Christmas Gifts

My family doesn't have much money, so we tend to either make gifts or buy useful gifts. I like that.
I never get why people have to buy buy buy Christmas gifts for ALL of their relatives and ALL of their friends...I guess they think that means they love them, that they thought of them...
Check this video out that I found on Jenelle's blog.

Comfort

This morning Sarah Sullivan gave us a devotion on Comfort. She read some Scripture (where from I can't remember...I think I remember her saying "Corinthians" and the number "2", but I'm not finding it...) on how God is our Comforter and then told us that God Comforts us in two ways: 1. through the Holy Spirit and 2. through one another. She told us that Comfort is a really important thing and a Gift, so we should pass it on. She said that sometimes we feel like we can't comfort someone because we've never been through what they're going through, but she said that that is only our own uncomfortableness, and that we need to get over it, 'cause Comfort is always the same, and that if we don't go and Comfort that person, then maybe others won't either and that person is going to end up comfortless. Sarah said that even if we don't know the person, we can just go up to them and let them know that we're praying for them, or we can do something for that person...Whatever we do will help that person as long as we do something.
She also said that when we are going through bad times, we should still read the Bible or pray even though it makes us angry. 'Cause God's not going to care if we're angry at Him, He understands, and he prefers us being like a toddler, screaming and pulling on Him and complaining, than being like a teenager and just shutting Him out and ignoring Him. When we're being like a toddler, we're at least going to Him. She said that even 60 year olds can be like toddlers sometimes, and God doesn't care.

I really liked all of that. It was good =)

Oswald Was Very True

Betty, my old roommate and good friend, loves Oswald Chambers' devotions. In fact, before she bought his book "My Utmost For His Highest", she used to go on this website every morning and read the devotion for the day. Since she would use my laptop, I told her to just bookmark it, so she could easily get to it. Just now, I saw that bookmark and decided to read the devo for the day and I really liked this part of it:

"If you cannot express yourself well on each of your beliefs, work and study until you can. If you don’t, other people may miss out on the blessings that come from knowing the truth. Strive to re-express a truth of God to yourself clearly and understandably, and God will use that same explanation when you share it with someone else. But you must be willing to go through God’s winepress where the grapes are crushed. You must struggle, experiment, and rehearse your words to express God’s truth clearly. Then the time will come when that very expression will become God’s wine of strength to someone else. But if you are not diligent and say, "I’m not going to study and struggle to express this truth in my own words; I’ll just borrow my words from someone else," then the words will be of no value to you or to others. Try to state to yourself what you believe to be the absolute truth of God, and you will be allowing God the opportunity to pass it on through you to someone else.

Always make it a practice to stir your own mind thoroughly to think through what you have easily believed. Your position is not really yours until you make it yours through suffering and study. The author or speaker from whom you learn the most is not the one who teaches you something you didn’t know before, but the one who helps you take a truth with which you have quietly struggled, give it expression, and speak it clearly and boldly."

Isn't it awesome that someone from so long ago can still speak to us so well?
Well, I guess the Bible is proof of that!

Bagpipes and Dancing Leaves

This morning's worship was awesome! We sang Christmas songs =)
The worship band this morning (every Sunday we have a different preacher and a different band since we have 9 pastors and SO many musicians in the house) consisted of these instruments: guitar, base, djembe, violin, keyboard, chello, bagpipes, and flutes. It was amazing! It was great to see Inga and Anna playing up there! (Inga is 14 and Anna is 12)
And it was awesome to see the dead leaves outside dancing in the crazy wind. It felt like nature was joining in on the celebration and worship and I could imagine God smiling while watching it all.
It made me happy which is appropriate since today's message was on Joy =)
Here's the painting that Lauren did for this Sunday. (The girl is actually her family heads' daughter)

Click on the picture to see it bigger.

So Much Food, So Many Lights

Yesterday I passed the audit!! I had a meltdown 'cause the auditor asked for something I hadn't prepared, but Erica was there with me and so we got through it. I was so sure that we were going to fail, but thanks to all of our desperate prayers we passed!! Thank you so much if you were one of those who prayed!! It was and is much appreciated!!

Today was a nice day. I stayed home from work and didn't go to devotions. I didn't really sleep in, but I stayed in bed till late. I then hung out with a lot of different people that I've been meaning to visit for a while, which was really nice. I guess it does sound a little weird that I haven't visited people that I live with in a while, but you got to realize that there are 400 people living in this big building (not including our 100 seniors in our senior program)!
So anyways, I spent the day going from one room to another and then had to leave for dinner.
My small RL (Redeemed Lives) group decided to go to Julie's (she's the only one in our group who doesn't live at JPUSA) house for dinner and then go downtown to see the Christmas lights.
We had a lot of fun! We actually ended up not going downtown, but just driving through a crazy neighborhood in the suburbs where every other house had an insane display of Christmas lights! We were all so mad that none of us brought a camera with them 'cause there were so many houses and decorations that we wanted to take pictures of!!! I'm sure that those people gotta have A LOT of money to be able to do that!
There was a "three story Christmas tree" that went through the house (here's a not-so-great picture of it that I found on the internet), a giant reindeer made of lights, a tree house that was complete COVERED in white lights and was full of stuffed animals and elves and had a "stuffed band" that played some Christmas song that we could barely hear, there were all kinds of blown up Christmas characters in people's yards (like Santa, Frosty, Snoopy, Christmas carolers, Taz dressed as Santa, giant snowmen, etc), and just tons and tons of lights! I'm sure it's a normal thing here..but I've never seen anything like that!! It's so crazy! But it was fun looking at them.
Then, we went back to Julie's house and had tea and cookies =)

LadyBug Room

I love my room and I'm so thankful that Eric sealed our windows, but I can still feel a draft coming from the window in our room (the window in our bathroom is now completely blocked so there's nothing coming out of it...including light)! So lately, whenever I have nothing to do I just stand in front of our window with my hand reaching all over the place to see where the draft is coming from. If anyone can see me they probably think I'm crazy.
Today I decided to move the blanket that we have on our window sill to see if the draft comes from there and I found a lady bug! I don't know how many lady bugs I've seen in our room since I've moved in (which was in October)! It's crazy! Especially at this time of year! I thought for sure that she was dead, but I held her anyway, thinking that maybe, if she was alive, she could use a little warmth, and, after a few minutes, she slowly started moving up my arm. She was really cute. I usually never get to watch and study ladybugs 'cause they usually fly away pretty quickly, but this one just kept hanging out on my arm. I always find the smallest details in Creation so amazing! Ehm...except for ticks, mosquitoes, flees, etc.
But anyways...I was really surprised that the ladybug was still alive! Especially after I tried lifting the blanket from our window sill and found it frozen to our window! That's just insane...

BUT, our room is really cute. In fact, we have a little Christmas tree with lights on it that Hannah set up the day we got back from Thanksgiving vacation. We have it sitting on our little garlic-smelling fridge (I should try to bleach that or something...).

(click on the pictures to view them bigger)