I have always loved Christmas, and since childhood been taught by example the true meaning of this celebration by my dear parents. The mystery of God's love made flesh to dwell among us in the perfectness only God is possessed of, and then to offer Himself a sacrifice to buy my adoption into His forever family is the heartbeat of my life. I know and realize that holy and precious gift no more at any time of the year than at Christmas.
God is our parent, and as it says in Hebrews 12, the one who He loves he disciplines and instructs. As a parent myself, I consider so often now how my behavior must sometimes disappoint and wound my Father God, who is the one who loves me most. That realization creates in me daily a new and more powerful resolve to live as my Father desires and commands. I consider too how carefully I should parent, and be a grand-parent, as it is one of the highest callings on my life.
Family
Love of family has always filled my heart, and the riches of my life are about such.
Longing grows daily to see each one often, look in their eyes, and feel their touch.
Memories of my own gentle childhood endlessly now float ever sweeter in my mind,
Realization of the depth of blessings and love I have known increase with time.
My mother and father's sweet faces I now see appear softly as I close my eyes.
Having raised children myself, their own wisdom and goodness I deeply realize.
I pray God will forge my own efforts at love for those lives He brought to me,
So that in the end they will have seen in me the love of God lived as best could be.
Missteps and flaws I made as a mother often haunt the edges of my consciousness.
Sometimes guilt and worry taunt, and a searing pain they create threatens to be endless.
Why I did not always do exactly the right thing, when with true devotion only that I sought,
Elude my reasoning, or now plainly perceived, point out things my actions should have taught.
God's grace, it is promised, has a way of turning to strength the failures of a servant's travail,
I pray for more years His wisdom my weaknesses to shape, and blessings to each of them avail.
For never will my life be anything to me, but this great and burning desire to live,
Exactly as the Savior would direct and guide, and all my heart for those I love to give.
Merry Christmas to each of you, and God's
unfailing blessings and wisdom for the coming New Year.
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