Ames & Ilg: Your X-Year-Old (series)

OK, well maybe it's not quite the end for this blog... I just had to post a review of these books. :-)

If you ever want reassurance about your child's behaviour at a specific age, or to gain detailed knowledge of what parenting challenges you are likely to face in the future, head to this 1980s Gesell Institute series by Louise Bates Ames and Frances Ilg. 

Beginnings... and Endings

I have spent some time during this Christmas holiday planning for 2012 and beyond, and I am very excited to announce that I will be studying towards a degree in Counselling!  (Here are details of the course if anyone is interested:  www.aifc.com.au).

However, the time commitment required means that I need to end some of my existing commitments, including this blog. 

I plan to leave the blog in place as long as I can, so that we are able to access the archives, and I may occasionally post new entries as I have time, but for now, this is goodbye.

Thank you for journeying with me over the past 9 months.  I will miss you!

The LORD bless you and keep you
the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.
(Numbers 6:24-26)

Merry Christmas!

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Merry Christmas to you and your family!

I will be taking a break from blogging between now and New Year.

Thank you for journeying with me for the past year, and may God bless you abundantly in 2012.

Christmas Invitation

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Every year, the logistics of Christmas celebrations in our family are complicated. Every year, one side of my family is far more organised than the other.  They plan in advance where and when we will celebrate together, and who will do what.  My sibling's relatives by marriage are also planners.

Our side of the family... not so much.

Submission: Letting Go of 'My Rights'

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This Advent, I have been thinking about submission.   

Jesus let go of his right to be considered equal with God. He humbled himself to become a human infant, vulnerable to all the brokenness of our world. He let go of his right to be king, and submitted to death on a cross. 

Philippians 2:5-8 tells us that our heart attitude should be the same:

     Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! 

But the difficult part of submission is letting go of "my rights".

O Night Divine, O Night When Christ Was Born



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Night.

Into Bethlehem's evening came the weary travellers.
In the dark stable Immanuel was born.
Into the quiet starlight came the angel choir.Into the night sky a bright new star was placed.

First dark, then light; first night, then day.

God speaks into darkness, and brings light, hope, joy, and love.  He changes our darkest moments by His presence.

Worship Him.  Immanuel, God With Us.

Word of the Father, Now in Flesh Appearing



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Jesus is the Word of the Father. 

When we humans speak a word, it represents our thought, our feeling, our soul.

Jesus is the Word of the Father, made flesh.

Jesus' intimacy with God is such that his every thought, action, and feeling is the exact representation of the Almighty.  As close as the word is to the thought, is Jesus to his Father.

God the Father cannot lie, or deceive, or fail to fulfill his spoken word.   Jesus does only what he sees his Father doing.

What is God's Word to us this Advent Season?


Jesus.
It's all about him.