Hold onto hope

May you have the gladness of Christmas which is hope;
The spirit of Christmas which is peace;
The heart of Christmas which is love.
~Ada V. Hendricks

So many people I know are struggling this year,  I want to encourage you to alway hold onto hope.  Rest in the assurance that Christ came to be our hope, our only hope.  Have comfort and joy,  He has already overcome the world.🕯

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

John 16;33

You are so loved!

This is a oil painting of my granddaughter, the sketch started out like her but I think it looks like Mary. :)

Christmas gift suggestions: 

To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect. 

~Oren Arnold

Courtesy Dr Paul Lung  

At Christmas play and make good cheer,
For Christmas comes but once a year
~Thomas Tusser

Hold on to hope!

An old hymn 🎝

Have a peaceful and joyful Christmas! 

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:  “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”

 (which means “God with us”).

“You, Lord keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light”.
 Psalm 18:28 

Blessed

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! 
2 Corinthians 9;10-15

 Approaching another busy holiday season, it is easy to get bombarded with charities, growing demands from family and the stresses of getting everything done in time.  The weeks go by quickly and the twinkle lights fade and it's cleaning up time, returning unwanted gifts and shedding those unwanted pounds from holiday excess begins.  

With so many things happening in the world, it is hard to think we can make difference anyways, why help now, what does it matter the problems are too big.  

Friend we can make a difference and significantly make an impact by being the hands and feet of Christ to a hurting world, one child at a time. These children matter to God and they should matter to us too! 
  
🍂Sponsor a child like Catherene 
from Kenya, whose birthday 
is on Thanksgiving, November 30. 

🍂Children thrive on just a little encouragement, but being a sponsor to a child speaks volumes to a child who feels hopeless and forgotten. 

Early marriage, hunger, child trafficking, disease from dirty water, child labor, no education and abandonment are just a few things children living in desperate poverty have to deal with everyday. 

Give hope to a child living in desperate poverty.  Sponsorship gives something that will last, God's kingdom, His children. Not just empty stuff that we really don't need. 

World Vision’s gift catalog is also a good way to change lives with animals that can go a long way to help whole families and communities and of course, a little girl like Catherene, :) (She still needs a sponsor, search for her under November 30th birthdays). 
🍂Matthew 25

This is one of my sponsor children (before)

Now

World Vision

May your Christmas 
will be filled with blessings
 and enjoy your time with family,
friends and loved ones.

 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."

Matthew 25:44-45

                              

In everything give thanks ♡

A simpler time

If I had words to make a day for you,

I'd give you a morning golden and true.

I would make this day last for all time, and 

Give you a night deep in moon shine. 

If I had words to make a garden green

For you I'd grow flowers graceful and free.

There would be trees to shade you always,

And blue skies above shining brighter days.

If I had words to make a moonlit night,

The night sky I'd fill with stars so bright.

I'd hold your hand and make a wish or two

That all of your dreams will someday come true.

🎜~Farmer Hoggelt "Babe"

⚘🎕🏡🎕⚘

🍂

I just flew back from visiting my grandmother on her 100th birthday. I  really wasn't sure what she would be like at 100 years old, I haven't seen her for quite awhile.  My grandmother was a wood carver, a craft that she did not pick up until she was eighty years old after she retired from her job of 50 years.  Carving anything from eagles, buffalos, animals of all kinds, people, santas, nativity sets, gnomes, the pope, figures and wall fixtures.  Most of her work she sold and gave away, her best work is not photographed here, but she still had some of her little carvings in nooks in crannies all around her house. 

 I decided to stay there at her house during my visit and sleep on the couch for the few days that I was there.  My grandmother was the same strong lady she has always been.  She remembered everybody and everything, you always knew she observed a lot more than she let on.   Her hands were never idle, the truth is,  it was difficult to tell what she made in her house and what she did not make.  I knew for sure that she carved the shelves that displayed her carvings.  I even noticed her power saws in the work room that she didn't even begin to use until she was eighty years old.  She always made me think of the craftsmen of old, the designs you see in historic buildings, but you never knew who did all the artistry that you see. 

⚘🎕🐄🎕⚘

                                                                   

So I settled down for the night on her living room couch surrounded by granny squares everywhere, and little nooks and crannies with gnomes and all kinds of crafts.  My grandmother sat in a chair in the room next to me and played her church masses, prayers and songs ALL NIGHT LONG, the first night.  Even earplugs were not enough to get much sleep.  My grandmother has always seemed like a saint to me growing up, she even resembles Corrie Ten Boom a little bit. 

But make no mistake, she is a spitfire too! :)  A really funny lady with her personality that is shone through her work.  If you want to know what she is like, you can see her in her wood carvings. 

🎕⚘🐓⚘🎕

My Grandmother (picture on the right) highlighted in her local newspaper for her wood carvings.  (names crossed out for now) Below is one of the artists quotes in the same newspaper article.

                                                            

🎕⁕🐇⁕🎕

Coming home I began to think.  What was her secret? I even asked her and the only thing she could give me was "you never know who's going to live this long".  Maybe it is her faith or staying busy, or maybe it is what she says, you never know. 

Both of my grandparents holding me.

I came home very jet lagged and fell asleep watching "Babe" the movie.  I noticed the similarities of a simpler time, my grandmother's home seems like this. My grandmother lived through war, the depression, leaving her home and family, a flood, cancer, losing her spouse, all with a generous and grateful spirit (no bitterness). The grace to still stand after all these years, but all the charm of that place and my grandmother's creations can still live on, a full life of enchantment if only in the heart.    

⁕⚘🐖⚘⁕

!00 years old

My grandmother and grandfather on their wedding day.

And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see — or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read.

~ Alice Walker 

⚘🎕🖼🎕⚘

🎕⚘🏡⚘🎕

   ⚘🎕🐐🎕⚘  

A farm animal can even change a life! Give a goat this Christmas!

        https://www.worldvision.org/sponsorship-news-stories/a-gift-that-keeps-giving
https://donate.worldvision.org/giftcatalog
                              
“See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft.”
Exodus 35:30-33

♫ Harmony & Melody ♪

Love make our friends a little dearer. 

Joy makes our heart a little lighter.

 Faith makes our path a little dearer.

 Hope makes our life a little brighter. 

Peace brings us all a little nearer. ~Unknown 

When I was young, I would spend most of my nights listening to old records, everything from rock, folk, bluegrass and country.  I loved many different styles of music, to name a few, Linda Ronstadt, ELO, Journey and even The Carpenters. :)  
Really, whatever was in the cabinet that my dad had.

I was always outside, but when the sun went down I would go and put on the old headphones and just get lost in the music. Being terribly shy in school, music was a good outlet for me when things were stressful at school my freshmen year.

Somehow I got into the highest choir class by mistake and I have no idea how, but it certainly would not be something I would choose for myself.  My teacher knew right away that I didn't belong there and didn't say anything to me or the class.  I really didn't know what to do but to just stay put, hopefully unnoticed and try and figure out the right class later (a good freshmen theory, I thought). 

He was so patient with me and let me stay in the class (without saying a single word to me), while everyone else had to audition with a solo, read a little music, and complete lower levels of choir just to get in there. The other students were Juniors and Seniors and very serious about music!  The lower classes are for beginners, and shy people like me; he could've just put me in one of those, but he didn't, he just handed me the music we were going to work on. 

 We toured and sang in different places all over, and wore long formal dresses and sang songs from the Beach Boys.  We had to do a solo for each final in front of the class, which there was absolutely no way I was going to do.  For three years I would not do a solo but participated in all the choir class practices and tour activities and passed the class (I could have sounded like a toad for all he knew). My word, what a teacher! 

 It was the very last day and we had our last final, everybody got up, one by one put their sheet music on the piano and sang the song of their choosing with the accompaniment of a piano soloist.  One of the songs that were sung by one of my friends I recognized, "Bless the Beasts and Children" by The Carpenters and right before the final bell rang, I borrowed my friends sheet music and got up and sang it in front of the class, the bell rang and my teacher with the biggest grin played it back from a recording (very loudly) on the speaker as we all left the class on our final day.  

There is my embarrassing story, but wow, what a teacher, huh!!  :)

                                                                         🎨

There's a melody in everything. 
 And once you find the melody, 
 then you connect immediately with the heart. 
 Because sometimes English or Spanish,
 Swahili or any language gets in the way. 
But nothing penetrates the heart faster
 than the melody. 
~Carlos Santana 

Harmony 

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/harmony-stephanie-callsen.html

In agreement and one accord; peaceful and harmonious relations.

Playing more than one note at the same time and blending sounds of different pitch simultaneously. 

Fact notes...

Harmony is also can be referred to the gospels,

"harmony" weaves together the same event in sections of scripture into a narrative, merging the four Gospels.  Different accounts in Matthew, Mark,John and Luke but still parallel.

 Isaiah also has an account of the suffering of Christ in Isaiah 53 well before the birth of Christ in Matthew, Mark, John and Luke.

Life is like a beautiful melody,
only the lyrics are messed up.

~Hans Christian Andersen

Melody

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/melody-stephanie-callsen.html

Musical sounds in single tones.

Melody is the main tune of a song; the outcome of a series of notes. 

Make a melody in your heart.♡

Fact notes...

If you really want to get technical 

The difference between Melody and Harmony  🎝

The interaction between different notes played together, gives music its richness and color.

Harmony is considered vertical because the notes are played simultaneously, while Melody is considered  horizontal because its notes are read from left-to-right.

Music is the an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color.

“Music is the art of thinking with sounds.”

 Jules Combarieu

I found this lovely poem that just spoke to my heart.

"My Child.... You are to me a beautiful song.

 Your life is a sweet symphony that I Myself am composing note by note. I take your failures, your tears, and your triumphs, and I turn them into a glorious harmony that will be sung in the heavens for all eternity. All your thoughts and deeds are laid before Me like notes on a page. Every choice you make is a significant chord in an eternal arrangement. Don't let the noise of the world destroy your magnificent melody, My beloved. Seek me in the quiet stillness of the morning, and I will fill your heart with divine music. Stay in rhythm with My Spirit throughout the day, and I will make your life an irresistible medley that will linger like a sweet perfume in all the hearts of all that journey with you. Walk with Me in absolute surrender, and you will draw others to me in a rhapsody of praise. Love Your King and your Composer "

Speak this over your life and know that God has you in the palm of His hand.

 “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.”

Ephesians 5:19