I Am A Work of Art (with a messy room)

In theory, celebrating Advent seemed like such a great idea! In reality, we've been too busy! But we have managed to have at least one night of celebration. Week 2: Scripture: In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was take while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. Luke 2:1-7 Prayer: God, journey with us to Bethlehem. Go with us and lead us to your love. Go with us and teach us to love others. Light the first candle, and then the second candle. Sing or read: O Little Town of Bethlehem Devotion: This is the second Sunday of Advent. Today we remember that Mary and Joseph went on a journey t...

I've struggled this past week with Chapters 3 and 4 of  Greater ! I am afraid of failure when it comes to stepping out into my faith. These concepts of casting away my "nets" and "burning my plows", has not been easy. It's taken a lot of quiet time to process these concepts.  My life has sunk to the level of baseline living in my relationship with God, in work, and at home with my family. I have been praying less. Day in and day out it is the same routine over and over again. I've been experiencing a calling that I don't completely understand yet. I am scared yet burning alive inside with this fire that I know isn't going to disappear any time soon. I even tried ignoring the issue of figuring out my nets and what plows to burn! Do you know what happened? Friday as I was sitting in traffic surrounded on all 4 sides of my car, I realized that I've been stuck in life just like sitting in traffic going nowhere surrounded by all kinds o...

Yesterday, marked the first day of Advent. My family never celebrated Advent so I don't really know how to even begin this tradition with my own family. My church gave us an advent wreath yesterday! I have it sitting on my kitchen table. We have the candles: 3 purple and 1 pink. We then went out and purchased a white candle for the middle. Not sure if we were supposed to do that or not... Then I took my kids to the "Dollar Tree". They each got to pick out one decoration. Kaelie picked out a red bird siting on a branch with pine cone, holly leaf, and glitter. Eli picked out, of course, a green bow. We also set out the creche with the angel. We are going to slowly put things out with that to build on the story of Christmas. Here are some pictures of our set up: We didn't get to do our ceremony last night because Kaelie was not feeling well. But we are going to do it tonight! Here is how our family celebration will begin: Gather around the Advent wreat...