It’s that time of year again. Time for cold weather, Christmas shopping and the ‘guilty face’ you have to give your daughter when she innocently asks ‘what were you doing at toys-r-us?’. Yes, it’s hard not to love the Christmas season, unless of course your one of the following people:
1) The Grinch
2) Ebenezer Scrooge
But as this is doubtful, lets carry on. The other day I was in Wal-mart and my eyes fell upon one of those flashy screens with the sole intent of catching your attention and keeping it. “Give her Joy all year long with the new Ipod Shuffle” the words read and as I stared at it I realized how silly this ad was. Treating this new and improved piece of technology as if it were the answer to all our problems. I would first like to ask you this question: can earthly things really give us everlasting joy? Let me be the first to say no. I, myself, have relentlessly begged for things, claiming I would ‘never ask for anything ever again’ and assuming I would be given never ending joy.
Sure, I was content for a while until.. Something new came out. Yikes! It’s difficult to be constantly bombarded with new paraphernalia and not want it. This is where real joy enters to picture. Real joy? Is there such thing? Yes, real joy comes as a result of living your life completely for Christ, or ‘dying to self’. Think about it, it is our selfish nature that gives us a desire for all of these ‘things’, so if we ‘died to ourselves’ we wouldn’t be affected by this insatiable desire for new stuff. We would be content in spiritual joy and fulfillment. So what does it mean to die to yourself? In my view, it means to give yourself completely to the Lord, and ridding yourself of your selfish desires. God is the only person we can get this joy and fulfillment from, often times we search the world for things that will satisfy us and like always, we are never truly satisfied. We should search to completely follow Christ and seek our complete and total joy from him and him alone. On that note, I will end with this seemingly relevant song: ‘Tis the season to be jolly fa la la la la la la la’.
Have a very merry Christmas and God bless!
Friday, December 10, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
A Thanksgiving Tribute
And again, Thanksgiving has come and gone, but just because the day is over doesn't mean the spirit should be also. We may not 'chow down' on turkey everyday but we can still choose to be thankful everyday. We should take every opportunity to show gratitude.
What did we do this Thanksgiving?
We left early Thursday morning, about 8:30. A little later than I had originally hoped but hey, we're the Liberto's remember? I should've expected nothing more. Anyway, we were out by 8:30 and we started traveling to Houston. I was content, we listened to Narnia in between reading and listening to music, and the trip just flew by! Although, for us yearly Missouri travelers, the trip was nothing. We were supposed to eat about one o' clock and in hopes of not getting there late, we were racing against time. Don't worry though, no speed limits were crossed. We arrived just in time, about 12:45 actually, were we lucky or what! And get this, we didn't even get lost! This was a big thing for us. Those maps are pretty complicated, believe me. Well, the food was absolutely delish and I ate a lot, as always on Thanksgiving day. After this we all went outside to enjoy the weather, I was patiently waiting for it to get colder. And just my luck, it starts pouring rain. But this was the fun part! Running back to the house, occaisonally taking refuge under large trees. I took refuge under Stephen's 40 dollar hat. :) Don't worry, It didn't last very long at all and we headed back out over to the fake, manmade lake. I believe 'Unswimmable' is an accurate term for it. We hung out there for a while and then in the car and off to Huntsville! The remainder of the trip was more than fun, I had recieved the cold weather I wanted and I spent the rest of my Thanksgiving break with people I really enjoy being around. We made fires, watched movies, went bowling, jumped on the trampoline with sleeping bags and made tons of unforgettable memories. I realized how grateful I was to have such awesome friends and I hope we will continue to be friends. Thanks, guys, I love you all. :)
Thanksgiving comes only once a year, but this doesn't mean we should set aside only this day to be thankful. We should wake up everymorning with an 'attitude of gratitude', we always have something to be thankful about, even if we don't realize it. I can say I'm thankful for my family, my awesome friends who never cease to be there for me, my education, my life. The fact that I have a bed to sleep in at night and food to eat in the morning. But most of all, The unescapable fact that I have Jesus, who cares for me so much that he would die the most excruciating death for me. This is what I'm thankful for; and I try my best to express my thanks as often as I can, although this can get tough. It's can sometimes be hard to act thankful when the circumstances are giving you no reason to be thankful. We have to steer away from finding our happiness in life alone, when we start to find our joy through Christ we will find there are many things to be thankful for.
Be thankful and I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving day!
What did we do this Thanksgiving?
We left early Thursday morning, about 8:30. A little later than I had originally hoped but hey, we're the Liberto's remember? I should've expected nothing more. Anyway, we were out by 8:30 and we started traveling to Houston. I was content, we listened to Narnia in between reading and listening to music, and the trip just flew by! Although, for us yearly Missouri travelers, the trip was nothing. We were supposed to eat about one o' clock and in hopes of not getting there late, we were racing against time. Don't worry though, no speed limits were crossed. We arrived just in time, about 12:45 actually, were we lucky or what! And get this, we didn't even get lost! This was a big thing for us. Those maps are pretty complicated, believe me. Well, the food was absolutely delish and I ate a lot, as always on Thanksgiving day. After this we all went outside to enjoy the weather, I was patiently waiting for it to get colder. And just my luck, it starts pouring rain. But this was the fun part! Running back to the house, occaisonally taking refuge under large trees. I took refuge under Stephen's 40 dollar hat. :) Don't worry, It didn't last very long at all and we headed back out over to the fake, manmade lake. I believe 'Unswimmable' is an accurate term for it. We hung out there for a while and then in the car and off to Huntsville! The remainder of the trip was more than fun, I had recieved the cold weather I wanted and I spent the rest of my Thanksgiving break with people I really enjoy being around. We made fires, watched movies, went bowling, jumped on the trampoline with sleeping bags and made tons of unforgettable memories. I realized how grateful I was to have such awesome friends and I hope we will continue to be friends. Thanks, guys, I love you all. :)
Thanksgiving comes only once a year, but this doesn't mean we should set aside only this day to be thankful. We should wake up everymorning with an 'attitude of gratitude', we always have something to be thankful about, even if we don't realize it. I can say I'm thankful for my family, my awesome friends who never cease to be there for me, my education, my life. The fact that I have a bed to sleep in at night and food to eat in the morning. But most of all, The unescapable fact that I have Jesus, who cares for me so much that he would die the most excruciating death for me. This is what I'm thankful for; and I try my best to express my thanks as often as I can, although this can get tough. It's can sometimes be hard to act thankful when the circumstances are giving you no reason to be thankful. We have to steer away from finding our happiness in life alone, when we start to find our joy through Christ we will find there are many things to be thankful for.
Be thankful and I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving day!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)