Tag: thanksgiving

Kitty Under the Christmas Tree

It’s been an interesting several weeks! I’ve started a new medicine and am waiting to see how I will respond to it. I’ve had some other health issues that have been annoying, but they are being taken care of, so I am thankful. And I can’t believe that the month of December is actually here. Christmas will arrive before we know it!

I want to really be mindful this holiday season. It’s so easy to get caught up in the presents and the decorating and even the family gatherings (none of which are bad things). But I want to focus in on Jesus and His birth this Christmas. I want to take the time to be still. To listen for once in a while, instead of talking. To use my ears instead of my mouth.

I hope to find some kind of advent idea for blog posts that will help me to be able to do this. But even with this desire for writing blog posts about advent, I could get caught up in the craziness. So I just want to be able to share–when I can–from my heart, about what God is teaching me. Hopefully as I share this it can be encouraging to someone else, as well!

To end this post I’d like to send greetings from my kitty, Misty, who loves to lounge under the Christmas tree. We haven’t even gotten the tree decorated yet, but she’s already found her spot underneath on the tree skirt, where she can blend in with several early Christmas presents that we have received.

I hope that each of you has a Blessed holiday season, and that the remembrance of Christ and what He has done for us will leave a lasting and an invigorating impression on our minds and hearts. ❤

Unashamed Because of Mercy

Yesterday I did something that I was ashamed of. I felt discouraged, frustrated, angry, and embarrassed. But as I look back on the incident and on how things worked out, I see that God wanted to teach me a lesson.

I had been hearing a song by Big Daddy Weave on K-Love (my favorite radio station) for several weeks, called “Overwhelmed.” The music is beautiful, but it was the lyrics that really had me thinking:

God, I run into Your arms
Unashamed because of mercy
I’m overwhelmed, I’m overwhelmed by You

I know the power of Your Cross
Forgiven and free forever You’ll be my God

All that You’ve done is so overwhelming
I delight myself in You
In the Glory of Your Presence
I’m overwhelmed, I’m overwhelmed by You

The phrase “unashamed because of mercy” stuck in my head, and I meditated on it for the next few days. Little did I know that God would give me an opportunity to experience the shame that comes from messing up and then the grace and mercy that flow from His heart when we confess and turn back to Him.

I just wanted to encourage you today–if you’ve messed up; if you’ve done something that you are ashamed of; if you’ve sinned in such a way that it feels like you can’t be forgiven–REMEMBER. God loves you. He forgives you when you admit your sin to Him (1 John 1:9). He longs to show you His overwhelming mercy and grace.

Come into His presence with boldness and thanksgiving (Hebrews 4:16), and don’t be ashamed. God’s mercy is great enough to cover all of our sins.

Praise Him!