Liebster Award

I would like to thank my friend Freddy from Media 4 Life Ministries for nominating me for the Liebster Award.  I appreciate this very much, and must confess to being a bit surprised.  Freddy has a very fine Christian Blog, and I would definitely recommend it to all of my friends and readers who love Jesus Christ. http://media4lifeministries.com/.

Requirements for this elaborate award are: Bring to light the person who nominates you by thanking them for all to see. Post on your site the wonderful Liebster Award stamp.  Find 5 of your blogging friends to nominate who have less than 200 followers but deserve to be recognized with Praise!  List them so others will find their blogs and read them.  Oh and don’t forget to let them know they have been nominated.
Please check out my nominations, visit their blogs and say hello.

While it is always fun to get an award or receive recognition, it’s a much greater pleasure to offer it to others, and the five that I would like to nominate are below.  Please give them a visit and  a pat on the back!

1. http://pieterstok.com/introduction-travels-from-ur/  Welcome to my eclectic web pages on family, faith, recollections and aspirations. In this jumble of ideas, I invite family and friends to add their thoughts, recollections, ideas and other insights. Just go to the chapters or sub chapters listed above that you may be interested in.

2. http://cathyrocks.wordpress.com/  Cathy Rocks is a charming blog about a Christian woman’s journey through life, family and faith.

3. http://crustybreadblog.com/  A very well written blog full of insight and wisdom for Christian living.

4. http://keltonburgpreacher.wordpress.com/  Another blog that is full of real-life wisdom for Christian living.

5. http://sofarfromheaven.com/about/ This blog is the reflections of a man late in life carrying a brain that’s travelled a seemingly impossible, certainly unlikely, and admittedly sometimes banal journey beginning during WWII and threading through the social experiment that was the last 69 years.

Thanks to all of you for being a blessing to all of your readers, keep up the good work!

Dealing With Trouble

“If you falter in times of trouble,
       how small is your strength!”

(Prov. 24:10)

We may think of trouble as a bad thing, but it isn’t necessarily so.  Of course, if we cause problems by acting badly, that isn’t good, but sometimes troubles can come into our lives that help us to grow.  One thing is certain: when trouble comes along, stand firm in the Lord.

The workplace often comes with its own set of problems as we all know.  This is a great place to stand firm in Christ.  Whatever the problem that comes along, remember who the center of your life’s focus is: Jesus.  Rather than react with anger or frustration, turn the situation over to Him; He is our strength and our salvation, and He can see you through trouble when it rears its head.

Visions of Christmas Past

The Christmas season is upon us, and even I can’t put it off any longer! I thought that it might be fun to take a look at it from two different points of view, looking back and looking forward.  Today, let’s look back…

For me, the notion of Christmas in the Victorian era is a great one; it somehow seems so innocent and wholesome.  I don’t know why this is, maybe I’m just a sucker for that period, but somehow things just seem more simple.  My honest guess is that this would amuse the people who lived then, but what the heck, let’s deck the halls!

Victorian Christmas card circa 1860

Of course you would have to start out with your Christmas cards, this was the era that invented them, and since internet connections weren’t that great in those days, everyone would actually write them and send them in the mail! (OMG!)

OK, try to picture this: People would go about town singing Christmas Carols in public!  Apparently the ACLU was asleep on the job in those days: Horror!

People did crazy things like look out for their neighbors, give gifts to them and carol in their yards to bring festive cheer and love into their lives… I must say that we are much better off today because instead of having to go out and do things like that, we can download a movie about other people doing it and feel just as good in the warmth and security of our own homes…

Then it would be time to get the house ready for the big day.  If you were well-to-do, you might go out and buy fancy ornaments for your tree, but if you weren’t, homemade ones were perfectly fine too.  In fact, a great deal of their decorating involved people coming together to make things and spend time together.

When the time came, everyone in the family would come together to celebrate.  Gifts were exchanged; often the gifts were hand-made as well as the decorations.  For most people, gifts that their loved ones made themselves were as good as the store-bought ones, because they were made out of love for one another.

And of course, if there weren’t any gifts, that’s OK too… they would spend time in each other’s company.  I guess that’s why the Christmas season in the Victorian context seems more innocent to me.

Of course, I’ve been having a little fun with this comparison, but please don’t get the idea that I don’t appreciate the season in our own times; it’s a wonderful time… and let’s be honest, it’s what you make of it.

If we’re all caught up in the material and commercial aspect of it, it won’t be as much fun as it could have been.  I’m all for Christmas Simplification!  Why not just be happy with Day, what it means and with one another’s’ company?

Of course my kids just call me “Scrooge”!

One last thing, I came across this video from 1898 called “Santa Claus” and I had to include it here, even though it’s a bit off-topic.  It’s pretty short; you’ve got to check it out.  It is charming in its simplicity…