Isn't that a great quote? I love the idea of Jesus communicating his heart toward the people in my life, using me - my attitudes, my acceptance of them, my decisions to do the right thing, my joy that prevails and even grows through the medium of brokenness and pain. My decision to show love to someone not because I particularly want to, but simply because they need love.
Plenty of people have done that for me. They have been Jesus to me. And I'd like to pay it forward.
It's so different from pointing the finger at people, telling them how bad they are and how they should straighten up and fly right.
Not that there's never a place for confronting someone with the ugly truth. Knowing the truth sets us free, and truth can be ugly. But truth without love tears down. There seems to be so much truth-without-love thrown around by talking heads that claim to represent Jesus. Sometimes it makes me nauseous.
Uh-oh. I'm beginning to wax self-righteous - it takes one to know one, you know. I'm in recovery from that. Anyhoo, I'm just saying that I really want my interactions, and my decisions behind closed doors, and my pocketbook, to saturate my world with the fragrance of Christ. It's so much more seductive than bashing people over the head with my Bible.
12.29.2009
12.28.2009
The New and Improved Krysta's Brood! (New because there is actually new content, and improved because. . .well, it sounded good)
Okay, I'll admit it - in my frustration over being unable to pull together a visually stunning blog after two weeks of working, I stopped.
But I missed writing the random thoughts floating around in my brain. For me, writing is the process of unwinding a tangled yarn of ideas and emotions and winding them back into something ordered, something that makes sense. I never know quite what I think or why until I write about it.
Which brings me back to my humble little blog. Much has happened in the lives of Krysta's Brood in the past two months, just about all of it good. Being verbose and having a perpetual case of Mom Brain, I'll spare you all the gory details and pick some highlights:
1. We are buying a house! If you don't believe in miracles, let me share a bona-fide one with you: a single mom has kick-butt credit less than a year after her divorce. If this is not a Christmas Miracle, I don't know what is.
2. M&M gets to be a Munchkin in a professional production of The Wizard of Oz! Which is very, very exciting - although the fact that they did not comp us any tickets forced me to put $400 on the credit card to see my little Munchkin in action, putting a slight dent in the kick-butt credit.
3. I had a joyful Christmas. As those of you who have been through hard times may have experienced, the holidays can be incredibly painful. Christmas was the happiest time of my year growing up, but the past several years it seemed as though the Grinch himself had stolen my joy. I just wanted the stupid holidays to be over, so I could quit being reminded of just how far my family life had veered from what I'd planned. Ah, but this year. . . Joy, Peace, and Bliss returned in full force. God is in the Restoration Business.
Well. . . two of my girls are fighting over whose money was in the beaded purse one of them found in the dress up bin, so I'm going to go mediate before a Catfight ensues. In the interest of being a bit early for once, let me wish you a very Happy New Year!
-Krysta
But I missed writing the random thoughts floating around in my brain. For me, writing is the process of unwinding a tangled yarn of ideas and emotions and winding them back into something ordered, something that makes sense. I never know quite what I think or why until I write about it.
Which brings me back to my humble little blog. Much has happened in the lives of Krysta's Brood in the past two months, just about all of it good. Being verbose and having a perpetual case of Mom Brain, I'll spare you all the gory details and pick some highlights:
1. We are buying a house! If you don't believe in miracles, let me share a bona-fide one with you: a single mom has kick-butt credit less than a year after her divorce. If this is not a Christmas Miracle, I don't know what is.
2. M&M gets to be a Munchkin in a professional production of The Wizard of Oz! Which is very, very exciting - although the fact that they did not comp us any tickets forced me to put $400 on the credit card to see my little Munchkin in action, putting a slight dent in the kick-butt credit.
3. I had a joyful Christmas. As those of you who have been through hard times may have experienced, the holidays can be incredibly painful. Christmas was the happiest time of my year growing up, but the past several years it seemed as though the Grinch himself had stolen my joy. I just wanted the stupid holidays to be over, so I could quit being reminded of just how far my family life had veered from what I'd planned. Ah, but this year. . . Joy, Peace, and Bliss returned in full force. God is in the Restoration Business.
Well. . . two of my girls are fighting over whose money was in the beaded purse one of them found in the dress up bin, so I'm going to go mediate before a Catfight ensues. In the interest of being a bit early for once, let me wish you a very Happy New Year!
-Krysta
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