A Christmas Meme

Posted on December 8, 2015 by Barbara Harper

I love that there is almost always a meme going around about Christmas each year. The one I saw this year was at Melanie‘s. She found it at Linda‘s, who found it at Cindy‘s. I don’t think any of them would mind of you wanted to join in on your blog or in the comments.

1. Do you prefer an Artificial or Real tree?

Real. Our main Christmas tree has always been a real one. I like to use lots where local people sell their own trees. Last year we couldn’t find one and ended up getting a tree at Home Depot – that turned out to be quite impersonal. Thankfully we found a local place again this year. I’ve always enjoyed going out with the family and picking out just the right tree. I don’t know if that will change when it’s just the two of us – we’ll see.

2. Do you prefer colored lights or clear lights on your tree?

I like them both, so it’s hard to decide, but our main tree has colored lights. A couple of artificial mini trees have clear lights. We have colored lights on the bushes out front and clear on a garland on the porch – I probably should have done one or they other so they would match, but oh well. 🙂

Mini tree on my desk

3. Would you say your Christmas dinner is traditional or not?

Yes, very: Ham, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes if I remember them (only my daughter-in-law and I like them), pumpkin pie, apple pie, rolls.

4. When do you begin Christmas shopping?

Usually Thanksgiving weekend, but if we see a deal on something that someone in the family would like earlier, we get it. My husband is particularly good at that. We don’t start earlier because we like to get specific things that they want, and we don’t always know what those things are until about that time. Plus the end of our “birthday season” is September, so it’s nice to have a break between birthdays and Christmas shopping.

5. What is your favorite Christmas movie to watch?

White Christmas and the George C. Scott Christmas Carol.

6. Are you a Hallmark Christmas Movie fan?

We don’t get the Hallmark channel on our main TV, but it does come through in my mother-in-law’s room. So I have only seen snatches of of their Christmas movies and…no, I am not a fan. They seem similar to each other. But I may find out differently if I ever watch one all the way through.

7. Do you travel for Christmas or stay home?

Stay home. We pretty much have to now because we have my mother-in-law with us, but that is our preference anyway. We traveled a few Christmases the first few years we were married, but travel weather was always iffy, and we wanted to start our own traditions, especially since neither of our families incorporated the spiritual side of Christmas.

8. Who is the easiest person to buy for in your family?

Right now, my little grandson, Timothy. It’s so fun to shop in the baby aisles again. 🙂 When my mom was still alive, she was the easiest to shop for – I knew her tastes, and she was one person I could shop for any time of year and save it for Christmas.

9. Do you like to wrap your gifts or prefer gift bags, if possible?

It just depends on what it is. If it is something in a box, I like to wrap it. If it’s an odd shape or I can’t find a box it will fit in, gift bags are fine.

10. What is the one stress you feel you have at Christmas?

Getting everything done has always been a stress factor, but we have simplified over the years. No one in our extended families exchanges gifts any more except that we do still give to my step-father. But not having multiple boxes to send out has helped a lot. And now that our kids are grown, we don’t have the Christmas plays, recitals, class parties, etc. to go to or make things for. I do miss all of that in some ways, but it’s nice to have freer schedules now, and the children’s Christmas program at church helps fill that niche.

Bonus question: What is one of your favorite Christmas memories with your children.

My favorite Christmas memories are when we decorate the tree. I love the exclamations when they see their favorites and all the “remember when” stories about them. I wish I had written down something about individual Christmases through the years. The only Christmas I did specifically do that, I recorded that one son said that if he could open one present early, he wouldn’t hit his brother. 🙂 It’s been fun to watch the changes as they have grown. The most memorable Christmas since we’ve had children was actually the day after when Jesse was just a baby. I was feeding him on the couch when I heard something moving with a galumph sound behind me. I called my husband, who was actually taking a bath at the time, but he threw some clothes on and indulged me and came to investigate – and discovered a huge rat, the size of a cat, in the living room. Jim had just gotten some thick gloves for Christmas, put them, and tried to corner the rat, but every time he did, the rat would stand on its hind legs and hiss at him. (Eeeeek!) The rat did take a few nips at him, so I was especially glad he had the gloves. He spent all kinds of time trying to catch him – I was afraid he was going to say, “I’m sorry, honey, but I have to get to work,” and leave me alone with it. But he didn’t. Our kids had gotten that year a big container of Legos that basically was a big box with a door that slid open. Jim dumped out the Legos, trapped the rat behind some books, set up the container, and the rat ran into while Jim shut the door. Now what to do with it. I didn’t want Jim to release it outside just to have it come back in again. So he submerged the container into the bath water he had left until the rat drowned, then he disposed of it and cleaned out the container. I was on the couch with my feet up the whole time, and I think the other boys were on the furniture as well, just watching, wide-eyed. Later Jim wrote a poem about it in the style of “‘Twas the night before Christmas…” (or the day after in this case), and he’s pulled it out and read it a few times over the years.

Thank you, Cindy, for creating this! I enjoyed reminiscing.

Happy Thanksgiving

Posted on November 26, 2015 by Barbara Harper

Graphic Courtesy of crosscards.com

Is this the kind return,
And these the thanks we owe,
Thus to abuse eternal love,
Whence all our blessings flow?

To what a stubborn frame
Has sin reduced our mind!
What strange rebellious wretches we,
And God as strangely kind!

On us He bids the sun
Shed his reviving rays;
For us the skies their circles run,
To lengthen out our days.

The brutes obey their God,
And bow their necks to men;
But we, more base, more brutish things,
Reject His easy reign.

Turn, turn us, mighty God,
And mold our souls afresh;
Break, sov’reign grace, these hearts of stone,
And give us hearts of flesh.

Let old ingratitude
Provoke our weeping eyes,
And hourly as new mercies fall
Let hourly thanks arise.

~ Isaac Watts

May you experience hourly mercies and thanks! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!

Veteran’s Day

Posted on November 11, 2015 by Barbara Harper

I am so thankful for all who have served and are serving our country in various ways and for their families and the sacrifices they make for them to do so.

Happy Independence Day!

Posted on July 4, 2015 by Barbara Harper

I discovered the following on the back of a church bulletin in a box I was cleaning out. It was written by a former pastor of our family’s, Jesse L. Boyd, for whom our son, Jesse, was named.

Are Your Free?

One of the frequent cries of our day is, “I want to be free.” Well, what is freedom? It is not the living of life without restraints of law.

It is not licentiousness or immorality, because their slimy arms can soon wrap us up in their dark and dismal prison-house of suffering.

It is not the lack of government, but rather the privilege of having the right of freely enjoying one’s own government.

It is true Americanism: founded on the Holy Bible, bequeathed to us by our forefathers, and symbolized in Old Glory — The Star-Spangled Banner — “Oh, long may it wave o’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.”

It is the privilege of spending one’s treasure, of spilling one’s blood, and of being prompted by the spirit of liberty to stand against despotism and tyranny.

It is liberty and loyalty combined.

It is the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty.

It is the title to justice.

It is living as one should; no wicked man lives as he should, therefore, he is never free.

It is having full mastery over all matter.

Freedom ends where tyranny begins.

It comes by mastering one’s self.

It comes through knowing the truth. “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).

It comes through receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1, NAS). “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). Hallelujah! What a Saviour!

Freedom is that which one receives from God in the new birth. Man cannot govern himself, because, when all restraints are taken away, then evil dethrones him. He can only find rest (soul rest; freedom) in the arms of Jesus Christ. Are you free?

A Belated Happy Mother’s Day!

Posted on May 11, 2015 by Barbara Harper

I was beginning a Mother’s Day post yesterday morning when my son and daughter-in-law unexpectedly came in to surprise me by coming to prepare breakfast. A welcome interruption! I had a wonderful day, which I’ll say more about Friday. There wasn’t time during the day to come back to the computer, so I started to just skip a Mother’s Day post. But it was on my heart to do this morning, so I thought I’d go ahead. We can honor our mothers beyond Mother’s Day, right? 🙂

I want to honor the memory of my mom. I miss her deeply.

I want to honor my mother-in-law, who raised four children, one of whom became my wonderful husband, and who maintained a sweet spirit throughout her life in the face of serious trials:

2009

2013

I want to honor my daughter-in-law, who is a loving wife to my son and mother to the cutest grandson in the world:

I want to honor my daughter-in-law’s mother, who raised such a sweet girl:

And I want to remember and honor my sisters, nieces, sisters-in-law, and friends with mothering and nurturing hearts.

I hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day and feel renewed in your roles this morning.

Book Review: Songs of the Morning: Stories and Poems for Easter

Posted on April 6, 2015 by Barbara Harper

Songs of the Morning: Stories and Poems for Easter was compiled by Pat Alexander and includes excerpts from the writings of C. S. Lewis, E. B. White, Dickens and others, some (mostly poems) written by children. I had bought it ages ago from a clearance section, put it on my shelf, noticed it it off and on through the years, and kept forgetting about it at Easter time. Finally this year I remembered to pull it out in the weeks preceding Easter. I like to read something devotional pertaining to Easter during that time, and while this wasn’t that exactly, it was both pleasant and beneficial.

I don’t think I realized, or I had forgotten, that it was geared primarily to children, probably the same age as those who would be able to read the Narnia series. But adults can gain from it, too.

I like that it couches the Easter story within historical context. The first section is “How It All Began” and begins with a short excerpt from a children’s Bible about God creating the world and sin entering in (Pat Alexander also wrote The Lion’s Children’s Bible, which I had not heard of before this, so I don’t know how well it expresses Biblical truth, but the excerpts I read here were fine). Then there are Narnia excerpts about the founding of Narnia and the White Witch and a couple of other sources to further illustrate those truths.

Other sections follow a similar pattern and focus on the birth of Christ, the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday, the crucifixion, and the resurrection. There’s also a section of “The Greatest Love,” with several historical and story illustrations of sacrificial love (like Sydney Carton’s in A Tale of Two Cities and a story about a boy’s dog risking its life to save the boy’s), one called “It’s All Right,” dealing with how new life in Christ should affect our lives in practical terms, like forgiveness of others, and a final one called “A New Beginning.”

The stories come from a variety of countries. Some are old, some are new. Some are from adults’ work, some from children’s books. Some are fun, some are serious. Pat did a fine job putting all these sources together. It doesn’t look like the book is in print any more, but there are copies that can be purchased online, or perhaps you can keep an eye out for it at library sales and such.

(This review will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)

He Is Risen Indeed!

Posted on April 4, 2015 by Barbara Harper

Happy Easter!

Valentine’s Cards

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Barbara Harper

I have an embarrassingly large supply of materials to make cards. Most have been picked up on sales or with coupons. I have used some over the years to make personal cards or for projects for our ladies’ group and missionaries, but I have quite a lot on hand still. Often by the time I think of making a card for an event. I don’t have enough time. But this year I determined it make Valentine’s Day cards for the family, and I thought I’d show them to you. I perused my Cards and Papercrafts and Valentine’s Ideas Pinterest boards for inspiration and used a few there as springboards but came up with a few others on my own.

This was Jim’s:

The key is a little 3-d sticker and the only thing I bought especially for these cards: everything else I had on hand. He’s enjoyed joking that keys to my heart can be bought at Hobby Lobby. 🙂

This was Jeremy’s:

The inside said “…To wish you a Happy Valentine’s Day.” I think the brown hearts look like chocolate, and they’re a great way to get hearts on a man’s card so it’s more masculine looking than the pink ones I gravitate to. 🙂 I usually make heart-shaped chocolate cupcakes decorated with sprinkles or icing for Valentine’s Day, and I thought these were reminiscent of those or of chocolate candies. Most of the hearts of various sizes on the cards were made with punches.

This was Jason’s:

The inside says “That’s our love for you,” meaning it’s so great it can’t be measured. I just realized last night or some time this morning that I didn’t have a heart on his. Sorry about that, Jason! Here’s one for you: ♥ 🙂

This was Mittu’s:

The inside says “On Valentine’s Day and every day!” The little envelope was made with help from a template I found by searching online for “small envelope templates.” I have a neat punch that rounds off corners and used that for the words here. By the way, the words were all printed out on the computer with the Bradley Hand ITC font except for the letters for “LOVE” here, and those were from a page of punch-out letters. My own handwriting, I’m sorry to say, would not make for a pretty card. The words on the other cards I cut out with a scissors with a torn-paper-looking edge. That one is a little more forgiving than, say, a scalloped edge. I have a hard time cutting in a straight line, so this particular scissors helps. I have a mini paper cutter for longer straight lines.

This was Timothy’s:

The inside says, “To our favorite snuggle buddy.” It was inspired by this pin, but when I tried to click through to the site to see if the card maker had instructions or a pattern, I couldn’t find the original site, nor could I find it by searching Google using the terms I thought I had originally found it with. So I had to wing it (pun intended. 🙂 ). Then I realized this card was going to be from both my husband and I, so I needed more than just one adult with the baby bird.

This one was Jesse’s:

I think the inside just said “Happy Valentine’s Day!”

With the last two, I was running out of both time and ideas, so they are somewhat similar. This was Great-Grandma’s (or Mom, to my husband and me):

Sorry about the shadow on this one. The inside says, “Your example has taught us how to love….May we show you as much love as you have shown us.”

This was for Jesse’s girlfriend, Meaghan:

All of the borders were from packages of stick-on strips – very handy! And Hobby Lobby has them on sale 1/2 price pretty frequently in the scrapbooking section.

And on the back of each card was this stamp with either Mom, Grandma, or Barbara written in accordingly:

They were a lot of fun to make, though they did take quite a bit of time. Actually once I decided what to do for each one and chose the decorative papers, it didn’t take long to put them together: the decision-making was the hardest part.

I’m hoping this will jump-start me into making more cards rather than buying them this year. It will probably depend on how much time I have before each occasion and whether I remember to start on then in time. But I think they add a nice touch.

Occasionally I’ve thought about starting an Etsy shop to sell things like this. But I’d also like to do more writing and various other things, so I am not sure of which way the Lord would have me use my time yet. So for now I’ll just do them as I have time for the family and think about the possibility of expanding on them later.

Quotes about love beyond Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 14, 2015 by Barbara Harper

In the past I have written about how much I love Valentine’s Day, how we celebrate it, foods we use, favorite love songs, quotes, etc., and I plan to enjoy some of those things to the hilt today (I hope you can, too!) This year I wanted to do something different. All of those other things are fun, but real love (not just romantic love, but loving our families, our neighbors, and even our enemies) involves more and is often difficult, especially when our different wills, desires, or habits clash. These quotes help me in the everyday life, rubber meeting the road kind of challenges of loving other people. Maybe they’ll be a help to you, too.

The springs of love are in God, not in us. It is absurd to look for the love of God in our hearts naturally; it is only there when it has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

— Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, April 30

Love means to love that which is unlovable; or it is no virtue at all.

– G K Chesterton

To love those whom we do not like means that we treat them as if we did like them — to choose to act kindly toward them even though we do not like them….The Bible does not ask us to like the brethren, it asks us to love them, and that means, therefore, something like this: we may not like certain Christians. I mean by that, there is none of this instinctive, elemental attraction; they are not the people whom we naturally like; yet what we are told is that to love them means that we treat them exactly as if we did like them. Now, the men and women of the world do not do that; if they do not like people, they treat them accordingly and have nothing to do with them. But Christian love means that we look beyond that. We see the Christian in them, the brother or sister, and we even go beyond what we do not like, and we help that person. Love your brethren — that is the exhortation with which we are concerned.

— Martyn Lloyd-Jones on I John 3:16-18 in his book Children of God

How many of you will join me in reading this chapter (I Corinthians 13) once a week for the next three months? A man did that once and it changed his whole life. Will you do it? It is for the greatest thing in the world. You might begin by reading it every day, especially the verses which describe the perfect character. “Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself.” Get these ingredients into your life. Then everything that you do is eternal. It is worth doing. It is worth giving time to. No man can become a saint in his sleep; and to fulfill the condition required demands a certain amount of prayer and meditation and time, just as improvement in any direction, bodily or mental, requites preparation and care. Address yourselves to that one thing; at any cost have this transcendent character exchanged for yours.

– Henry Drummond, The Greatest Thing in the World

Being in love is a good thing, but it is not the best thing. There are many things below it, but there are also many things above it. You cannot make it the basis of a whole life. It is a noble feeling, but it is still a feeling. Now no feeling can be relied on to last in its full intensity, or even to last at all. Knowledge can last, principles can last, habits can last; but feelings come and go. And in fact, whatever people say, the state called “being in love” usually does not last. If the old fairy-tale ending “They lived happily ever after” is taken to mean “They felt for the next fifty years exactly as they felt the day before they were married,” then it says what probably was never was or ever could be true, and would be highly undesirable if it were. Who could bear to live in that excitement for even five years? What would become of your work, your appetite, your sleep, your friendships? But, of course, ceasing to be “in love” need not mean ceasing to love. Love in this second sense — love as distinct from “being in love” is not merely a feeling. It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by (in Christian marriages) the grace which both parents ask, and receive, from God. They can have this love for each other even at those moments when they do not like each other; as you love yourself even when you do not like yourself. They can retain this love even when each would easily, if they allowed themselves, be “in love” with someone else. “Being in love” first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep the promise. It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it.

– C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

The labor of self-love is a heavy one indeed. Think whether much of your sorrow has not arisen from someone speaking slightingly of you. As long as you set yourself up as a little god to which you must be loyal, how can you hope to find inward peace? – A.W. Tozer

As we remember the lovingkindness of the Lord, we see how good it was to find our own strength fail us, since it drove us to the strong for strength. – Spurgeon

Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:1b-3.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. I Corinthians 13:4-7, ESV.

Book Review: Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Barbara Harper

Forgive me for spending the first week of the year catching up with Christmas reviews. As I said yesterday, I don’t usually have the computer time when I finish these to talk about them, and when I do I feel it’s probably too far past Christmas. But Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room: Daily Family Devotions for Advent by Nancy Guthrie is another that I’ve read several times now and want to share more about with you.

This book is written in a much different style than her compilation of essays in Come Thou Long Expected Jesus that I discussed yesterday. It’s written for use as a family devotional, so the language is in a simper style that I think very young children could comprehend, but I enjoyed it even as an adult reading for myself. Each chapter ends with a prayer, some discussion questions, and a few more Scriptures on the topic of the chapter. There are 31 readings: I like that it doesn’t stop at Christmas but extends through the month. (I know I said I liked that Come Thou Long Expected Jesus only had 22 readings, but those in this book are short enough that I don’t think it would be a problem to keep up with all month). The sizing of the book, too, is small enough that I think children would be comfortable holding it and taking a turn at the family reading.

In addition, there are lined pages where you can jot down anything you want to remember about the discussions aroused from the readings and a few pages of Christmas songs with their history.

The readings cover several topics that you would expect, but also a few you might not have thought of, such as this quote:

When you look at something through a magnifying glass, it looks much bigger than it actually is. Is that what Mary meant when she said, “My soul magnifies the Lord”? Was she trying to make God look bigger than He actually is?

We can never make God bigger or greater than He is. The truth is, we can never fully take in or understand God’s greatness. But we can magnify Him. We magnify God not by making Him bigger than He truly is, but by making Him greater in our thoughts, in our affections, in our memories, and in our expectations. We magnify Him by having higher, larger, and truer thoughts of Him. We magnify Him by praising Him and telling others about His greatness so they can have bigger thoughts about Him, too.

Sometimes we wonder why we aren’t happy, why we make sinful choices, why we feel distant from God. Often it’s because we have small thoughts about God and magnified thoughts of ourselves, our wants, our rights, our accomplishments. Mary, the one God chose to be the mother of His Son, could have easily allowed thoughts of herself to become larger, even prideful. But instead of magnifying herself, she magnified the Lord (p. 29).

And this:

Sometimes we are given a gift that we think is not really useful to us, and therefore we never take it out of the box. We stash it away in a closet or on a shelf somewhere in case we need it someday. Sadly, that’s what some people do in regard to Jesus. They want to keep him handy for when something comes along that they can’t handle on their own, but for now they have no interest in making him part of their day-to-day lives, and so they put him on the shelf. They simply don’t believe he is as good as the Bible says he is, and so they have no real or lasting joy in having received this great gift (p. 79).

Day 17’s reading on “Glory Revealed” is one that especially stood out to me.

I appreciate Nancy’s thoughtfulness and depth in these devotionals, even couched as they are in simple language.

I’ve used this book several times, once with Jesse when he was younger and then on my own. It’s one I am sure I will use again, and I am happy to recommend it to you.

(This will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)