Friday’s Fave Five

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Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share our favorite things from the last week. This has been a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

1. A helpful clerk and discounts. I had a pretty nice shopping excursion last Friday. One place I went to was JoAnn’s Fabrics — I decided to sew one present. I know, I must be crazy to do so at this stage. But though lines were long, customers and staff were in fairly good spirits. I couldn’t decide between two fabrics, and found when I had the one cut that it was marked down several dollars — so I got both! 🙂 Then at the checkout, I didn’t have any coupons because our newspaper somehow didn’t contain their sales flyer, but the clerk tried keying the coupons and discounts in anyway — and saved me about $20.

2. Plaques for the sewing/craft room. Found these while at JoAnn’s:

3. Christmas programs at church and school. For me, those provide the times to sit down and really soak in what the season is all about. The children’s Christmas program at church was this past Sunday night, and though mine were all too old for it, I enjoyed seeing all the little ones tell the age-old story. Then the school’s Christmas program was Tuesday night, and Jesse’s choir sang. The funniest moment of the night was when, after the kindergarten class got done with their song, one let out a very loud, relieved sigh. Everyone chuckled, and at the end of the program the pastor said he felt like that sometimes when he got done preaching, and his listeners probably felt like sighing, too. 😀 And in both programs the littlest children had on the cutest costumes like footie pajamas in animals prints and accessories (ears, tale, etc.). They were so adorable!

4. Kids applying Scripture. It’s not unusual for me to bring up Scriptural principles when talking with my children, but I was blessed to hear Jesse bring up a pertinent Bible verse and apply it to a situation we were discussing and then again in a book report.

5. A new wreath. We can’t hang a wreath on our front door because it looks like this:

I know I could get one of those over-the-door hangers for one, but I just didn’t know if it would look right with the oval there, and the previous owners had installed a hook in the brick by the door which we’ve been using instead of door decorations. I had been wanting some kind of white wreath because I thought it would show up better against the brick, and I was delighted to see one designed by Charlotte Lyons in Amy Powers’ Inspired Ideas Christmas magazine (p. 26). I finally made it last night and finished it this morning, and I’m so delighted with it! Because everything is pinned in or tied on, it went fairly quickly.

I hadn’t wanted to sew and stuff the little dove, but I think I might — I think he’d show up a little better. I like the fuller, more collage-like look of hers — but I like this one, too. 🙂

Have a good weekend! We’re planning to finally get our tree tomorrow! It was raining buckets last weekend, and I haven’t looked at the forecast for tomorrow, but it’s bright out today and I hope it continues.

Flashback Friday: Christmas parties and programs

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Mocha With Linda hosts a weekly meme called Flashback Friday. She’ll post a question every Thursday, and then Friday we can link our answers up on her site. You can visit her site for more Flashbacks. And for Booked for the Holidays,” too!

The prompt for today is:

What was Christmas like at school when you were growing up? Were there parties, programs or other activities? Did students exchange gifts? Did you have a part in a Christmas play? Did teachers decorate their rooms? Was it permissible to refer to the holiday as Christmas? If you attended church, what special things did your church do? Were you or your family involved in any of those programs, cantatas, or activities? Have you ever gone caroling? Did your parents ever host Christmas parties?

I almost sat this one out because I don’t remember many particulars about Christmas celebrations at school when I was young. I know we had them the last day of school before Christmas break, and I know girls brought gifts for girls and boys for boys, without any name tags as to who they were from. The only concrete memory is that one year I received chocolate covered cherries — and I cried.  I love chocolate, but that form of it has always seemed gross to me. And somehow the teacher came up with something else for me — perhaps she had a few gifts stashed away in case someone forgot to bring one. I don’t remember what it was, though! But it does seem like the parties were lower key than the parties my own kids had while in school where they got a gift from a classmate, something from the teacher, an ornament made by “room moms,” and a bag of candy besides all the goodies at the party. I did enjoy the ornaments, though — some moms from each class would get together and make ornaments for all the kids in that class. I loved the fellowship of doing it together and the creativity, and those were some of my favorite ornaments. But they discontinued it after a while — not enough moms with time to do it, mainly, and some discrepancies — one class would get something made out of empty toilet paper rolls and others would get something really nice and elaborate. Of course, I could have continued making ornaments for my kids each year or we could have made them together — but I just didn’t think of it. I wish I had!

Most everybody referred to Christmas as Christmas. I don’t remember any conversation about not acknowledging it as such.

My parents did not attend church, so my own attendance was spotty, and I can’t remember what was done in regard to church programs, but they must have had them. These days the churches we have attended have a children’s Christmas program, and adult one, usually a cantata, and each Sunday School class or group has some kind of party. I love them, but it makes for a super-busy time, especially when you have children in different grades with all of this plus school Christmas programs and piano recitals, too.

I don’t recall my parents ever having Christmas parties, though I do have a vague memory of attending an office party where my mom worked once. It’s always been so busy in December that it seems you don’t dare add to it by inviting anyone over — it was be just one more event to attend for them. I do kind of regret that, but then, fellowship is fellowship whether at church or at home. What someone ought to do is have a January mid-winter party when it is cold and dreary and nothing else is going on!

I have vague memories of caroling — maybe with a Sunday School class or Girl Scouts.

My husband’s father worked at a grocery store, and on Christmas Eve they’d host the employees at their home for just a short little get-together with some munchies. For many years my mom would send us Swiss Colony packages, and we’d get those out Christmas Eve. Eventually we got to where we just have certain Christmastime munchies around during December but didn’t have a set time or date for setting them all out.

Angels in odd places…

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No, that’s not the title to a new made-for-TV Christmas movie — though it woud make a good one! 🙂

It refers to this, hanging on someone’s door at my mother-in-law’s assisted living place:

I don’t know if she is doing chin-ups or practicing the flying trapeze…but it makes my arms tired just to look at her.

Book Review: In the Company of Others

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In the Company of Others is the second of the Father Tim novels by Jan Karon. Father Tim, as most may know, was the central character in Karon’s delightful Mitford series, but the Father Tim novels take him out of his well-beloved town.

In this book, Father Tim and Cynthia finally embark on their long-awaited trip to Ireland, the land of his roots. He has been there once before but is looking forward to showing Cynthia the sights.

Trouble arrives fairly soon, though, as Cynthia injures her ankle, causing her to have to be off her feet, the lodge where they are staying suffers a series of burglaries, and the family who owns the lodge is wounded by a rebellious daughter and a distant mother/mother-in-law, a bitter old woman who experiences serious health issues. Even Dooley, back home in Mitford, phones them concerning serious problems with his girlfriend, Lace.

As Father Tim and Cynthia are unable to travel due to her ankle, they get caught up in the lives of the folks in the area and try to help where they can. As they recuperate they enjoy reading an old journal that eventually leads them to a clue of help in the current situation at the lodge.

Reading In the Company of Others was like a comfortable visit with old friends. I enjoyed hearing bits from and references to the old Mitford gang (loved hearing long-suffering secretary Emma’s personality come through her e-mails), and I often get a little misty at Father Tim’s wonder over his wife and his later-in-life marriage. I love his interaction with Cynthia and the personal conflicts he wrestles with — wanting to take Cynthia to Ireland but hating travel, trying to control his diabetes but being tempted by things he shouldn’t eat, hating controversy but needing to express truth.

Some of the most valuable sections in the book come from his advice to lodge proprietor Anna from his experience of dealing with his own “wounded boy,” his adopted son, Dooley:

“We think of love as warm and cozy, and that’s certainly part of it. But it was hard to muster those feelings toward someone who vented his life-long rage at me.”

“It’s not the sort of thing romantics wish to hear, but I found that in the end, love must be a kind of discipline. If we love only with our feelings, we’re sunk — we may feel love one day and something quite other the next…I realized I must learn to love with my will, not my feelings…”

“I learned over a long period of trial and error to see in him what God made him to be. Wounded people use a lot of smoke and mirrors, they thrust the bitterness and rage out there like a shield. Then it becomes their banner, and finally, their weapon. But I stopped falling for the bitterness and rage. I didn’t stop knowing it was there — and there for a very good reason — but I stopped taking the bullet for it. With God’s help, I was able to start seeing through the smoke.”

“Healing came as little drops of water, and never the mighty ocean when you need it.”

“There’s just no way to deal with their suffering, except through love. And there was no way I could gouge that kind of love out of my own selfish hide without the love of God” (pp. 238-240).

Though parts of the story are more ecumenical that I personally am comfortable with, and though I wouldn’t agree with every little point of theology portrayed in the book, gospel truth is clear but not obtrusive.

Though I appreciate the book more and more as I ponder it, and a great deal more than the first Father Tim novel, Home to Holly Springs, I probably enjoyed it maybe a smidgen less that the Mitford novels. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because of missing Mitford and its people, but I don’t think so — I really don’t think much more could be done with those characters. Maybe it’s because some of the plot lines seem a little edgier that those in Mitford, but then again, not really, either, considering Dooley’s back story. I did find it a little ironic that many characters in the book mention that they haven’t read much of the journal Father Tim and Cynthia read because it’s too dry and boring — and then great chunks of it are quoted in the text. Yet once I got used to the language and got straight who all the different people were, I began to enjoy those parts as well and was delighted at the way their stories were wrapped up in the end.

I’m not sure if Jan Karon is planning any more adventures with Father Tim and Cynthia, but I will be glad to visit with them again if she does.

(This review will be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday review of books and the next 5 Minutes For Books I Read It column.)

The Week In Words

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Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week  inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read. More information is here.

If you have posted quotes over the last week, feel free to link them as well. You don’t have to wait for Monday to post them.

I collected several this week, and it is hard to choose from them! Here are a few:

From Lifenut:

Unboxing the Christmas decorations is like going to a reunion with old friends. You pick up where you left off.

That just hits the nail on the head. That’s one thing I love about decorating for Christmas, that and the family tales that go along with them.

Seen at girltalk:

“Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?” Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Isn’t that true? Instead of letting thoughts run rampant we need to “gird up the loins of [our] mind” (I Peter 1:13) and “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (II Corinthians 10:5).

Seen at Outnumbered Mom:

“All happenings, great and small, are parables by which God speaks. The art of life is to get the message.” (Malcolm Muggeridge)

Seen on a friend’s Facebook status:

“Job’s desire to commune with God was intensified by the failure of all other sources of consolation… “O that I knew where I might find my God!” Nothing teaches us so much the preciousness of the Creator, as when we learn the emptiness of all besides…” C.H. Spurgeon

Sadly, it often takes us much too long to “learn the emptiness of all besides” — and it’s sad that too often we look for consolation and help everywhere else first. But sometimes I think God lets us just for the very reason Spurgeon said — that we might learn that emptiness and His preciousness.

This was quoted on our youth pastor’s Facebook:

If you have a problem with anger, you are told to memorize certain verses so that you can recite them in moments of anger. If you struggle with fear, you should read Scripture passages that focus on trusting God when you are afraid. This emphasis on thinking as the solution to our problems fails to introduce the Person who has come not only to change the way we think about life, but to change us as well. We are more than thinkers. We are worshipers who enter into relationship… How People Change by Timothy S. Lane, Paul David Tripp

I’ve not read the book. I have a little bit of a quibble with this one. I have been greatly helped by memorizing verses in problems areas, and I think that’s one way we renew our minds (Romans 12:2, Ephesians 4:22-24). However, if we’re looking up and reciting those verses to ourselves as just a kind of behavior modification, we’re missing out. I read this just after posting “That’s just the way I am” and rereading an earlier post titled The means of change, so my mind was on this topic anyway, and it just brought the focus back to Christ: it’s by beholding Him and worshiping Him that we’re truly changed and brought into a deeper relationship with Him.

And finally, this from A Blogger’s Prayer by Ann Voskamp. I encourage you to go over and read the whole thing:

Let my words be worthy of the greatest of audiences: You.
And You are enough.

May I write not for subscribers… but only for Thy smile.
May my daily affirmation be in the surety of my atonement,
not the size of my audience.
May my identity be in the innumerable graces of Christ,
never, God forbid, the numbers of my comments.
May the only words that matter in my life not be the ones I write on a screen —
but the ones I live with my skin.

I freely and heartily yield every sentence, every title, every post, every comment… or no comments… all to Thine pleasure and perfect will.

Amen.

If you’ve read anything that particularly spoke to you that you’d like to share, please either list it in the comments below or write a post on your blog and then put the link to that post (not your general blog link) in Mr. Linky below. I do ask that only family-friendly quotes be included. I hope you’ll visit some of the other participants as well and glean some great thoughts to ponder.

And please — feel free to comment even if you don’t have quotes to share!

Of the Father’s Love Begotten

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One of my favorite Christmas hymns:

Of the Father’s love begotten
Ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega,
He the Source, the Ending He,
Of the things that are, that have been,
And that future years shall see
Evermore and evermore.

Oh, that birth forever blessed
When the Virgin, full of grace,
By the Holy Ghost conceiving,
Bare the Savior of our race,
And the Babe, the world’s Redeemer,
First revealed His sacred face
Evermore and evermore.

O ye heights of heaven, adore Him;
Angel hosts, His praises sing;
Powers, dominions, bow before Him
And extol our God and King.
Let no tongue on earth be silent,
Every voice in concert ring
Evermore and evermore.

This is He whom Heaven-taught singers
Sang of old with one accord;
Whom the Scriptures of the prophets
Promised in their faithful word.
Now He shines, the Long-expected;
Let creation praise its Lord
Evermore and evermore.

Christ, to Thee, with God the Father,
And, O Holy Ghost, to Thee
Hymn and chant and high thanksgiving
And unending praises be,
Honor, glory, and dominion,
And eternal victory
Evermore and evermore.

The Lutheran Hymnal
Hymn #98
Text: 1 Tim. 3:16
Author: Aurelius C. Prudentius, 413, cento
Translated by: John. M. Neale, 1854 and Henry W. Baker, 1861
Titled: “Corde natus ex Parentis”
Tune: “Divinum mysterium”, Plain-song tune, 12th century

Laudable Linkage and Videos

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A weekly compendium of commendable sites to see

A Blogger’s Prayer. I need to read this regularly.

Teacher Gift Ideas for that last day of school before Christmas break. Or — for anyone if adapted a little bit. Skip To My Lou always comes up with great ideas for these.

The advice in Riding Out the Writer’s Storm by Laura could apply to bloggers as well.

How a writer can write a letter of inquiry.

3-D star ornament with a link to the pattern.

How to use Glossy Accents.

And, HT to Lisa, National Geography’s Photography Contest 2010. Warning — there is a nude one near the bottom. But other than that, some of these are awesome. This one particularly:

I wish I could get this Ducks vs. the Wind video to embed here. It’s very short, cute, and a little sad as a mama duck and her ducklings get literally bowled over by the wind. It just embodied the way we feel sometimes when circumstances are too much for us. I love the way she picked herself up and carried on afterward, though her feathers were more than a little ruffled.

It’s hard to wake up sometimes:

We’ve had Dancing With the Stars — why not Dancing With the Dogs? (HT to Susanne). This one has a lot of talent!

Hope you have a good day! We were planning to get our Christmas tree today, but it is raining a little bit — hope it dries up enough to get one!

Friday’s Fave Five

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Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share our favorite things from the last week. This has been a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

Here are five of my favorites from the past week:

1. Having all my family at church with me this past Sunday, and also for Sunday breakfast and dinner. I’ve so missed that!

2. Some quiet time with Jeremy before he had to leave. He flew out Monday afternoon. Everyone else had to go back to work and school that morning, and it was nice to just have some unhurried down time together. We didn’t do anything in particular — he talked with me while I cleaned up the kitchen and then he did some laundry so he wouldn’t have to deal with it when he went home. I’m glad he got to stay for that extra little bit of time.

3. A remote computer fix. I came up with a little problem on my computer one night. It wasn’t anything major, and I could still use it, but it was an irritant and took a little more time for my computer use. I e-mailed Jeremy to ask if he had any idea what to do about it. He had a way to log into my computer from where he was and fixed it in just a few seconds. It was a little spooky seeing the cursor moving around under someone else’s control! But I am glad that my personal computer consultant was able to help from afar. (I’ve asked him, “Aren’t you glad for all the practice I gave you to prepare for your current job?” 🙂 )

4. Jesse’s basketball game. At his old school he was a starter, but there are many more students here and much more talent to draw from. He only played a few minutes in the first game, but in his game this week he played most of the second quarter and scored one basket. And his team won! So even though it was an away game on a cold and rainy night, it was still good!

5. Jason and Mittu’s replacement. They’ve been driving back down to SC for several weekends to teach their Sunday School class until a replacement could be found, and finally someone agreed to take the class. Though they’ll really miss their kids, it will be so nice for them not to have to make that trip every weekend.

And a bonus — sunshine and no flooding in our yard or neighborhood. We had so much rain earlier this week that new ponds and lakes sprouted up all over — even across some roads which then had to be closed. The next morning it was all overcast again and I was just praying it wouldn’t rain any more. I was so happy to see the sunshine later that day!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Flashback Friday: O Christmas Tree

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Mocha With Linda hosts a weekly meme called Flashback Friday. She’ll post a question every Thursday, and then Friday we can link our answers up on her site. You can visit her site for more Flashbacks.

I think I am going to answer this in list form this week.

When you were growing up, when did your family put up and decorate the Christmas tree?

I don’t remember when we put it up. Never right after Thanksgiving, but early in December, I think.

Was it real or artificial?

Always real, though my mom had a 2-ft. aluminum tree that had belonged to her dad that I think she put up sometimes. I think I either had it in my room or took it to college. I think they did get an artificial tree when I was in college.

It was customary, when I was growing up, for people to put a white or aluminum tree in their living rooms in front of the window with a rotating disk of different colors aimed at the tree, then a regular green tree in the family room. We never did that because we never had separate family and living rooms, but it was pretty common in the 60s.

Who usually decorated it?

I think we all pitched in.

Were there special decorations?

My favorite ornament was one I made in school. We made a paper cone that was a body (supposed to look like an angel or choir robe) and then glued a face on top that was supposed to look like ourselves. I don’t know if it is still among my mom’s things — I don’t know if my step-dad still puts a tree up.

What was on the top?

I think a flashing star.

White lights or colored, blinking or steady?

Multi-c0lored, NON-blinking! Blinking lights really bother my eyes.

How much did your family decorate for the holiday other than the tree (wreaths, dishes, snowglobes, miniature villages, etc.)?

I don’t remember that there were a lot of other decorations. I know we had stockings and must have had a wreath, but I can’t remember what they looked like. I guess that comes of not having been home for Christmas in maybe 20- 25 years. We visited each other’s homes when we first got married, but after a few years we stopped and usually visited in the summer when the weather was better and people could get out and do things. Plus we wanted to do Christmas our own way with the reading of the Christmas story in the Bible, which neither of our families did.

Did y’all do outdoor lights? White or colored, blinking or not?

We did a few — multi-colored, non-blinking again. Not anything elaborate.

Are there special memories associated with decorating for Christmas?

Not really from the family I came from — I’m sorry that I’ve forgotten so much of it! Most of my favorite decorating memories come from early married days and then the fun of decorating with kids. My husband and I were married in Texas Dec. 21 and pulled into our new home in SC late Dec. 24.  Our landlord invited over for Christmas dinner, and then we hit some after-Christmas sales the next day for ornaments and such. I think we did use that little aluminum Christmas tree of my grandfather’s that first year. One favorite set of ornaments we got that first year were some of my favorites — little angel candles, a boy that looked like Jim and a girl that looked like me. We discussed that every year as we took them out. Alas, a couple of years ago during a particularly hot summer they melted a bit in the attic.

Melted ornaments

I can’t even get them out of the plastic bags they melted in any more, but for some reason I still keep them.

I had to come back and add a couple of things I had forgotten until I read Linda’s post. I do remember as a child we always had to have those shimmery thin metallic icicles on the tree, and we always put them on one or two at a time after all the other decorations. And we always used to take one evening and drive around looking at the lights and decorations at other houses — until the “energy crisis,” when people in general stopping decorating with lights outside to save electricity. It was so nice to see the lights come back after a few years.

“That’s just the way I am”

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When my youngest son was small, he was a real chatty little guy. In fact, sometimes he could talk too much. I didn’t want to squelch his openness with people or his ability to strike up a conversation, as those are valuable traits (which don’t come naturally to me!) But on the other hand, no one wants to be around someone who talks incessantly. Once he was talking to the wife and mother of a visiting missionary family at church who was trying to soothe a fussy baby and graciously step away from him, and he kept chatting merrily on. When I tried to suggest that perhaps he was talking a little too much, he flashed his bright smile and said, “That’s just the way God made me.”

“Well,” I thought, “What do I say to that?”

After a while the Lord did bring to mind a few principles to share with him, such as the fact that God made us to eat, yet it is wrong to eat too much or the wrong things; God made us to sleep, but warns against loving sleep too much and being lazy, etc. He gives us responsibility to use our natural bent and inclinations in the right way. We talked about the warning signs that you’re talking too much — when other people look bored, sleepy, or glazed, or when they’re trying to step away or start another conversation with someone else, etc.

I’ve heard variations on that response from time to time. I used to really struggle under the leadership of someone who was not good with details: when he overlooked something that caused problems, frustrations, more work, etc., for the people under him, he’d just smile and say, “You’ll have to forgive me, I’m not good with details. I’m just not wired that way.” I’ve heard someone apologize for an angry outburst by saying, “I’m sorry, I just have a bad temper.” I’ve known people who think they have the spirituals gifts of prophesy or exhortation to harshly lambast a person or movement they are opposed to (and take great pleasure in doing so), forgetting that “the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth” (II Timothy 2:24-25).

When my middle son was in about the 6th or 7th grade, he was lamenting that he studied for spelling tests and yet still made bad grades, and a classmate hardly studied at all and yet made A’s. I explained that everyone has an aptitude for certain areas, and this friend obviously happened to have an aptitude for spelling. He brightened, thinking that since he didn’t have a natural aptitude for spelling, he didn’t really have to worry about it. I had to say, no, that doesn’t mean you don’t have to work on your spelling: in fact, in means you have to work harder!

The person who is not good with details is not excused from having to deal with them; in fact, he may have to work harder to handle them, or hire an assistant to help him. The person with a bad temper is not allowed to give it free reign because he can’t help himself. Even spiritual gifts such as exhortation or mercy or giving have to be kept in balance. A person whose gift is giving for example, can’t run his family into debt or neglect their needs to give to others. He is responsible to exercise that gift in conjunction with other Scriptural instruction under God’s leadership. Scripture contains several passages of instruction concerning how to exercise spiritual gifts.

Understanding they way we’re “wired” helps us, perhaps, to know what direction to go in life, what ministries or vocations to choose, etc. For instance, I am not good with numbers: I can add the same list of numbers up three times and get three different answers — even with a calculator. So I would not look for a job as an accountant. However, sometimes God does call people to do what doesn’t come naturally — Moses felt he could not lead or speak, yet God did not take any of his excuses. Jeremiah said, “Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak” (Jeremiah 1:6-7). We think of the apostle Paul as bold and wise, yet he said, “And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom” — but he goes on to say, “but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God” (I Corinthians 2:3-5). Sometimes God uses people in the ways they seem to be bent, but other times He calls them to do something that doesn’t come naturally to them to show His power and His grace through them.

Whether dealing with a sin issue, a personality bent, or even a spiritual gift, “That’s just the way I am” is not a good excuse. God wants us to seek Him for deliverance from the power of sin, for power and grace to maintain right balances and to be diligent even in areas where we don’t have natural gifts, and for help to grow continually more Christlike every day we live. He does not want us to remain “just the way we are.” “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (II Corinthians 3:18). We’re changed….by beholding Him.

See also: The means of change.