in my heart.

There's something in the air. You know what I am talking about.

It comes around every year about this time.

It's the cripsness in the air. It's the twinkle in the lights. It's a glimmer of hope found in a stranger's eye.

Some call it magic. Some call it Christmas spirit. Others may even say love is in the air.

Whatever you want to call it, I believe in it, and I know it's real.

Maybe we create it, but regardless, I seem to look forward to it every year and participate in every aspect I can.

If I listed all of the things I love about the holidays, you would probably get bored and stop reading. Perhaps you already are, but if so, that's for you to know and preferably not tell me. I'll spare you and just mention a few.

The holidays warm my heart. I love the feeling of a warm drink in my hand against the cold air. Christmas lights and Bing Crosby classics make me swoon.  How can you not smile when Wallace and Davis along with the Haynes sisters set out to surprise General Waverly? (If you don't know what I'm talking about, we need to have a Christmas movie night asap). Don't even get me started on Christmas baking.

Another thing. Have you ever noticed that a room doesn't need any overhead lights once your Christmas tree is lit? Take my word for it. Light a candle, plug in the lights to your tree, and turn off the rest of the lights in your house. The feeling in your heart will tell you the rest. 

The holidays. They are in the air, in a song, and in our hearts.

I have the absolute joy of serving every week in a class 4 year olds at my church on Sunday mornings. I would have to say it's one of the highlights of my week. I have been serving for several months now, so I am familiar with most of the faces that come through the door. My Sunday morning usually consists of building a house out of legos, trying to identify the sculptures the boys build (it plays to my disadvantage that I don't have any brothers. I can hardly distinguish a Transformer and a Power Ranger), mouthing the words to kids worship songs to avoid anyone hearing my less than pitch perfect singing voice, and if I'm lucky, coloring a picture of Peter, Paul, or Jesus.

One of my favorite things about serving is the conversations I get to have. Some of the things the kids say catch me off guard, some make me laugh or smile, and some put my life back into perspective. A comment made this past Sunday left me with the latter.

Each week we read a Bible story and then ask questions about it. This week, we began talking about the Christmas story and angels coming to tell Mary and Joseph that Mary would have a baby and was to name him Jesus. As you can imagine, this wasn't the first time I had heard this story, so I didn't think much about it.

When we got to the questions, I read "Who is the greatest Christmas gift of all?" All the kids yelled "JESUS" in unison, but that wasn't it. One boy in particular looked over at me, touched his heart and said, "Jesus is in my heart."

Though we kept going with the lesson, my mind stopped. He had nailed it right on the nose. The greatest gift of all is deep in our hearts. He's not a feeling. He's not a passing breeze or a month on a calendar. He is in our hearts. Now and always.

Once the tree comes down, the crisp air slips away, and MIX96 starts playing regular music again, one thing doesn't change. God gave us a gift. He is there, and if we have accepted Him, He is in our hearts.

I believe in Christmas magic. I believe in that warm feeling you get when singing a Christmas Carol. But most of all, I believe in the one gift I know to be true. The real reason for the season. He is in our hearts.

What are you waiting for?

Today is Friday, November 16. One week from today marks a calendar block filled in on a yearly basis for many American shoppers. Black Friday. Once the turkey is carved and the pie is sliced, countless shoppers make their way to their favorite superstore (or the like) and get in line to wait.

 

I have to admit, I usually take part in this somewhat ridiculous tradition. Maybe it’s the crisp air, maybe it’s the anticipation, but there’s some kind of thrill to be found in standing in line with hundreds of people waiting outside a store at midnight to fight over items that probably were never on our shopping lists to begin with to save probably less than 5 dollars.

My mom is a great sport as I usually bring her along with me to fight the black Friday crowds. A couple of years ago, ashamedly, we ended up at Walmart at midnight in a line an hour long to buy a box of Tupperware we picked up on impulse. We knew we didn’t need it but somehow felt we needed to make a purchase to justify standing in a human stampede in the middle of the night. Regardless, we held our box, got in line, and we waited.

I have met very few people that love to wait in a line. However, (as someone who loves to shop) I have adopted the perspective that lines are an inevitable part of the shopping experience.  As with anything in life, you have 2 choices: to relish the moment and enjoy it for what it is or complain and wallow until the situation you are in passes. I relish time waiting in line. I always joke with my mom that it is “quality time” we have been blessed with to spend together.

What are you waiting for? Whether you are standing in a line at Best Buy on Black Friday or pressing on toward the next chapter of your life, our lives are full of  “lines to wait in”.

I have been retrospective lately. I’m not sure why, maybe it’s the change of the seasons or maybe its just my tendency in general.  As a result, I have spent many evenings reading back through old journals and flipping through old picture albums.

By chance last night, I opened to the back of the front cover of a journal I started using right after graduation from college. There, I had written a verse. It said:

“Live life then with a due sense of responsibility, not as those who don’t know the meaning and purpose of life, but as those who do. Make the best use of your time, despite all the evils of these days. Don’t be vague but grasp firmly to what you know to be the will of the Lord.” –Ephesians 5:15-17.

What are you waiting for? While we are waiting for our lives to start, we are missing out on this very moment we have been given to live, a breath to take in, and an opportunity to make a difference.

It’s so easy to fool ourselves into thinking life will be so much easier once we reach that moment we have been waiting for. God’s Will will suddenly become clear and THEN we will be able to live out the purpose He has called us to.

However, at the stage we are at in our lives right now (whatever that may be), we decide that God’s will is hard to decipher, we decide that we know what is best for our lives so that is obviously what God is going to provide us with, we adopt the “grass is greener on the other side” philosophy, and we wait for God to turn the grass he has given us to stand on to the shade of green we are longing for.

What kind of a life are we setting ourselves up for? Probably exactly the kind of life the enemy would love for us to live. If we are sitting and waiting, we aren’t acting, doing, and loving. God has called us to live life. Not only that, we are called to make the best use of our time and to not live like those who don’t know the meaning and purpose of life.

So often, I act like I don’t know the purpose. I am waiting for it to become clear and then I will start living. I forget that God has already given me purpose. He has given us all purpose as his followers. We are called to love others and share God’s love and message with those around us.

How simple is that? So simple that we overlook it. We trick ourselves into thinking that we need a high paying job, a white picket fence, a perfect relationship, and no problems before we can even think about trying to live out the purpose God has for us.

When Paul wrote those words, he was sitting in prison in chains. I don’t know about you, but my “life tragedies” seem like a walk in the park compared to this. Paul could have sat in chains, wallowed in self-pity, and waited to be set free so he could continue on with his God given calling. I wouldn’t blame him. Would you? But no, he didn’t wait. He continued to live. He wrote letters encouraging his friends in the places he was ministering to. He lived his life.

Sure there are things to look forward to in life, and I honestly believe those things can be blessings from the Lord. However, there is a big difference between looking forward to something and halting your life and waiting for it.

What are you waiting for? Live your life. Use all of that “quality time” God has given you. Don’t wait. Be Prayerful. Make the most of every opportunity.

Live. Love. Share. Embrace this life. Embrace this moment. You won’t get it back. Relish the moments in line.

And if you can’t stand the wait in the line next Friday, just wait a few days. Cyber Monday will be just around the corner.

Shameless Plug: Unglued

If you know me very well by now, you will know that I love a good read. There’s not much that compares to a bookstore or a library (especially one that smells of freshly ground coffee). The two-story half-priced books in Dallas always makes my list on trips home. I love the binding. I love the smell. I love the pages. I love the words.

There are books that make me laugh, books that make me cry, and ones that never fail to bring a smile to my face no matter how many times I have perused their pages.

And then, there are those books that completely turn my world upside down. This is one of them. 

A few months ago, I attended a women’s event at my church where a message by Lysa Terkeurst was broadcasted to our church’s different campuses. She spoke on women’s emotions and the way we react to different situations and different types of people. The topics she was speaking about were from a book she had recently published titled Unglued.

The thought crossed my mind to go buy the book. She was a great speaker. She made me laugh, and I left feeling challenged. However, the thought slipped away, and I forgot about my intended trip to the bookstore. A few weeks later I was perusing through Instagram, and an image of the book popped up on my feed.

Now, I need to be completely transparent with you. I may or may not follow the majority of the Bachelor and Bachelorette participants (past and present) on Twitter and Instagram. Emily Maynard may have been the one plugging the book on Instagram through her post. And that may have been the final straw that caused me to go buy the book. Glad that’s off my chest.

Regardless of what caused me to purchase this book, I am so glad I did.

Lysa Terkeurst is like a true friend that isn’t afraid to give you a good slap in the face when you need it. If you are looking for good honest truth, weaved in with scripture, this is a book for you.

If I am being truly honest, honesty probably isn’t what I am looking for most of the time. I would much prefer for you to tell me the things I am doing well, the right things I have said at the right time, and shower me with comforting words.

However, what I want isn’t always what I need. Like Lysa says in this book, “Knowing what you need doesn’t always translate into wanting what you need.” If one of you confronted me with the things in this book, I probably would have gotten defensive, offended, and interrupted you before you had the chance to finish. Luckily, Lysa is a stranger (is it ok that I feel like we are on a first name basis after reading this book?).  There was no way for me to interrupt her. And each moment I became defensive, she met me with scriptural truth. Who can argue with that? Lysa tells the truth in love, confronts honest emotions all women deal with, and tells it like it is.

The book confronts the topics of soul integrity, a woman’s daily battle with emotions, and the difference between Godly honesty and our “honesty”.

If you are a woman or know a woman, you can’t tell me that emotions aren’t a huge part of our make-up. I think most would consider me to be a fairly even keeled person. Even so, I would be lying to say that emotions aren’t a struggle. Whether they are about a conversation we had or something that someone didn’t say but should have, emotions are emotions. And most often they are there even if we don’t want them to be. 

So often, we have an experience, the emotions flood in, and we just run with it. We justify the way we feel saying that we are just being honest. We try to win others over to our side so we can dive further into the emotional pit we have created.

Reality check. (courtesy of Lysa Terkeurst)

“My honest feelings may not be truthful assessments of the situation…Honesty that isn’t true isn’t honesty at all. We need Godly honesty.”

 James 3:17 says “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”

My emotional reactions would drastically change if I matched them up with the Godly honesty described in this verse.

Is my emotion pure?

Is it peace loving?

Is it considerate?

Is it submissive?

Is it full of mercy and good fruit?

Is it impartial and sincere?

If I took the things that I dwell on and tried to match them with the characteristics on this list, I often would be able to check off two or less. Before I get down on myself I need to remember another truth. Another topic Lysa discusses in this book is imperfect progress. It’s not wrong to have emotions. God gave them to us for a reason. However, we choose the way we react following them in our daily lives. I am a work in progress as we all are.

I am thankful that the Lord takes me as I am, emotions and all. I am thankful for people who aren’t afraid to speak Godly honesty and truth into my life. I am thankful for imperfect progress. I am reminded every day that I am nothing without the Lord. I am a sinful, selfish, and emotionally driven person on my own. Thankfully, none of us have to walk alone. With the Lord, we have the opportunity to turn our emotions, thoughts, and actions to bring glory to the Him. He is there to pick us up and teach us every step of the way.

Ladies, read this book. You won’t regret it. I promise. Here's the link. Now you have no excuse. 

http://www.amazon.com/Unglued-Making-Choices-Midst-Emotions/dp/0310332796/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352486926&sr=8-1&keywords=unglued+lysa+terkeurst