Merry Christmas! It's hard to believe the holiday has come and gone for yet another year. The commercialization of Christmas has started taking over even before Thanksgiving these days, but sometimes it takes me some time to get in the true Christmas spirit. It always helps once I get home and this year I was able to get in a couple of last minute shopping trips along with some baking bonding with my mom to help out. Sometimes I struggle just grasping the true gravity of it all. It can become a bit of a ritual, another religious thing we do without knowing why we do it. I try to imagine what it was like then... what it means for my life now. I love having an excuse to spend time with family and friends but even without all of the people in my life, the birth of Jesus is what counts. I feel like Christmas is just the foreshadowing of what will come in a few months when we celebrate Easter... With that said, I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas.
My mom bought me Shades of Blue, a Karen Kingsbury book for Christmas. I had to finish the book I was in the middle of last night, but I read Shades of Blue today. I'm a huge fan of Kingsbury's work... a Christian fiction author, her books are easy reading that let me escape into another life that I dream about for myself. I first read her 9/11 books, One Tuesday Morning and Beyond Tuesday Morning, and have read everything else since then. On the surface, Shades of Blue would probably be described as a book about abortion, but it meant so much more to me. The main character had to close one chapter of his life before he could move onto the next and I think when you dig deeper it was really about forgiveness.
I think I've said it before, but I'm an expert at holding grudges. Once you've hurt me, I tend to put up walls to try to protect myself from getting hurt again. I keep trying to learn to let go, but I think it's harder to forgive and to let go when the "offender" doesn't apologize for his/her offense. It's easier to walk away. In today's society, it's easier to send a text message or an e-mail then to deal with issues head on. Easier doesn't always make it better, but I keep finding myself finding your wrong rather than dealing with what I can control and movimg on. In Shades of Blue someone apologized 10 years late. I don't want to be 10 years late for any apologies I owe... and I also don't want to sit around 10 years waiting for an apology.
Luke 6:35-36 "But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back... Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."
My mom bought me Shades of Blue, a Karen Kingsbury book for Christmas. I had to finish the book I was in the middle of last night, but I read Shades of Blue today. I'm a huge fan of Kingsbury's work... a Christian fiction author, her books are easy reading that let me escape into another life that I dream about for myself. I first read her 9/11 books, One Tuesday Morning and Beyond Tuesday Morning, and have read everything else since then. On the surface, Shades of Blue would probably be described as a book about abortion, but it meant so much more to me. The main character had to close one chapter of his life before he could move onto the next and I think when you dig deeper it was really about forgiveness.
I think I've said it before, but I'm an expert at holding grudges. Once you've hurt me, I tend to put up walls to try to protect myself from getting hurt again. I keep trying to learn to let go, but I think it's harder to forgive and to let go when the "offender" doesn't apologize for his/her offense. It's easier to walk away. In today's society, it's easier to send a text message or an e-mail then to deal with issues head on. Easier doesn't always make it better, but I keep finding myself finding your wrong rather than dealing with what I can control and movimg on. In Shades of Blue someone apologized 10 years late. I don't want to be 10 years late for any apologies I owe... and I also don't want to sit around 10 years waiting for an apology.
Luke 6:35-36 "But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back... Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."
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