My Time at the Inn

I am always irresolute when it comes to New Year’s Resolutions.   I would like to keep the ones I make. I want to improve in many areas of my life, but the very second I make a resolution, it’s doomed to failure. I become a slave to trying to keep something I should never have promised myself to do in the first place, and suddenly all my good intentions become a burden.  Failure, again.  Someone said the other other day, " what compromises most of the resolutions a person makes?"  Humm.. Exercise more?   Eat healthier?   Drink less stuff we shouldn’t be drinking in the first place? Be kinder?   Be wiser?   Make fewer judgments about people?   Save money?   The list goes on, but nearly everything on these lists is something a person should already be doing in the first place! If we obeyed His word, would we not do most of the things on our list already?    Maybe that’s why we fail before we begin.   New Year’s resoluti...

I did not read as many books this year.  I concentrated more on my novel, quilting, and violin playing this year.  However, I thought I would share the ones I read.  The Bible will not appear on the list, because it is a foregone conclusion that I read my Bible daily.  This list is extra reading outside Bible time.  If we are not in the Word of God daily, how can we grow in Christ?  I encourage you, Reader, that if you have not made it a practice to read your Bible day, to do so.  It is my source of strength and encouragement for life. 1. Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier written in 1936. This mystery kept me up at night until I had it finished.  2.  August, Die She Must , I forgot to write down the author's name. I read it, to see if it should placed in the school library.  I did not like it.  One twin commits murder, and you never really know which one. 3. Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix.  I enjoyed this boo...

People have different ways of celebrating the Christmas and New Years holidays.  Traditions vary from family to family, and I find some similarities as well as differences.  With my family growing, I watch with interest at how some of the traditions I have grown up with and lived with all my life change, expand, shrink and grow with the various children and their spouses.  I like traditions, do you?  In a world that is constantly changing from one minute to the next, and so many changes in our world and societies, traditions bring a sense of peace, a sense of continuity that even in this vastly changing universe in which I live, there is something that never changes and will always be there no matter what else happens around me. Perhaps that sounds silly to some of you, my trusted Readers.  Let me explain why I feel this way.  If I had say what one event in my life was a major turning point, I would have to say it was the move my family made from t...

This morning, I got up early thinking I could accomplish a lot before nine.   I needed to clean off the coffee table and the living room.  I picked up some books that needed replacing on the bookshelves, but I read a chapter out of a book that I got for Christmas.  As I put the books away, I saw my husband's Nook, and browsed it before putting it away in this office.  Once in the office, I found a couple of shirts that needed hanging up.  In my bedroom where I hung up the shirts, I noticed the quilt that I am working on.  I had stop that with all the company here, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to thread the sewing machine and it get it ready for quilting later today.  That done, I walked back to living room, but glancing in the laundry room, I noticed the hamper full, so I thought I should start a load of clothes.  I went into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee, so I would have energy to finish the living room.  I noticed my laptop...

Aunt Paige and Luna making a new tradition. Well, another Christmas has passed, and another joyful time with family has flown by.  Last evening in the quiet before bedtime, I remembered my own childhood Christmas.  I grew up on a farm in Brock, Nebraska.  When I was child, I never saw Christmas decorations up until two weeks or three weeks before Christmas.  Store windows would have marvelous displays and streets would be decorated with wonderful colored lights..  Santa usually made his appearance into our community around the 18th or so of December.  So the Christmas magic came alive and had not worn off long before Christmas Day.  Always we went to church on Christmas eve, and heard the Christmas story and sang carols. The evening began early with a   chili and oyster stew supper in the church basement. Then the children would perform a play about the birth of Jesus. The little ones would have little rhymes to say. My moth...

During the Christmas season, we see the saying "Jesus is the Reason for the Season," but it has always bothered me and yet I could not figure out why  it bothered me.  That is until today.  Today it was explained to me that Jesus is not the reason for the season, but that we are.  You, me, all of us in the world, we are the reason Jesus came.  If Jesus were the reason for the season, then the reason for his coming would be himself.  Jesus did not come into the world for himself. He came into the world for sinners, and that is all of us.  We all sin and come short of the glory of God. But Jesus came to give us life--eternal life.  We cannot save ourselves. Only Jesus can save us, because he is the God-Man.  Perfect God and perfect Man.  As a man Jesus was in all points tempted like we are, yet He was without sin.  He was the only only who could enter into the Holy of Holies and became the sacrifice for our sins.  Jesus is not ...

Merry Christmas from Tucson, Arizona!  I am rejoicing in the fact that my children have all been around me this year. We have a wonderful  week with them.  I have so many blessings. I have been blessed with 7 children, 3 of whom are with the Lord, two daughters-in-law, two grandchildren, and more to come I am sure, and my wonderful husband who is always there to support me.  I am truly blessed! I want you to know Dear Reader, that I am thankful for you.  Thank you for taking your time to read this blog and post your comments. I hope something you have read here has encouraged you, blessed you, our made you think.  May God Bless the rest of your Christmas Day and may you always enjoy the peace that only Jesus Christ can give~ Merry Christmas!