With all the election results in, I was naively thinking that Facebook would be safe to visit again. Ouch, this morning things are ugly. Ugly, ugly, ugly! Frankly I am saddened and shocked to see the hateful words my Christian friends are posting. While I believe everyone has the right to speak their political minds, I also believe that as representatives of Christ we are called to represent a higher standard of living than just cheap hate.
So... this is an invitation.
Will you join me in posting each day on Facebook one thing that you are thankful for, and will you join me in making that your ONLY posts for the rest of November?
I have been formatting my like this:
Month of Thanks- Day X: what I am thankful for.
There has been something so joyful to me about doing this each day. I get onto Facebook, read a whole bunch of negative comments and then thrown out some glory to God. It makes me smile.
I'll warn you that it's hard to pick just one thing a day. Once you start counting your blessings, it's hard to stop. God works that way. The more we turn to Him with hearts full of Thanksgiving, the more blessing rain down.
Many people are already doing this and it is amazing to read. Let's multiple it and plaster Facebook with thanks given to our amazing God.
If you are not friends with The Celebrated Family on Facebook, please friend us, and share your Month of Thanks postings. I look forward to reading them!
Will you join me in a Month of Thanks?
Why I will torture my daughters tomorrow
It has been a long election season for our country, but before it is over, I have one thing left to do - well actually two. 1. Go and vote. 2. Torture my daughters in the process.
If you didn't vote early, I urge you to join me tomorrow in making your kids part of the election process. Give them the privilege of going with you to vote. Pray for a long line. Bring nothing for them to do. (Don't even pack a snack.) As parents, I believe that it is as much our civic duty to vote, as it is to instill in our children that the right to vote is a privilege, one worthy of our small sacrifices.
Eight years ago I volunteered at the polls in a very poor neighborhood with a high percentage of Haitian immigrants. The polls opened at 7:00, so I was asked to arrive at 6:30. When I arrived, I was shocked to see a line wrapping around the school. These Americans, most of who had not been born here, valued their right to vote so much that they had started lining up hours and hours before the polls opened. In line, were dozens of little children. They were sleepy eyed, but many of them had been dressed in their Sunday best to go with their parents or grandparents to vote. Those children were being taught that Election Day is a special day.
My daughters are the 14th generation of women born in this country, yet they are only the 4th generation of women with the right to vote. I want them to care about that. I want them to care even in the election years when they don't passionately support any of the candidates. I want them to care that women around the world everyday are burned, jailed, shot and beaten for trying to claim the very smallest of rights, let alone an equal say in their government. I want my girls to grow up to be women who care enough to line up before dawn to cast their vote.
So, tomorrow I will wait to vote until after school. The three of us will go together. I will take one daughter by each hand and pray for a really long line. I will talk to them about how we are among the most blessed and fortunate women in the world, and even if politics appear to dissolve into facebook quips and endless commercials, my vote does matter, and one day, theirs will too.
Hold the tinsel - why we need Thanksgiving right about now
It's time to take down the ghosts and spiderwebs. With the mall already decked in evergreen, the pull is strong to go ahead and decorate for Christmas. I'm here to say, "Hold the tinsel sisters!" Now this isn't a plea to stop the insanity of Christmas starting in September, this is a plea on behalf of your weary soul.
Maybe, like me, you are entering the end of this year looking back thinking, "Whoa, did all that really happen?" This year, Facebook feeds and headline news merged more than ever before. I used to check Facebook for dorky suburban updates, this year I checked it to read the status of friends and their children being shot, dying, houses burning down, diseases out of horror movies, and divorces worthy of Lifetime movies. My soul is weary. Is yours?
Last November, a friend of mine, who had had a terrible year, put her Christmas tree up the first week of November. She said she just needed something happy to happen in her house. She needed to sit by the twinkling lights of the tree and try to feel okay. I get it. I really do. Hallmark and Martha Stewart have sold us a story that happiness is available if we just put up the decorations, buy the gifts, and bake the cookies. If that is true, why not put up the decorations early? Why not try to find a few extra weeks of peace? We need it, right?
Well, we do need peace and happiness, but deep down we all know their story is a lie. Only the Prince of Peace, the King of Kings is going to flood your home and heart with the joy and peace you're looking for. You say, "That's why I want to decorate for Christmas early - to celebrate Jesus, to welcome the Prince of Peace."
Sorry. Nope. Again, let's be honest. Scripture doesn't tell us to enter his presence through an evergreen decked door. How does Scripture tell us we should approach and draw near to Him?
We don't need to get tinsel, we need to give thanks. We need Thanksgiving. It's through giving thanks to God for our many blessings that Scripture promises us that we will draw near to Him. It's the true way to the Prince of Peace, regardless of how Hallmark has told us to get there.
So hold the tinsel my friends, and let us enter into a 22 day feast of praise and thanksgiving. Let us savor each of the next three weeks to count blessing upon blessing, even amidst chaos, and sadness and death (because that too He has conquered).
Instead of covering your house with tinsel 22 days early, cover it in gratitude. Hang poster board on the walls and let your kids list their blessings. Write the names of every friend, co-worker, church member, neighbor, service provider, teacher, and family member on pretty paper and plaster your kitchen with it. Make a Thanksgiving Tree (and make it big). Play contemporary praise music and old fashion gospel. Read One Thousand Gifts and start making your list. Take out some lipsticks and write on every bathroom mirror.
