Complete in Thee: Couldn't Help but Share :-)

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Couldn't Help but Share :-)

We had our Christmas celebration tonight and I just had to share some of the lovely surprises of the night. :-)

Thank you, dear sister Bethany! :-) Isn't it beautiful!? I always wanted a necklace with my initial on it.

Now this was obviously from someone who knows me well!!

Thank you again, Bethany! I am such a helpless [pea]nut! :-)

Beautiful. Thank you, Teddy dear!! This Willow Tree figurine is called Wisdom. I angled the picture to catch name (white scanned paper on the right) and picture (center back) of two friends that have allowed the Lord to instill in them His wisdom and have been such an encouragement to me. It is the same with Teddy. I am so blessed and humbled as I reflect all the wonderful friends the Lord has brought into my life.

Thank you, Amanda, for the lovely "Day Book"! It is SO me!! :-D

Each page has room to record thoughts for each day, as well as a quote.

My dear pappa and mamma also got me an MP3 player!! I have been wanting one so that I could listen to music when I'm sewing and worshipful music before going to bed (instead of on my computer). I can't show you a picture though, because it's plugged into my computer, synchronizing. :-)

And this is what Daddy and I got for everyone! WOOHOOOO!!! We taped this off of TV ages ago but the tape is getting old and hard to watch, plus it has commercials on it. So when we saw this at the Christian bookstore, we snatched it up for an "everyone" Christmas present! :-D It is, like, such an awesome movie!! It is amazingly close to the Biblical account compared with a lot of "Bible" movies, and Ben Kingsley is amazing as Moses. I highly recommend it.

Daddy also painted for us some adorable Christmas tree ornaments; they have circles in the middle for us to put in pictures! :-D

This Christmas I have been thinking almost more along the lines of thanksgiving. I am so blessed! The Lord is so good! Even though I am so difficult and SO unworthy to even be able to come before Him (and I mean it-- SO unworthy), He loves me and He forgives me and is helping me to know Him better and become more like Him. Because of Jesus Christ, come in the flesh, dying for my sin and rising again, I can have the eternal life that I do not deserve. I am amazed.

Second to all those "spiritual blessings in heavenly places", I'd have to say my favorite Christmas gifts are:

and:

What would I do without my family? Daddy, Mommy, Amanda, and Bessie, I love you all SO MUCH!!! The happiest of Christmases to you all.

And to all my friends! You don't know how much each of you means to me. For several years as a pre-teen and young teen, I had very few friends, and often longed for someone my age whom I could really fellowship with over the things of the Lord. Now the Lord has provided me with SO MANY dear sisters in Christ who edify me in my walk with the Lord and challenge me to serve Him. Not only that, but we also share a variety of interests and can enjoy late night chats, share Christmas gift secrets and smuggle presents for our moms, share book/story ideas, dress up together, and so on! You all are so special and I hope you all have the most wonderful Christmas and New Year!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! :-D

5 comments:

Amanda said...: Merry Christmas, Melanie!! <3; December 24, 2009 at 9:53 PM
Bethany said...: :) :) You're welcome!!:D
Merry Christmas!!
~Bethany

wv: provesel; December 24, 2009 at 9:58 PM
Amanda said...: Merry Christmas Melanie!!!!!

I was excited to hear that you got an MP3 player, I got one too! Yay!!! I've wanted one for a long time. : ); December 25, 2009 at 8:47 AM
Teddy said...: Merry Christmas and love you all!!!; December 25, 2009 at 10:33 AM
Anonymous said...: Merry Christmas, Melanie!; December 25, 2009 at 2:45 PM

PRAYER REQUESTS

"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints" (Ephesians 6:18)

PLEASE PRAY...

* That I would draw nearer to God every day and never allow my relationship to become stagnant ritual; particularly that I would grow in the area of submission, patience, 1 Corinthians 13 love, and wholehearted devotion

* That I might have wisdom as I edit "The Marquis' Daughter"; that the Lord would bless and work through it; and that I might find just the right publisher for it.

* That I would submit to the Lord's work in my life, whatever it may be; that I would take each opportunity He brings me (even the seemingly hard ones) to draw closer to Him and point others to Him

*That our Etsy shop might be successful and that it would be a means by which we can glorify God and share the Gospel

Ephesians 2:1-10

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

"The heart set to do the Father's will need never fear defeat. His promises of guidance may be fully counted upon. Does it make sense to believe that the Shepherd would care less about getting His sheep where He wants them to go than they care about getting there?"

"God is God. Because He is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will, a will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to."

"If God, like a father, denies us what we want now it is in order to give us some far better thing later on. The will of God, we can rest assured, is invariably a better thing."

"Obedience to God's will is the secret of spiritual knowledge and insight. It is not willingness to know, but willingness to DO (obey) God's will that brings certainty."

"Victory over all the circumstances of life comes not by might, nor by power, but by a practical confidence in God and by allowing His Spirit to dwell in our hearts and control our actions and emotions. Learn in the days of ease and comfort, to think in terms of the prayer that follows, so that when the days of hardship come you will be fully prepared and equipped to meet them."

"And shall I pray, Oh, change Thy will, my Father,
Until it be according unto mine?
Ah no, Lord, no, that never could be, rather
I pray Thee, Blend my human will with Thine."

"A crucified life cannot be self-assertive. It cannot protect itself. It cannot be startled into resentful words. The cup that is full of sweet water cannot spill bitter-tasting drops, however sharply it is knocked."

"And as we rest our hearts upon what we know (the certainty of the ultimate triumph of good), leaving what we do not know to the Love that has led us all our life long, the peace of God enters into us and abides. And then we see our light."

[A Practicing Christian]...it means that every single act and feeling, every experience, whether pleasant or unpleasant, must be referred to God. It means looking at everything as something that comes from Him, and always looking to Him and asking His will first, and saying, "How would he wish me to deal with this?"

Christ says: "Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work. I want you."

"I was not born to be free. I was born to adore and to obey."

"What is saving but taking us out of the dark into the light? There is no salvation but to know God and grow like Him."

"I will not try to convince you of anything about God. I cannot. You must know Him. I only tell you I believe in Him with all my heart. You must ask Him to explain Himself to you, and not take it for granted that He has done you a wrong because He has done what you do not like. Whether you seek Him or not, He will do you justice. But He cannot explain Himself unless you seek Him."

"Sometimes a thunderbolt will shoot from a clear sky; and sometimes into the life of a peaceful individual, without warning of gathered storm, something terrible will fall. And from that moment everything is changed. That life is no more what it was. Better it ought to be, worse it may be. The result depends on the life itself and it's response to the invading storm of trouble. Forever after, it's spiritual weather is altered. But for the one who believes in God, such rending and frightful catastrophies never come but where they are turned around for good in his own life and in other lives he touches."