Christmas with my brother Ty,  50 years ago.  Missing him so much this time of year.

As a new blogger, (this is my 11^th straight month blogging to be exact), I try to wait until I am inspired to write and share.  But I also balance that with the commitment to post once a month.  I like having a self-imposed “deadline” of sorts.  But December puts extra pressure on me to have something profound to say.  After all, it’s Jesus’ birthday and the end of a year, all rolled into one pressure packed month!

But this week I have found inspiration in the small things people have said to me, and then taking those small things and pondering them.  December is definitely a good month for pondering in between the running around from party, to school event, to shopping.  So here are three little moments of inspiration I discovered amidst the chaos of the Christmas season…

 Earlier this week I had a wise person tell me that we need to look for God in the “suddenly” moments of life.  God often in the Bible does something “suddenly”.   And that “sudden” thing changes the course of direction of a person’s life.  There were those shepherds, quietly watching their flocks at night, when SUDDENLY a multitude of angels appeared saying, “Glory to God in the highest!”  The course of their night took a sudden turn, and off to Bethlehem they went.  They would never be the same after visiting the babe in the manger.  Sometimes we are suddenly shown the reality of a situation we’ve been praying about, and then we need to take action on that.  I experienced that in my life about 18 months ago.  If we start to question ourselves down the road about our decision, we need to remember our SUDDENLY moment, trust that God was in it, and that He was directing our steps.  I needed that affirmation this week, and I loved how it intersected with the story of Christ’s birth.  Mary had her own SUDDENLY moment when she was told she would give birth to Jesus.  I’m pretty sure she didn’t start her day thinking the angel Gabriel would visit her to tell her she would conceive a child by the Holy Spirit, but it happened.  And it changed the course of all humanity because of her willingness to accept her sudden news.

My next moment of inspiration came from my married son and his wife yesterday.  I “face-timed” with them and my adorable six-month old grandson, to watch them open their Christmas gifts I had shipped them.  (They are Atlanta bound to my daughter-in-law’s family for Christmas this year.)  At the very end of our merry little Christmas celebration, they ended the call by saying, “I’m proud of you Mom.”  I’ve had to draw some boundaries and take some tough stands this week, and I have reached out to some of my trusted friends and advisors for wisdom.  But in the end, it had to be me taking the action that was needed.  To hear your own son and daughter-in-law say, “I’m proud of you” was so comforting.  God used it to lift the heaviness off my heart and to trust that I was doing what needed to be done.  I reflected later how many times I have said to my children (and still do say), “I’m so proud of you!”  But I think this was one of the first times I’ve had my own child say it back to me.  It must be one of those “growing old, full circle” things, but I tell you, it truly blessed and empowered me to stand strong in the battle.

 My final moment of inspiration came from our time of sharing today in our small church group.  I’ve been attending this small group on Sunday mornings for over a year now.  It is a safe place for me right now, a place where we learn and share and encourage each other.  Today we were asked to give a “verbal gift of blessing” to someone in the room.  A friend shared that he has been blessed by my bravery this year.  Me–brave?  It caught me off guard.  More often than not, I end up crying when I share during our Sunday’s together.  That doesn’t seem very brave to me.  But he went on to share that he sees me being brave as I journey through my “new normal” and that I am brave, but in a “Winnie the Pooh” sort of way.  Well my children loved Winnie the Pooh, but I didn’t remember him being particularly brave.  So I came home and looked up famous Pooh quotes, and low and behold here is what his best friend Christopher Robin had to say about him:

 “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

 Wow, so much inspiration in that quote!  I’m going to hold on to that blessing as I head into 2017.

 And with that, I wish you each a meaningful and joyous Christmas.  If it is a first one where you will be missing someone special around your Christmas tree, I wish and pray for you an extra measure of grace and strength to endure it.  I sadly know the feeling.  But I leave you with another Pooh quote I discovered that also brought me comfort today…

“If there every comes a day when we can’t be together, keep me in your heart.  I’ll stay there forever.”

My dear Aunt Marge’s final Christmas on earth.  So grateful I could be with her and praying for my cousins on this first tough one without her…