A Woman’s View ~ Lenore Buth

Where can we find joy and peace in dark times?

It's Christmas, a time of joy and gladness

This year the horror at Sandy Hook Elementary hangs over our land like a thick fog and paints everything gray. Our hearts ache for those grieving families and that community.

More than one person has asked, "How can we have Christmas at a time like this?"

The truth is, Christmas is exactly what we need at a time like this.

Think how the lights and the familiar songs lift our spirits. Even the silly songs make us smile.

John 1:5 seems written for this moment:

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.    

That's the ESV translation. The NIV reads, "and the darkness has not understood it."  Bible scholars say either translation of the original Greek is correct and either one fits our time.

At that first Christmas--and they had darkness at that time, too--the Light of the world came to earth.

Then, as now, the people lived with evil. The Roman forces occupying their land were not known for their T.L.C.  Emperor Caesar Augustus ruled with a heavy hand. When he decreed that everyone must go to their place of family origin to be counted, no one dared refuse.

Not even a woman named Mary, who was almost ready to give birth and would have to walk or ride a donkey for 70 miles.

The decree of the Emperor brought Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, the City of David, that night.

Or did it?

Seven hundred years earlier the prophet Micah foretold the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. (Micah 5:2)

It was by God's design that Mary and Joseph were in that town, on that night when God's Son was to be born. (The most familiar Christmas Gospel is Luke 2:1-20.)

Joseph and Mary named Him Jesus, because that's what the angel of the Lord instructed. (Matthew 1:18-24)

Years later Jesus said:

"I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness."    

                                                                       --John 12:46

Jesus is joy and hope, whatever the situation. We can count on that, no matter what comes.

If joy depends on our circumstances, it's an iffy thing.

If hope depends on our lives being trouble-free, it rests on a shaky perch.

Christmas is all about remembering and resettling our hearts on timeless Truth. God sent His only Son for exactly a time like this, so we could look beyond our fears. Our griefs. Our immediate needs.

Because if we get stuck in these we will never look up.

Then the darkness will win.

Christmas restores our minds and hearts to true north on the compass of life

Christmas reminds us who we are and who He is. He is joy, peace and hope.

Because we belong to Him, His Spirit lives in our hearts. Therefore, we can make it through each day.

Because we belong to Him we can speak His peace to troubled hearts and reassure frightened children. We cannot give away what we do not have.

Because we belong to Him we can mean it when we say, "Merry Christmas."

And I do.

My love and peace to you, Gentle Reader, at Christmas and always. Thanks for taking time out of your busy life to stop by.

Have a Merry, Blessed Christ-mas!

Lenore

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We picture lovely Christmas card images.

A semi-circle of sheep, cows and donkeys stand transfixed, gazing in wonder at these human intruders into their world. Mary and Joseph beam their love at the newborn baby, while a bright star overhead shines its light directly on the stable. We think, How lovely. 

Reality may not have been so neat and tidy.

Sorry if that sounds outrageous, but I've been around cows and sheep. Yes, that stable would have been shelter from the cold night air. It would have been warm because animals give off heat.

They give off something else, too. Let's just say that stable would not have smelled of fragrant spices.

This was not what Joseph and Mary would have chosen.

Yet that lowly stable was God's appointed place for them that night.

Sometimes life's like that for us too, isn't it?

Even when we trust in God. Even when we're doing what we believe is right. Living our faith. Believing. Trusting. We end up in a place we didn't choose and we think, that's not right.

Days or months or years later we see the pattern.

Think how often we pray and then make what seems a good move. Maybe we go to the right.

God has another direction in mind. Before long we find ourselves going left.

It's disconcerting and reminds us we're not as much in charge of our lives as we think we are.

That turns out to be a very good thing

Grandmas used to say, "One day you'll understand. Then you won't have so many questions."

I still ask, but I am a bit wiser than I used to.

My husband and I got a big lesson in how this works some time ago. For many years we operated a modern dairy-grain farm in central Illinois. A series of events and lots of prayer led us to leave that good life behind and head West. Everything came together in such a surprising way that we knew, absolutely knew, that's where God was leading us.

For awhile that seemed true and we were filled with praise. Then one thing after another fizzled out. There we were, asking Why? It made no sense.

At the time.

Later we could see God's leading in all our roundabout way. Had our original plans worked out we never would have arrived in the place God had for us.

We learned to trust Him in a deeper way than ever before.

We understood He knows the way, even we think we're lost

Joseph and Mary were on that journey to Bethlehem because the Emperor decreed they must go there.

They had no choice.

They kept walking, Joseph leading his donkey while Mary, already feeling labor pangs, perched on its back, grateful she did not have to walk.

They ended up in the stable because they had nowhere else to go.

And God lit up that humble place with His light and His love.

(Read the Christmas story for yourself in Matthew 1:18-25 and Luke 2:1-20.)

He can light our lowly places, too

Every one of us occasionally spends time in situations we would not have chosen.

All we can do is keep walking and pray God will bring good out of our pain and confusion.

Christmas reminds us nothing is impossible with God. Because Jesus was born that night you and I can have hope in the midst of our despair.

He is the Light who shines His love and peace into our darkness.

He comes at just the right time.

As He did in Bethlehem that starry night long ago.

Merry Christ-mas!

Warmly,

Lenore

 

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What's your image of how your home "should" look at Christmas?

  I suppose some people actually achieve perfection like this home.  Otherwise they couldn't photograph it.

Most of us don't.

Sometimes that eats us up with guilt and we get frenzied, trying to do it all. Fix all the goodies. Trim every corner. Do gift wraps worthy of Martha Stewart.

That leaves us worn out and empty of real joy.

Here, from my heart to yours, is a better way, my variation on a well-known theme.

****************************

 

If I decorate every corner of my home with glittery baubles, strings of lights and evergreen roping, but do not show love, I am just another interior decorator.

If I stay up until 2 a.m., making fudge and baking fifteen kinds of Christmas cookies, if I fix gourmet meals that make me proud and serve them on a table fitted with burning candles and special china, but snarl at my family, I'm just another cook.

If I gather toys for tots and canned goods for food baskets, help decorate the Christmas tree at church and never pass a Salvation Army kettle without dropping in coins, even write checks to every charity, it profits me nothing. 

If I insist on a green, living Christmas tree decorated with "natural" materials instead of baubles, if I sing with the choir and loudly say, "Merry Christmas!" to one and all, but forget that Christmas is all about Christ, I am empty.

Love smiles at the child whose mom is wrapped up in her cell phone and stoops to wish a Merry Christmas to the lonely individual in the wheelchair.

Love waits patiently while the next customer and the checker chat endlessly, then smiles at the clerk.

Love does not remind her husband that the guy down the street once again out-decorated his house and yard. 

Love looks at the teenager wearing earphones and tattered jeans with eyes that take the long view and focuses on potential yet to unfold. 

Love stops to listen and hug, even when there's no time.

Love does not complain about what's missing, but thanks God for what is.

Love gives without expecting a return. Love endures.

As for styles, they will change. This year's trendy best-seller will be next year's white elephant. Human knowledge will be disputed, disproven and surpassed.  Today's new discovery will become tomorrow's joke.

Only faith, hope and love remain. But the greatest gift of all is love.

Based on 1 Corinthians, Chapter 13, the Holy Bible

 

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Maybe you read through that listing and decide you really don't know how to love. Most of us miss the mark. So let's take another look at what Christmas means.

New beginnings. For anyone. No matter what kind of "stuff" lies in our past.

Love beyond all human understanding was born that night in that Bethlehem stable. Read the story again (Luke, chapter two, in the Bible.) Let those words flow over you and comfort your spirit. Go to church and sing the Christmas songs that lift your heart.

 

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

                                                         ~1 John 4, verse 9

 

  

May your heart and your home be flooded with that love, fresh and new, filled to overflowing. May you rest in this love that never fails.

Merry CHRIST-mas and much joy to you and yours!

Peace,

Lenore

If this sounds familiar it's because I originally wrote it in 2010.

 

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What does it take to make you laugh?

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to find someone else's predicament amusing while our own are serious business?

Think about it. Did you laugh . . .

• The day that missing red sock turned your washer load of whites Pepto-Bismal pink?
  
  
• When that adorable puppy "forgot" on the carpet--again?
  
  
• The night you cut your pie at the church supper and the filling was soupy?
  
  

The noontime you ran into the supermarket in your grubbies to pick up a quick takeout lunch and ran into Ms. Perfect?

• The Parent-Teacher Night your child's teacher said with a knowing smile, "Oh, I've heard so much about you."

Probably not.

Neither did I, but I wish I had.

One woman's remedy

My friend, Myrna, had an easy laugh and an unflappable spirit. Even her younger son's antics didn't faze her. 

Like the day their family cat got wet in the rain. "Jimmy" gathered up Tabby in a towel, then dropped his armload in their gas dryer and turned it on. Myrna ran to investigate all the thumping and bumping and found five-year-old Jimmy sanding in front of the dryer, with arms folded across his chest. He kept chanting, "There's no cat in here, Mommy. Honest!"

The rescued kitty emerged okay, looking a bit dazed. After staggering for awhile she survived with a bowl of milk. 

I asked Myrna's secret. "I used to get easily upset, but I learned to ask myself, 'Will it matter in a hundred years?' If not I make myself laugh and simply deal with what is. Life's too short to waste it blowing up over trifles."

My friend role-modeled the woman I wanted to become.

A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit. 

--Proverbs 15:13

Laughter is catching, but so is the opposite 

Our attitudes show up most clearly at home. One happy spouse usually means two happy spouses. Parents who laugh a lot have children who laugh a lot.

Conversely, one family member's lousy mood can spread faster than 24-hour stomach flu. In no time the whole gang is cranky and complaining.

Few of us would answer the phone or show up at work with that attitude. Instead, we'd breathe deep and dredge up smiles. Don't we owe the same to the ones we love?

Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. 

 --Proverbs 12:18

The value of laughter for mental health    

Counselors say the ability to laugh at ourselves is a major factor in keeping us emotionally balanced.

A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. 

--Proverbs 17:22

Unfortunately many of us go through our days habitually wearing a frown or a sober expression.

To smile and laugh can become a habit just as easily. It pays off in fewer wrinkles, too, because it takes 37 muscles to frown and only 12 to smile.

If we adopt a more relaxed attitude our days will brighten. Before long we'll find something amusing in even the nightly news.

We know the capacity to laugh is placed in us by our Creator because no mom has to teach her baby how to laugh. You and I possess that same natural potential for finding humor in small things. Let's cultivate that gift and let it add sparkle to our days.

I'm in. How about you? 

Learning along with you,

Lenore

 

It's Christmas time once more! (with apologies to all you poets)

 

If Messiah fills the air waves and our arms are getting sore

    From the Christmas cards we've written, but we've still a whole lot more,

    Yet we're feeling jolly, hanging lights and holly on the door,

    The secret's out, there is no doubt, it's Christmas time once more.

 

If the family's acting funny and we're fuming just a bit

    While we're hunting for the bunting that will surely be a hit,

    Christmas shopping has us hopping, we're about to lose our wits,

    And the object that's a project has turned out to be the pits.

 

If we have no whammy bunting, only clammy hands and sighs

    'Cause we're sick of spending money. Isn't funny, isn't wise.

    So we go into a huddle, still we muddle, agonize,

    While our dreams of finding "perfect" self-destruct before our eyes.

 

If we'll pitch the lists and flowcharts, let our hearts start thinking small,

    No more reading. What we're needing won't be found within a Mall.

    All the best stuff is the real stuff. Nothing changes, after all,

    It's still love that makes gifts matter, 'spite of chattter in the hall. 

 

So at Christmas time and all the time, this wish comes from my heart,

    May great joy reign. May all your pain and all your stress depart,

    And may every day be one you say, "I cannot wait to start!"

   Then at day's end, let Christ, our friend, speak peace deep in your heart. 

 

For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  --Isaiah 9:6)  (Jesus said) Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.  --ohn 14:17 

 

So . . . Merry Christ-mas!

Lovingly,

Lenore