The Frustration of Advent

I remember growing up that Christmas was always a letdown. No matter how great it was, no matter how good "Santa Claus" was to me, I was always left at the end of the day wanting more; not more stuff, not more food, just more. I grew up knowing that Christmas was Christ's birthday. We went to church and sang all the Christmas carols, including "Silent Night" by candlelight on Christmas Eve. I wasn't satisfied, though. It wasn't until later, several years after I came to faith in Christ, that I realized what was missing. I was getting plenty of Christmas, but I was missing Christ. Even through all the church's Christmas celebrations, I was still missing Christ at Christmas.

What Is Adoption?

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Image from  http://adoptiongiftsonline.com/

"What does it mean to be adopted?" 

This question was posed this morning on the Facebook page of my church, Garden Valley Bible.

At first, I formulated the Sunday School answer in my head. Being adopted means that someone chooses to love you forever and invites you to live with them. Generally, children are adopted because their biological parents cannot take care of them for whatever reason or they simply don't want the responsibility of raising a child. 

The post went further and said, "Please take a moment and reflect upon what you have today as His adopted son." This prompted further word study into the issue of adoption.

We Repeat to Remember

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Do you remember this clip from Sesame Street? A little girl is sent to the store by her Mom to pick up three things: A loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter. All the way to the store she repeats these things to herself over and over so that she'll remember what she is supposed to buy.  

How To Defeat Discouragement

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Do you get discouraged? I'm sure you don't, but I sure do. I get discouraged when I feel like I'm pulled in too many directions to be really good at any one thing. I feel the crushing weight of discouragement when I feel like nothing I try to do gets any traction; when my career, my music, or my life feels like it's stuck in the muck.