November 12th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

A while back a “computery” friend of ours was telling us about pandora.com - a free internet radio site where you basically build your own station based on music that you like or don’t like.

Sounded good, didn’t look at it. Because I’m weird like that.

Yesterday I was chatting with my friend Brooke on twitter. She was checking out Pandora and it rang a bell from my previous conversation. With the extra push, I finally checked it out.

I LOVE IT.

I have listened to it for hours and hours now… and wow it is hitting the spot. My personal station was built by selecting Chris Rice (shocking, I know) as the starting point for my station. Chris Rice, Fernando Ortega, Chris Tomlin, Third Day, Mercy Me, and more of my favorites have been filling my house with loveliness…

Cleaning is a whole lot more appealing with good music to listen to. ;) You can listen to my station here or build your own at pandora.com.

For more Things I Love Thursday, click here!

November 11th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

As I explained in Gratitude from the Ashes, if the act of giving thanks is more challenging this year than it has been in the past, I understand. Perhaps, like Solomon, you are wrestling with the realities of death or sin and injustice. Perhaps it has just been a difficult year in many small respects; the pounding surf of the mundane can be deafening after a while.

How can we give true thanks to God when our souls are tired and weary?

Today I’m going to give you a peek into my box of little treasures. When I graduated from high school, we were given a free cedar memory box from a local furniture store, and we could have a small plate engraved for the top. I had a few things I had collected at that point that were treasures to me – physical tokens and reminders of God’s goodness and faithfulness in my life, or of major lessons He had taught me along the way.

I had the personalized plate on my box inscribed with “she treasured these things and pondered them in her heart.” Indeed, these are small things, but they are treasures. When I open this box that is bursting with cards, letters, pictures, funeral programs, hospital bracelets, and even a rock… I am overwhelmed by the goodness of my God- I am reminded that He has been my shepherd all my life to this day.

No matter how difficult my present circumstances are, these things serve as a physical reminder that God is with me, that He is active in my life, that one day He will make something beautiful out of the fiery trials that seem overwhelming… and someday I will have something else to add to my box of treasures.

Today I want to tell you a story about one of the more “random” items in my box. Someone who didn’t know the story might think it is an overlooked piece of trash that made its way into the stack of memorabilia, but to me it is priceless.

The summer after my sophomore year of college, God very clearly placed me as a counselor in a small Baptist summer camp. [Providentially, that is where my husband and I met.] :) It was a fabulous summer – I truly loved it. Working there was probably one of the only times in my life when I have relished getting up in the morning. I loved stepping out of my cabin while all my campers were sleeping, feeling the slight chill in the air, smelling the fresh outdoorsy aromas that seem to rise up with the sun. I would get ready for the day, grab a cup of awful coffee that was made palatable with hot chocolate and flavored creamer [I had laid claim to an old mug that said "Worlds' Best Dad" on it and used it every day], and start my day with the Lord watching His creation sing around me. I often am nostalgic for camp mornings – they were sweet indeed.

One morning I woke up late, and realized that my alarm had died. It was still plugged in, we had power, but my alarm clock was shot. My sweet morning time was gone as my campers were waking up with me and we were all going to be late for breakfast. It was a frustrating start to the day, and I was discouraged because I didn’t know when I’d be able to get to town to replace my alarm clock. While counseling at this camp we were with our campers 24 hours a day from the time they arrived on Monday morning until they departed on Saturday morning, and since it was mid-week, I would be without a clock for several days. Not a tragedy, but frustrating and a serious dent in my morning routine.

Later that day, I made my way to the staff lounge while my campers headed back to the cabin for their rest time. I dutifully checked the counter for mail, not expecting anything, when I noticed a box addressed to me. Weirder yet, it was from my grandmother. My maternal grandparents have been Jehovah’s Witnesses since long before I was born, which means we never got Christmas or birthday presents or cards. I have seen my grandmother’s handwriting on mail only a few times in my life, and I certainly was not expecting a box to arrive at my Baptist camp for me!

I opened it up, and in that box I found an alarm clock, complete with batteries, and a short note explaining that she saw it at the store and thought I might like it.

This happened over 9 years ago, and I’m still teary as I type this.

That clock would have seemed like a weird gift to receive any other day of my life. But that day, I needed an alarm clock. God knew. He had worked to cause my grandmother to purchase that clock, remember batteries, pack it up, and send it on just the right day so that it would arrive at the exact time I needed it.

I love the story of when God provides for Hagar and Ishmael in the wildnerness – when she feels completely alone, that everyone who knows her has forgotten or abandoned her, when she thinks she will have to be a witness to her son dying of thirst, God provides for her exact need. She responds by naming Him El Roi- “the God who sees me.”

Sometimes when life is difficult, it is easy to start to question if God sees our needs, sees our pain, and if He cares. This tiny treasure from my box, a plastic sticker that covered the face of my alarm clock God used my lost grandmother to send me, is a physical reminder that God does care. He does know. He sees me when no one else does.

I can praise God and give Him true gratitude today – for He is my El Roi. He is the one who sees me.

My box of treasures definitely “works for me.” What are you remembering and praising God for today?

Image from FreeFoto.com

November 10th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

We’re beginning a Thanksgiving unit for “school,” and as I looked through our books I knew there was one thing my daughter surely would love: a Pilgrim costume. I looked around online for a while and decided that the prices for ready-made costumes were ludicrous, so it was time to pull out the ol’ sewing machine and dig around for fabric scraps.

It took me pretty much all day, but it was worth it!!

Not too shabby for not having a pattern and using scraps out of the cabinet! AG is thrilled and wore her pilgrim hat all day. [Not surprisingly, hers took a quarter of the time that LB's did!]

I’m not going to lie: the boy hat was a pain. But, the girl hat was reasonably easy – even if you don’t have a sewing machine you could make this with fusible tape and a bit of hand stitching.

I started with a piece of fabric that was 15.5″ x 13″. I actually used a scrap of drapery lining – that ended up working great because it is lightweight but somewhat stiff. One edge of my rectangle was finished because it was the original edge of the fabric – if I’d needed to finish it I would have needed to start with a 15.5″ x 14.5″ fabric piece to end up the same size.

On all the unfinished edges, fold the fabric in approximately 3/4″, iron, and then fold it again to create a double folded edge. [A double fold keeps the raw edges tucked in so it looks neater and won't unravel.] Iron well and pin.

Sew all the edges, keeping the stitches as close to the edge of your fold as possible.

After finishing the edges, my rectangle was 13″ x 12″. Now I took one of the 13″ long sides and folded it back 2″ – iron and pin, then sew it down.

The rest of this project was a lot of folding and pinning to get the back to be fitted to AG’s head.

First, I marked the center of the other 13″ side with a pin. Then I folded each side of the fabric into two folds and pinned them – meeting in the center at the marker pin.

I sewed that down and tried it on AG – it still needed to be gathered more. So, on each 12″ side, about 1.5″ from the corner with the other folds, I made another small fold and tacked it down.

The back was still sticking out weird and floppy, so I joined the two corners together and tacked it again. Lo and behold – it ended up looking all nice and intentionally gathered into a little “poof” on the back of her head! :)

To make ties, I used 2 13″ long pieces of wide double fold bias tape. I just sewed the open edge together, and sewed it into the inside of the 2″ fold.

So, there you have it. With a little scrap of leftover fabric and some patience, you can indeed make a cute little pilgrim hat.

Are you starting to prepare for Thanksgiving? I’d love to hear what’s happening at your house! :)

For more motivation for tackling what awaits you today, click over to “tackle it Tuesday” at 5 minutes for mom.

November 9th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

I admit it: I like predictable movies.

I like feeling confident from the first flicker of the screen to when the last credit rolls by that the good guy will be victorious, the bad guy will get caught, the right guy will win the girl, and everyone will be alive and well and live happily ever after. I feel tremendously betrayed when a movie does not go the way I want it to go.

A few years ago we borrowed the movie Ladder 49 from some friends of ours. This isn’t my typical choice of a movie, but my husband wanted to see it and our friends said it was great.

I HATED IT! {spoiler alert: if you’ve been dying to see this movie but haven’t gotten around to it since 2004, I’m going to tell you what happens. You might want to skip ahead.}

A firefighter gets trapped in a horrible, raging fire while his fellow firefighters try desperately to save him. Throughout the movie, we are shown flashbacks of his life, family, wife and kids… I fully expected him to get out alive. (I mean, what kind of wretched movie would this be if he died after all of that??) But he didn’t get out! I have to say – I felt angry. Why did the filmmakers purposely make me get all emotionally attached to this character and his family members, and then kill him in a cruel way? That is not a fun movie experience for me – that is torture!

In our broken, cursed, and sin-filled world, life is tremendously unfair. We are wounded by the unexpected twists in the “script” of life in a much deeper way than after watching a movie. The dreadful reality of the good guy dying while the bad guy prospers can feel overwhelming. Solomon laments sin and injustice in Ecclesiastes in a way that seems quite appropriate for our world today.

Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being done under the sun. And behold I saw the tears of the oppressed and that they had no one to comfort them.
Ecclesiastes 4:1

There is an evil I have seen under the sun, like an error which goes forth from the ruler- folly is set in many exalted places while rich men sit in humble places.
Ecclesiastes 10:5-6

There is futility which is done on the earth, that is, there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked. On the other hand, there are evil men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I say that this too is futility.
Ecclesiastes 8:14

Life doesn’t always turn out the way we think it should. The helpless are oppressed by the strong. Fools are exalted while the truly wise are disregarded. The righteous seem to suffer while the wicked seem to prosper. [Psalm 73 is a powerful look at the issue of the wicked seemingly prospering and how to deal with this from a Godly perspective. You can download a free guided Bible study of this chapter here.]

How are we to understand the goodness and justness of God in this messed up world?

Back in Genesis 2, we find that God created mankind in His image and gave them the responsibility of ruling the earth under His authority. He gave Adam and Eve real responsibility, real power to influence the world. At the fall, we rebelled against His authority and, in Barbara Mouser’s words, became pirates flying our rebel flag and taking over the “ship” that was rightfully His. We were no longer loyal subjects – we were flying our own flag.

Even though mankind rebelled, God did not strip them of free will, responsibility, or power. In most instances, God does not directly intervene to stop us from hurting, oppressing, and abusing one another. He has given us the power and ability to choose to act for good or for evil, to benefit others or to destroy them.

One day that will change. One day God will break His silence. One day righteousness will receive true reward and wickedness will receive unfathomable judgment. We still have responsibility for our actions before God – nothing will be forgotten or overlooked.

I have been studying the book of Revelation during my quiet times. I was struck by this passage in John MacArthur’s commentary this morning -

“All the pain, sorrow, suffering, and evil in the world cause the godly to long for God to intervene. A day is coming when He will break His silence, a day when all the purposes of God concerning men and the world will be consummated. At that time, the Lord Jesus Christ will return and establish His earthly kingdom. He will rule righteously, with ‘a rod of iron’ (Ps. 2:9), and ‘the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea’ (Isa. 11:9). All the atheists, agnostics, and scoffers who mocked the thought that Christ would return (2 Pet 3:3-4) will be silenced. The millennia of sin, lies, murders, thefts, wars, and the persecution and martyrdom of God’s people will be over… The ravages of sin – broken hearts, broken relationships, broken marriages, broken families, broken dreams, broken people – will be healed. Sorrow, sadness, mourning, and pain will vanish like the morning mists before the noonday sun (Rev. 7:17; 21:4).”

Amen! Come, Lord Jesus! Take back what is rightfully yours! What about in the meantime?

Yesterday the sermon at our church was about the life of Joseph, and our pastor mentioned one of the aspects of this story that I love so very much. Even though Joseph is hated and betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, imprisoned under false accusations, and forgotten… the text insists that the Lord was with him.

• The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. Genesis 39:2
• When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did…Genesis 39:3
• the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. Genesis 39:21
• The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did. Genesis 39:23

Nothing has escaped God’s notice. One day all will be made right. And in the meantime, we can rest in the fact that if we are His, God is with us. He is not a cruel filmmaker delighting in unexpected and painful plot twists which cause us angst. He is the hero – the one who truly will win in the end. In this story, the good WILL triumph – eventually.

Lord, teach us to rest in Your justice.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
Romans 8:31

All the posts in this series are indexed here.

Image from freefoto.com