So many celebrations...

 It is really amazing how many celebrations our family can cram into just a couple of weeks!  It used to be that January and February were not big months for us, but things changed with two birthday's just a couple of days apart.  Eight years ago Anna was born on January 30.  And then five years ago, Grace decided February 1 was a great day for a birthday.  We all know that the last couple of years have been anything but normal.  Grace, sadly, doesn't  remember ever having a real birthday party.  Anna has been waiting for a party at a family favorite gymnastic facility, since she has been to many sibling parties there.  To add to the celebrations this year, Lia's Confirmation was on Anna's birthday.  

There is something so amazing about seeing your grandchildren publicly proclaim their faith in Jesus. Lia has grown into a wonderful "Disciple that Makes Disciples" (the motto of their church).  She is a leader in her youth program, friend to so many, teacher to young children, and servant to her church.  On any given Sunday she might be found leading games for the kids in the Rock (Sunday School) during the Discipleship hour, having conversation in the coffee house during fellowship time and then sitting in the "booth" doing slides for the Sunday Morning worship. Lia has a heart for missions and I will not be surprised to see her continuing to serve others in the future.  

I am so proud of Gwen and Tim as I have watched them parent their kids.  Seeing Lia declare her own faith in Jesus, to confirm her Baptism, makes this grandma reflect on the generations of our family who have made this step of faith.  Yes, Lia is the continuation of a long spiritual legacy that goes back generations.  She is the descendent of many who faithfully served Jesus.  

I got to celebrate Anna as she turned eight years old.  While we didn't actually celebrate on her birthday, it was the day after.

While I got to be with Anna on that day,  her big (long awaited) gymnastics party was two weeks later due to scheduling issues.  I love getting to be with the kids one-on-one, especially on these special days.  Although it wasn't a "big party" that day, it was special sharing with Anna, my memories of the day she was born.  The next day, I got to do the same thing with five year old Grace.

I happened to be watching Grace and James on the actual day of Grace's birthday.  Her "cousin sleepover and BIG party" (as Grace called them) were the next weekend.  I brought her five small gifts and we celebrated her birthday all day!  It as especially memorable for me.  Again, this time alone with the kids is just the best.  Thankfully, the days past quickly till the sleepover and BIG party! 

Yes, Susie and Doug actually braved a cousin sleepover with Ellie, Zeke and Anna spending the night with Grace.  They had a great time and there was actually sleeping that night!  The next day was the BIG party!

She was so excited to have an Encanto party and the cake was just unbelievably decorated and tasted wonderful as well.  Susie's family came, including her brother Scott (who we have not seen since Covid) so it was really nice for our families to be together, 

I love that we always take these photos when the kids are together.  I have a great collection of photo's showing the kids growing up together.  And then I casually snapped this photo of Gwen and Doug with Doug's kids.

Grace was so excited for the candy from her Pinata!  The Pinata was one of the things that she was most looking forward to.  I love seeing my adult children together enjoying each others kids.   There is really nothing better!

FINALLY, it was time for Anna's gymnastics party.  She was so excited to FINALLY be the birthday kid for this party.  Honestly, they do such a good job at this location and the kids jump, swing, run, and have a blast on all the equipment for an hour and a half and then have cake.  It is so much better than having the wildness at your house and so much more fun for the kids.  

As I was writing this blog and looking through my photos, I realized that the celebrations actually started one day before Anna's birthday.  Susie, Grace and I were able to help celebrate a coming new baby, with my great niece Angela and her husband David.  Angela is my sister Julie's granddaughter.  

This shower was an outdoor, drive by kind of event, thanks to Covid.  This is totally understandable since the Covid numbers in our area have been really high.  Even so, we loved being able to help celebrate this new expected little girl.  We had a chance to talk about Angela's grandma Julie (my sister).  Sadly, Julie died the next day.   It really felt like this was another way that Jesus helped me represent Julie and be there for Angela. Family ties are just so important.  

I am preparing to travel to Minnesota for the funeral for my sister Julie.  Each of these events has my mind going with memories and thoughts.  Being together to celebrate Julie's life will be a time for me to connect with her children and grandchildren after many years.  I remember my mom saying that so often families only saw each other at weddings and funerals.  Sadly, this is still true today.   But I welcome this time to visit and support Julie's family.  I am going to also be able to visit with my brother Jerry and his wife Thoralee.  Again, we just don't see each other often. The ties that keep us bound together as family don't depend on physical closeness or even times that we can see each other.  I have been remembering that my family - my extended family - included immigrants in both my mom and dad's family.  They left all of their family in countries across oceans and begun new lives.  

Covid has taught us all that being together and celebrating are extremely important. All of these events- birthdays, confirmations, baby showers, funerals - help us to keep our eyes outside of ourselves.  Being isolated so much the last couple of years has certainly turned us inward.  Since Ken died I have had to be intentional about going out and looking outward.  Doing these blogs has helped me to remember that I have been successful!  I have been connecting and making memories IN SPITE of Covid.  

After Lia's Confirmation, Gwen and I were talking about our own Confirmation days. Pastor Dave did something at Lia's Confirmation that was so amazing.  Before the Confirmations, there was a Baptism and the Baptismal Font was at the front.  As Pastor Dave prayed for each of the youth being Confirmed, he took water from the Font and "Blessed" them.  What a powerful reminder of the purpose of Confirmation - a "Reaffirmation of Baptism".  Here is Lia at her Baptism.

And I will leave this blog with Lia's Confirmation verses, given to her by Pastor Dave.

        And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel 

of your salvation.  When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised

Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those 

who are God's possession - to the praise of His glory.       Ephesians 1:13-14

Jesus, thank you for celebrations with family and friends.  Holy Spirit, help us to keep our eyes off of ourselves.  Remind us of the Spiritual legacy that fills our families.  Most of all, let us see things from your perspective, Jesus.  Thank you for your love and care.  Amen

Thinking about Communion today...........and another "Big Event"

Yes, here is a blast from the past.  I am the "girl in the glasses" - second from the right.  And the year is 1969.  This is my Confirmation and also my first Communion.  It was a very special day to me, although the process of Confirmation was NOT so great.  We had just moved to this area and none of these kids were my friends.  As a matter of fact, they were not very nice to me at all.  They had their own little group and they were not happy that I had burst onto the scene and joined them. I felt very much the outsider. Even down to those Bibles we are holding.  Each Bible had our name inscribed on the cover.  And mine had my name misspelled and the wrong middle name. Again, not so great. So in quite typical middle school fashion, this was not a very good year for me.  But I digress....

The church was a modern, very small sanctuary, that actually had metal folding chairs instead of pews.  I think it seated around 100 people.  The Pastor was not very memorable.  We had joined this church because it was a block from our house.  So there were no big family ties to this church.  But here's the thing, on that day... the day of my Confirmation and my first Communion, something amazing happened to me.  I had a very real encounter with Jesus.   Isn't that what we all want to believe about these events?  It is never supposed to be about the pastor, or the ritual and should always be focused on Jesus.  And on that day, in that small church, I understood the miracle of Communion.  No, this was NOT on Maundy Thursday.  In fact it was in October (and for all those Lutherans out there, it was not actually on Reformation either).  But since that day, Communion has had special meaning to me.

On to Maundy Thursday......there was one particular Maundy Thursday when my church had a family meal before the service.  There were many families there and lots of children.  My own kids were there...Doug was in late grade school and Gwen was early middle school.  During the service, before the time of Communion, the pastor called the entire congregation up to the altar.  Not just near the altar but actually right up to the altar.  And then he told the story of the Last Supper.  And we were all packed in, very close as we listened to the words of the story.  And then we celebrated Communion.  I remembered watching the kids.  And I felt that amazing wonder of the supernatural power of the presence of Jesus in those common elements of bread and wine.  An added bonus to that night was the little girl who announced that she had given her heart to Jesus at that packed altar.

I have always believed that it is wrong to withhold Communion from children who know Jesus.  I am not exactly sure how the church arrived at this tradition.  I felt so strongly about this that I prepared material to help kids in second and third grade prepare to receive Communion.  It was wonderful to see kids able to be empowered with the real presence of Jesus through this meal.  Why would we want to withhold this powerful gift of the life of Jesus from our children?

So that is my Communion "Big Event" story with a bit of a Confirmation story thrown in.  You know it is good to look back on these times.  It's good to remember the reason for Communion and the events of that Last Supper. And it is good to expect Jesus to be present every time we celebrate Communion.  This day is a gift.  It is a reminder that Jesus knew that we would all need to have a concrete way to touch and taste him.  Jesus left a physical way for us to have a spiritual encounter with him every time we participate in this meal.  Isn't that amazing?

Jesus, thank you for this week filled with "big event" days.  Thank you for understanding us so well that you prepared, in advance for this Communion meal.  Help us all to keep our focus on you as we take that walk with you into the Garden,  Give us grace to walk with you through the day tomorrow as we contemplate your great sacrifice for us.  Jesus you are the way, the truth and the life!  Amen

When you get confirmation........

This weekend we got to "dog sit" for Sammy and Kylie when Doug and Susie took a quick overnight getaway.  It is really interesting to see how relaxed and at home these two doggies are when they come to visit.  Within five minutes of Doug and Susie leaving, both dogs were asleep in their beds.  They both spent all night soundly sleeping in their beds and Sammy woke me up this morning with a lick to my face!  It is certainly fun to have these little doggie times.  It is confirmation to me that although I love dogs, at this stage of our lives it is better to just get our "dog fix" through our "grand dogs"!

Another bit of confirmation for me was reading this post from Lana Vawser.  It is basically the same message that I shared in my last post about all the ways we compare ourselves to others.  I believe that I am not the only person hearing this message so there must be others out there that are dealing with this jealousy, comparison issue.  It is worth reading her post for more insight on this subject.

To finish out my weekend, I totally rearranged my scrapbooking room.  I still have more to do, but I actually moved the furniture and set things up.  I really can't believe how much more room I have just by moving a couple of tables.  This is a really small room but suddenly I have room to breathe.  I had been considering doing something different in that room for some time, but it just seemed like it would not change anything.  There is nothing NEW in the room, it is all the same old stuff. Yet it feels new.  After shutting out the light in my "new" room, as soon as I sat down at the computer I realized the message that this brought to me!  Sometimes there are places in our life where we just need to "rearrange" things a bit.  Before I moved those tables, I threw out several large bags of trash.  And there may be some things that need to be removed before things can be put into new places.  I moved my work station to the opposite wall, so now I am facing an entirely new direction and I have a very different "view" of things as I work.  This was confirmation to me that the shifting that I have been feeling in my spirit is actually just some "rearranging"!  I have certainly felt that there has been some shaking out of some things that were clearly junk that I did not need to hang on to.  And I have been sort of resisting the shifting I have felt that seemed scary.  After tonight, I am kind of anxious to see where the rearranging of things in my life might take me.  I can't wait to find out what direction I might end up facing.  I am looking forward to finding out exactly what my view might be when everything is finally moved around!  Quite an interesting result of some cleaning!  

Isn't it just amazing how these bits of confirmation come to us?  I have felt so encouraged in each of these seemingly small details.  But I know that often, the most important things are contained in the little things. Yes, it has been a refreshing time this weekend.  I got to take several long walks (not that the weather was wonderful.....it was COLD and RAINY) but it was good to be out with Sammy and Kylie.  I love thinking that someone way around the world in Australia is hearing the same message from Jesus.  And then it is so fun to know that Jesus can get my attention even when I am moving furniture.  Isn't that something?  Be encouraged to stop, look and listen in your own circumstances.  You just never know when you might get some confirmation when you least expect it!

Jesus, thank you for caring for each of us so individually.  Thank you for giving us exactly what we need, even when we don't know that we need it.  Holy Spirit that you for bringing me clarity about the shaking I am feeling and excitement about what is to come.  Help us all to remember to look for the confirmations that you bring to us.  Thank you for doggy kisses and cleaner rooms!  Amen 

Interesting follow up on yesterday's post!

Today, Lyn, we believe God wants you to know that .

when you expect nothing, you always receive a lot.

No matter how much you receive, if you expected even more, you will be disappointed. No matter how little you receive, if you expected even less, you will be happy.

 

When I got home from work tonight and started checking my email and facebook, this was a "notification" on facebook account.  At first when I read the header line.... when you expect nothing, you always receive a lot... I was thinking how strange this was after just posting yesterday that I am going to make my new motto "expect the unexpected"!  After I read the detail following the quote, I realized that this was saying just about the same thing!  If you EXPECT to get something great and very specific and you don't get this, you are disappointed.  HOWEVER,  I really don't agree with expecting nothing.   Like so many things, balance is important when talking about "expecting".

 

I don't want to expect nothing since then I may well miss out on what is out there.

I don't want to expect MORE since then I may well be disappointed.

So.......I think I will stick with "expecting the unexpected".  I just love the confirmation! 

 

Today I finished my work day with a little "unexpected" surprise.  I actually got off half an hour early.  This rarely happens - since the kids usually do NOT get picked up early.  But for some strange reason, the room I was in today cleared out and by 4:55 there were only 2 kids left.  So instead of working till 5:30, I was able to clock out at 5:01.  Yep, this was an unexpected treat. 

 

Jesus, thank you for all the ways that you speak to me, including through this crazy Facebook application "God wants you to know".  Thank you for using the things in our life to show us that you are the provider of all things.  Holy Spirit, help us all to keep on expecting the unexpected. And remind us of who the provider is for all those amazing surprises!   Amen