass, our gratefulness increases.
For you are the woman who sees our son and loves him, truly loves him. You are his home and his rest, his peace and his joy. You are gracious and you are mercy. You live up to your name so well.
And you are the woman who has given us the three darling granddaughters, oh what joy they bring, each unique, so sweet. And aren’t they beautiful like their mommy? Averi Jadyn, firstborn, so wise and all-knowing, Amelie Belle with her engaging orneriness; and this gentle, most-contented baby-of-the-year, Bailey Sophia?
And so, life is busy for your beautiful family. And this has been a year of growth (new baby, expanding ministry opportunities), and of heart-breaking loss and surprise (being flooded out of your home and all the equipment and the studio, gone). But wow- in everything, in EVERYTHING – watching you and Rocky deciding to give thanks and seeing the faithfulness of God just explode towards you in restoration and generosity. The hard times are like a purifying fire, they’ll reveal what you’re really made of. And it is delighting us to see, you and Rock are growing, shining, getting stronger and smarter and better and the graciousness and mercy is lighting the sky. I wouldn’t wish bad things on you, but I am very proud of how you are handling them.
The revelation~I am SO blessed!
Remember that day in church a few years back, Jovan? They were doing that sermon series on the Book of Ruth and while I had always enjoyed the story, that day a whole new piece of it just exploded into the atmosphere of my heart. I realized I was the Naomi and you were the Ruth and that I had indeed been a daughter-in-law who was better to me than seven sons (the seven brothers Rocky never got, haha) would have been…even though I always thought I wanted 8 sons for some strange reason. Haha.
The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.” The Bible, Ruth 4.14-15 niv
That sermon and that scripture passage just made me cry with gratitude! True for Naomi. True for me, too!
When Rocky was growing up and getting cuter by the minute, I was so surprised at all the girls who tried to catch his eye. I started thanking God that I only had one son, because I could totally see the potential for disaster if I’d have had to bring more girls into this highly strong-woman’ed family. But honestly, I wouldn’t mind having lots of daughter-in-laws if they were all just like you.
Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family… Through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.” The Bible, Ruth 4.11-12 niv
I wish all mother-and-daughter-in-laws had the chance to love and be loved like you and I have. Wouldn’t the world be a much happier and lovelier place? I know our family is blessed because of you, and you have brought so much to the familia…
So, to put words together to celebrate your birth on that Halloween night twenty-something years ago is to thank God for His faithfulness, for His mercies that are new every morning, for the graciousness He showed us in sending you to us.
A blessing for each year:
Totally wishing you an amazing year ~ Your adoring m-i-l**
The official family tree included everyone in the entire congregation—their small children, wives, sons, and daughters. The ardent dedication they showed in bringing themselves and their gifts to worship was total—no one was left out.
There is room at the table.
Who among us hasn’t experienced intense loneliness even in a crowd? Who hasn’t peeked in to some one else’s life via social media in these minute-by-minute times, or on a blog (even like mine, heaven forbid) we see pictures of celebrations, read family stories and see moments of glory (the only ones we generally share) – and felt left out, experienced longing to be a part, to get to have a seat at that table?
Me, too.
That’s why I love the picture of the Good Shepherd preparing a table before us (Psalm 23). In these days leading to the Thanksgiving celebration, as I ponder how to situate for 30 people I wholly adore, I cannot quit thinking about the joy the Father must have to invite us to be seated with Him. Ephesians says we’re accepted in the Beloved, His sacrifice bought our ticket to be included in the family – a chair at the table awaits.
I sense God’s great love in extending Himself to us, an invitation written in blood. And though we have so often ignored His pursuit, chasing after our own list of dreams and desires and for acceptance in places that will never satisfy our deepest heart’s desires, He prepares a table before us – He raises us up and seats us with Him (Eph. 2.6). In heavenly places – now that is a place of honor, a major party where you’re a treasured guest!
Something about the thought of it – the table, all set in loving anticipation, is just stirring in my heart. I have let the sacredness of a regular shared meal, in these crazy-busy days, the invitation for dinner to people I don’t know that well just pass by. But I hear God calling me back to a time I wholly practiced the beauty of the sharing of a regular supper. Oh good grief, He is killing me. I am too old to think of fixing big meals again, right? Yet, I want to reflect the heart of God, on earth as it is in heaven, as He prepares for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. It’s a big deal.
I am picking up my library-borrowed copy of Shauna Niequest’s Bread and Wine today. SO looking forward to it. I have a feeling you’ll be hearing more about the family-table from me because this 1 minute and 52 seconds of video just fired. me. up!
1 John 1.4 Amplified
And we are now writing these things to you so that our joy [in seeing you included] may be full [and your joy may be complete].
We have not been excluded from the festivities. We are accepted and beloved. Let’s share that amazing joy!
“I Loathe, Despise & Abominate Halloween” BUT wait: I LOVE the trick-or-treaters!!!
This is my nearly-2000-word {highly-opinionated} essay (w/no pictures) on WHY I hate Halloween~
I don’t hate little kids, all cute and dressed up coming to my door with an open bag. That actually requires a lot of trust in this day and age and I look at it as a chance to bless the little children, a chance to be a nice neighbor. Trick-or-treating does not bother me, really, because the kids (young kids only, please – you kids that are old enough to work – go buy your own dang candy) are just excited to get to wear a costume and eat more candy than they should. I hate, literally loath, despise and abominate Halloween, but maybe for reasons different than you’d imagine…
The Horror of Retail {mwa, mwa, mwa….}
For 5 years I ran a retail party store. Halloween was the BIG ONE. It drove our sales for the year and I had to be number one (I just HAD TO!…and was!!, ok – strike that last prideful statement), so can you imagine my deep loathing for both milking-Halloween-for-all-it-was-worth for the money we could rake in and just hating the symbols that have come to represent it all? I set everything and worked my head off (can you say 90+ hours a week during the evil-season??) to sell to people who would purchase useless styro-headstones, “bloody” goblets and giant fuzzy spiders. Fog machines were the biggest rip-off and anything witchy-skeletony-or-ghoulish you could add double-D batteries to so it would light up or make some horrific noise were big sellers.
And then there were the costumes. We sold all those crappy costumes plus face paint and fake blood, stitches, etc.
And people would FILL those carts and spend hundreds of dollars. I both loved racking up the sales AND I disrespected seeing people waste that much money on something like Halloween, a “holiday” that really celebrates nothing that means eternal anything to me.
The worst part though? The company “encouraged” (read: forced) us to “dress up” – the whole month of October! It is fun for like, three days. The other 28, not so much. I have been a nun, a gypsy, a bunch of grapes. There were platinum blond wigs, Cleopatra headdresses and hot pink beehives. I was never “evil,” just dressed, all the while managing a hopping Halloween staff, chasing shoplifters, receiving Christmas and trying to make that transition as fast as humanly possible and just gritting my green-hick-farmer teeth to get through.
Suffice it to say I had more Halloween than I ever wanted and enough to last 37 people a lifetime. Yuck.
The Great Halloween Debate
And to top it off, I have spent almost a lifetime in the middle of the great Halloween debate: Is it OK for Christians to Participate?? OR Is it an evil-pagan holiday dedicated to devil-worship that we should avoid at all costs? I gotta tell you, I DO wish to avoid it all costs, but not for spiritual reasons, necessarily because the devil doesn’t own my days – not any of them. Dare I say I think it falls under the Romans 14 directive for disputable matters?…I do. Let the stoning begin…
Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so!
This year my home church decided not to have the Halloween alternative they usually have. And nobody knows quite what to do.
When I was growing up (in my very Christian, very strict Pentecostal preacher’s home), our parents let us trick-or-treat. In retrospect, that seems crazy. I couldn’t cut my hair, wear make-up or listen to the radio, at least “legally”, but I got to trick-or-treat. Strange. The church hadn’t been super-sensitized to the meanings and origins of the day back then. They still really thought it was just kids dressing up and getting lots of candy. And even after it became a “test of righteousness” in Christian circles, the churches my dad pastored still usually offered an alternative like a “Harvest Fest” with fall activities and the kiddos dressing up. I remember church bulletins reminding everyone that no “ghosts, ghouls or goblins” were allowed to attend, but costumes were welcomed.
Dave’s family was an absolutely-not Halloween family. I was from the use-the-opportunity-to-witness stream. My earliest memories are of my mom explaining to me that I had to do a “trick” to get a “treat,” and wow, was I ever willing! My trick was always to sing a song of some sort and since we didn’t do secular music, my song always had something to do with Jesus. The first year I could sing it all, I did – at every. single. house. “…for the Bible tells me so.” Deep breath, the person tries to give me candy, I whip my bag away from them , my mom reminds me, and whale on, “Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!…” They were prisoners to the end. But I would not take that candy until I had witnessed of the Lord’s love the full way through.
Pagan Roots
It seems H’ween has its roots in pagan Celtic festivals, the Druids dancing around bonfires and offering sacrifices to the spirit world for the harvest. So actually – having a church “Harvest Festival” is not an improvement on Halloween, necessarily. During the ancient pagan fetsival, Candy Corn would begin to fall from the sky, just kidding…just checking to see if you are still reading. ;p Haha.
In the 8th century, the Pope moved All Saint’s Day to November 1, so October 31st became “All Hallows Eve” and most people think he did it to claim the 31st back for Christians, which frankly, I applaud. What I bind on earth is bound both here and in heaven. We do have some authority in Jesus’ Name, people!
I digress.
So, then there is a biblical scripture-storm that erupts annually against having any part. One of the scriptures often cited is Ephesians 5.7-12 NLT:
7 Don’t participate in the things these people do. 8 For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! 9 For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.
10 Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. 11 Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. 12 It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret.
Or, there is Deuteronomy 18.10-12 NLT
For example, never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering. And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, 11 or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord. It is because the other nations have done these detestable things that the Lord your God will drive them out ahead of you.
And there are lots of other verses that are used to promote total abstinence from any type of Halloween participation. And they are important scriptures with definite guidelines for what we should and shouldn’t be participating in. But I honestly don’t see them saying “Little kids dressing up and trick-or-treating is anti-scriptural.” I just don’t. My grandbebes, who will dress as Nacho Libre or a Strawberry or as princesses or Batman this year? They will NOT be calling forth spirits of the dead or hosting seances. We will not sacrifice them as burnt offerings. They will NOT participate in drunken parties and godlessness of that sort and I will teach them to speak up for righteousness through their vote as citizens and to protect the helpless and feed the hungry. That is how they are being raised. They are being raised to be who God created them to be (light!) and to do what God has ordained for them to do and to fulfill their destiny for God in their generation. Period!
The devil doesn’t get my grandbebes. I truly and humbly do not see trick-or-treating as the step into a dark realm. If anything, I see it as “Hallowed,” like the old Pope wanted it to be because he went to enemy’s camp and took back what was stolen (know that song? Don’t make me sing it here!). My days are the LORD’S. All of them! And it is a great time to show our babies the difference between light and darkness by not worshipping death, not giving in to demonic influence and avoiding rebelliousness (which is as the sin of witchcraft and rarely gets corrected in Christendom).
Renunciation.
You know what, though? If you came from an occultic background where you used the 31st as part of demon worship and you have walked away from it being born into Christ and you have renounced that past – by all means, don’t participate. It holds something for you it doesn’t for me. Don’t be enslaved into any bondage you have been delivered from again! I would stand with you in that, and I mean that! Or if you just have a strong conviction that you don’t want your family to participate, because to you, it seems like being part of an agreement with the world, part of this godless generation and you’d rather make a stand here – then make that stand. I support you in that, but Romans 14, again {“disputable matters”}…
Accept other believers who are weak in faith, and don’t argue with them about what they think is right or wrong. For instance, one person believes it’s all right to eat anything. But another believer with a sensitive conscience will eat only vegetables. Those who feel free to eat anything must not look down on those who don’t. And those who don’t eat certain foods must not condemn those who do, for God has accepted them. Who are you to condemn someone else’s servants? Their own master will judge whether they stand or fall. And with the Lord’s help, they will stand and receive his approval.
Figure it out. Study it through. Pray. Ask the Lord. Listen. And be obedient there and let’s not let a disputable matter polarize us as Christians, or get us fighting one another in scriptural-sword fighting. Because? Then the stupid-head devil wins. Geesh, people – it is when he breaks our unity that we are trashed – not when some low-level demon flies around a room impressing the idiots who want that sort of thing. RESIST HIM, seriously. He HAS to flee!
I loathe, despise and abominate* Halloween because of how it separates us and causes holier-then-thou crap and we make each other the enemy instead of THE enemy. And I hate all the blackness and darkness because I am of the Light, but oh, by the way, I shine ever so much more brightly in the dark places. I say kick-him-in-the-butt and bless the little children when they come to your door: give the best candy, the biggest smile, the greatest encouragement and give ’em a God-bless-you, because that actually is within your power to do. Heaven will hear and attend to your blessing! May His will be done on earth as it is in heaven! On Halloween, even!
‘Nuff said.
*In the book version of Meet Me in St Louis, the sisters show their distaste for things by saying “I hate, loathe, despise and abominate {fill-in-the-blank}”. I think it is used a time or two in the Judy Garland movie, too. It is a fav family quote.
“Live as people of light!”
RT @ pastormark via ryan may: “If you’re one of those Christians who is going to give out tracts for Halloween, also give enough candy to make a kid a diabetic!” Haha!
So this Thursday, October 31, 2013? I stand by it. The devil can’t have that day or that night in my life, my neighborhood or in my family! We are a holy people redeemed by the LORD!
OH, and…if you’d like to be really super missional this year (have they been talking to my mother???), THIS SITE has tons of ways to redeem Halloween and makie it a teaching and being-a-nice-Christian kind of thing!
Hi-ya, Hunter-Magoo! Happy Birthday today to a boy who has been surprising me and making me smile since that Saturday morning you were born 9 years ago. You absolutely messed up my work day – because back then, I never took one off, and when I emerged from a meeting and was told: Uh, you have a grandson, I thought I was being punked or something!
But I wasn’t. I was deliriously excited and shaky rushing to buy flowers for your mommy and trying to get to the hospital. And oh-so-tiny you were. And so mysterious, too – born to two gorgeous blond-haired, blue-eyed people, there you were with that shock of black hair – THREE weeks early! See? **Surprise!**
WARNING: Lots and lots of pictures that make your Nonna go “Aaaaaawwwwwwwwww“
I know I get all gooey on you and it makes you a little crazy. But it is because I just adore you with my whole, entire heart, ya know? You’ve been The Little Prince and my “widdle guy.” I have tickled your little M & M toes and watched them graduate to being ‘Tootsie Rolls’ haha. You’ve gone from this short, tiny kid with the big-thinking brain to become my almost-double-digits man-child, a boy who thinks like he’s grown, a boy cut out for important things.
So, on the occasion of your 9th birthday, Hunter-Magoo, I just wanted to tell you that I love you. I respect your insight into he things of God and I love how much you love and care for your baby brother. I praise God for giving you a brother because you soooooo wanted a brother and that makes me happy that He saw that and blessed you. I admire what a good son you have grown up to be, how honoring you are of your parents and it makes me so happy to see what a great fun-making, playmate you are with your younger cousins. They always have so much fun following you with all your great ideas! Your are handsome on the outside because of all the goodness and love on the inside.
Now that you’re old enough, I can tell you all the secrets of our family universe and answer any questions you have. I can give you grown-up advice and still cuddle you in the mornings when you stay over. I love your gentleness, I admire your attention to making sure I get plenty of love and affection when you’re around and having you in the room always always always makes me happy. I am so proud of you, HP. You’re a good boy and becoming an amazing young man.
I guess I should share a picture of you as my big-guy.
Spirit Week at Hunter’s school. He got to be “70s.” Makes me smile! :)
Happy Birthday, my man-child. Your Nonna loves you to infinity and beyond!
Oh, and in other fun news, Hunter is not only 9 on the 9th, but his baby brother, Kai, is 9 months today, too. On the 9th! How cool is that?
Happy Birthday to Rocky Rhoades, who turned 29 on September the 29th
My son – I am so pleased with you.
I have told you the story of your birth so many times, haven’t I? You arrived early and the doctor had told me not to leave town in case that happened, but I left town and I was so stressed out because I don’t like to get caught breaking the rules. And Tara just reminded me the other night how stressed she was, too, as a 5-year old, because we started on our trip, got halfway there, went home, and then decided to go anyway…and barely walked into the grandparent’s house before it was time for me to zoom right on over to the hospital. Well, I mean, I had planned to make it home so the doctor wouldn’t be any-the-wiser, but you were like, NOW! ~which is so still you. :)
And I have told you that you surprised me beyond anything I could have imagined. I could not believe I got the boy, THE boy I secretly hoped for even though in reality I was totally FINE with having a girl. I already had 3 girls, one more made such sense for balance and symmetry. Omygoodness – the words, “You have a boy” sent me into delirious happiness.
You looked directly at me, your eyes blinked in slow-motion and it knocked the breath from my body. I was dizzy in love, unable to even think about sleep that night, all night, as an oxytocin and dopamine cocktail surged through my veins as if it were coming directly through the IV drip. I had a boy…my very own baby boy!
And you may not realize it, but every time I ever see you, even now, I am thinking the same thing: THAT is MY boy!
I am so proud of you, Rock, not only for the man you are, but for the man you are becoming more and more everyday. This whole flood thing has been a devastation in some ways and an aggravation, for certain, in the life of your family, your ministry. There was loss that probably feels overwhelming and unbearable (as $40-50,000 plus time and effort and re-building will be). I know you look forward to getting your wife and baby girls back home, safe and sound. And then you’ll look and see the possibly long-haul ahead for replacing all the instruments and computers and sound equipment and the studio you’d spent time assembling ~ lots of time and money and hard work ahead.
Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness,while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. For …this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God.. . 2 Corinthians 6.10-12
But it will come back to you. The things you have sown will take root and grow. And I have watched you and Jovan these past few years grow in grace and grow in giving and giving selflessly and giving big and making the conscious decision to live a life of giving and whenever it has been in your power to do so, you have given away anything and everything you could.
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows…whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Galatians 6.7-8
And God isn’t unaware. He’ll see to it that the seeds of kindness and giving that you have already sown will grow and flourish and you’ll reap all that you have sown. Even when you didn’t know you’d need it – you were planting, you were dropping the seeds of compassion and kindness and generosity into the ground – and what you couldn’t see was that God wasn’t surprised by this thing that happened to your house, your home and belongings and He was smiling, I just know it, because He knew you were already doing what needed done – before it needed done. God knew you were planting for a harvest of big-time reaping, financially!
“The Lord then said to Noah, ‘Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.'” Genesis 7.1
For Noah, for all mankind, the flood was a line in the sand. It was a before and after. It was : things used to be like that, then there was the flood, and now they are like this. The flood was an ending AND a beginning. Things were lost in the flood, but the promises of God are found there, too. Not just for an ark builder for thousands of years ago, but for a worshiper/songwriter right now, in Frederick, CO – man who leads his family and wants to write songs that literally bring healing.
Of course certain things had to die and float away for a dream, a calling, a vision like that. But it is all just so you’ll never forget that the LORD is the promise-keeper and you didn’t do it by yourself, because you couldn’t have. How many times have you told me, since you were 18 or 19, “God won’t share His glory.” You have pointed out highly celebrated, gifted musicians and singers and recognized the call of God on their lives, but watched as they held it for themselves. That is not the standard you are living by and this flood is just a yes and amen to deep-down determinations you have already made to give God all, everything that is His and His alone – you have already said it. The flood is a checkpoint – do you mean it, Rock-man? And I know you do and I know the healing songs are going to pour out from here, like flood waters for the glory of the LORD.
But [the time is coming when] the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord just as the waters cover the sea. Habakkuk 2.14
Do you know what I think?
I believe, and I actually know this to be true because I have known you every second of these 29 years+ and you have made me cry and worry and laugh like nobody’s business and also so very proud because you are forthright and honest and talented and thoughtful and honoring and you love your mommy. So this is what I think:
No one is more beautiful or handsome than my boy, my Rocky ~ from the inside out.
“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Luke 6:38
This is the post-flood promise of God! On the occasion of your 29th birthday. It is coming back to you, all of it and more! I love you!
NOTE: Rocky and Jovan got flooded out during the Colorado rains in September. I have written a little about it here and here. You can learn more about helping them re-build {HERE}!
I thank God for Stefane, who has been a daughter, a friend, a prayer warrior, and a general blessing to my family and me since the day we met. Here is how that went:
2008. I saw Stefane and her husband, Wrex, in Wal-Mart wearing bright turquoise-colored t-shirts from Northern Hills Church. There was a campaign going on asking the question “Are you in” emblazoned on their shirts. I was in one line, they were in the next waiting to pay. I didn’t know them and they really looked to cool to bother with me, I mean – Stef has this classic Hollywood Glamour-Girl thing she can’t hide going on. So, as I finished paying and slipped past their line, I smiled at Wrex and said, “Yes, I’m in!”
I had no way of knowing at the time that Wrex’s pink cheeks are just part of his charming, good-looking self (Wrex will tell you he is the better-looking version of Payton Manning, hahaha). I thought I had embarrassed him, like maybe his wife had forced the shirt on him and he was deep-down mortified that some one had actually answered the question. I was wrong. I hadn’t gotten more than 5 steps when Stef called out to me,
“Are you Tredessa Rhoades’ mom?”
Thus, the beginning of my love for the Phipps fam, which at the time, was just the two newlyweds. For Stef proceeded to tell me she’d heard Tredessa, who was a full-time missionary with Confluence at the time, speak and that she, Stef, wanted to be just like Dessa when she grew up.
Well, I mean – if you are going to talk sweet about one of my kids, then it is a cinch, I am going to love you!
My love for her has grown ever since.
Today is Stef’s birthday. I wanted to share 10 things I love about her, countdown-style. You’d love her, too, without a doubt!
10. The hair, of course! I had spent years trying to have that super-straight flat hair that everyone else had, but OH how I missed the 80s and big hair. Stef is from Texas and when she started working with us at the Heaven Fest office, her teased and spray glam-hair made me so happy. I have never still managed to have great hair like she ALWAYS does, but goodness me, after she visits, my hair is better for 2.687 weeks just by the inspiration of being in a room with her! Big hair is wonderful and nobody does it better!
9. Her fashion-style. GLAMOROUS! Another thing I noticed about her right off is that she was NOT leaving the house ever in sweats or grubby clothes. Every single outing finds her dressed from head to toe and looking beautiful. Ouch, puts me to shame. I got too casual in my old age. AND on every single outing WITH Wrex, she dressed to kill! Date night! Shamed, again. The girl rocks a miniskirt and boots and she is really an inspiration to be beautiful every single day!
8. Events. She is like us crazy Rhoades women. We do events. We just do. It is NEVER agony over oh-my-goodness-whatever-shall-we-do. It is more like, “Hey! We need to get a grip on the creativity here, people. Let’s start cutting ideas.” Stef is like that, too. A perfect union!
7. The food. One of my major complaints about younger generations is they don’t get the potluck concept. Potlucking doesn’t mean you only have to fix a little of one dish and get to come and eat many dishes. It means, you fix a meal for you and your family plus enough to share. then we all throw it on a table and FEAST! It is becoming a lost art. but not to Stefane. If I say, “Could you bring the _____,” indicating just one “______,” she will arrive with a counter-full of ever imaginable type of dish in large quantities. Wow! Does my heart good! There is hope for the future!
6. The Almost-annual Grandbebe Nativity. I got in my head one year that an annual Nativity photo shoot with my grandbebes would be just the thing. The first year, we threw 6-month-old Gemma on the floor as baby Jesus and hung a tablecloth behind the 4 that there were then and called it good. But then, Stefane got Wrex in on it and they arranged sheep and goats and donkeys and oh-my-word! My Nativity photo shoots are the BEST with her help!
5. She let our whole extended family come to the farm for our reunion and spent lots of time making it wonderful for a big bonfire, yard games, lassoing, BBQing, horse-riding and horseshoes. It was amazing. And she loved my mom. And my mom loves her back! That is the Good-Housekeeping Seal of Approval! Stef is IN!
4. She loves every single member of my original family and has found ways to bless each of them, with gifts, with her famous banana bread, by serving with us, serving us individually, she is just a major Texas-sized-LOVE-show-er! But especially for her friendship to Tredessa. I love how much fun they have doing nerdy things in an orderly fashion with spreadsheets and databases at their disposal.
3. I got to be in the room for the birth of both of her children. How honoring is that? Sawyer and Wryder are just beautiful babies and how could they be otherwise? They are such happy little sweetie-pies, so loved, so adorable, so well-cared for and delightful. I am excited to see what God has in store for their little lives with these amazing parents!
2. The Wrexster. Well, I mean, I could go on all day about Wrex. There is nobody like him in the universe and I mean that in the best possible way. He is an amazing guy. When we first knew them, we kept running in to them at Chilis on Saturday evenings and they were always at the bar. Always. So we thought: Ok, nice people, but big drinkers. But it turned out they were just there watching football games and Wrex was drinking them out of business with his free refills on Strawberry-Lemonade. Hahahaha! He is something else. And for him to be everything he is that makes us all love him so much, he has to have the love of an amazing woman. And he soooooo does. She loves him. So he can be who he is meant to be. It’s lovely.
1. Her all-new blog: A few days ago, Stef unveiled her latest venture. In addition to being a gorgeous wife and devoted mommy, besides her attention to mentoring and encouraging other young mommies and her commitment to the Body of Christ and being a great neighbor in her community, Stef will start sharing her adventures regularly on her new blog, so appropriately titled www.theblessyourheartblog.com, because it will – bless your heart. The link is on my homepage. Click it anytime to go there and read up. She is warm, self-deprecating, humorous, godly, and insightful.
Love you, Stef. I hope you can see the favor of God on your life through my silly little observations, because it is there. You inspire me so much. Very proud of you. Congratulations on the new blog and HAPPY-HAPPY-HAPPY Birthday, my sweet.
