The Old Ornaments

Posted on by kristamarieaustin

Christmas tree decorations experience various stages through the years.

When there were toddlers in our house, the only ornaments on the bottom half of the tree were fabric or, at least, unbreakable. Then there began a steady stream of Christmas gifts carefully made with teachers at school. As each boy proudly hung his new ornament on the tree, I noticed that most of the ornaments now nearly reached the top. Oh, they were growing up so quickly! The craft stick sleds and paper angels transitioned to some pretty intricate ornaments from art class. I loved them all.

Still, I admired the homes where the Christmas decorations were carefully chosen and color-coordinated. Our tree was a grand mix of Kid Art 101 and the 50%-off garland from last year’s sale. But, truly, I never minded. Each little ornament was made with such love and given with a big smile and hug.

Then came the Christmas when the boys-now-young-men didn’t come home. It was time to learn to share holidays, and the guys, with the beautiful young ladies God brought into their hearts.

We started to have Christmas Tree v.1 and Christmas Tree v.2. If everyone would be home, all the old family ornaments would be on display. If no one was coming home, I purchased perfectly matched gold balls to go with the gold-lined tree skirt. I was a little surprised; the holiday charm that I was chasing after seemed somewhat less satisfying than expected.

This year, the kids were home for Thanksgiving. The GrandGirls range in age from 9 – 13, so decorating for Christmas is like their second nature. Much to my husband’s “delight,” all the Christmas boxes found their way up from the basement the Friday after Thanksgiving. As we went through the boxes, I handed the ornaments to the child whose daddy had made it so long ago. There were smiles and gleeful running to the tree to put it…about half-way up. I imagine that there will be a day in the not-too-distant-future when the kids keep those ornaments.

In case you’re wondering, I don’t move the ornaments around after everyone leaves. (I also don’t wash fingerprints off the windows for a few weeks, either.)

The old ornaments remain my favorite. I’m putting the gold balls into a bag for the thrift shop.

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Solar Eclipse 2024: It’s okay to look at the SON

Posted on by kristamarieaustin

Happy Solar Eclipse Day! Solar eclipses are actually not as rare as one would think. Typically, three – five solar eclipses occur annually! What makes today different, however, is that this is a total solar eclipse, and that it falls near ME.

As fun as making a homemade Eclipse Viewing Box can be, I found that digging into what God’s Word has to say about the sun and moon surprised me. New truths were brought to light that I had not previously considered (pun fully intended). I invite you to join me in today’s Scripture Adventure Journey.

Genesis 1:14 – 19    ‘Sun’ and ‘moon’ deliberately not mentioned; they were also the names of the pagan gods associated with the heavenly bodies.

The sun and moon were tasked with 3 functions:

  • To give light on the earth
  • To govern the day and the night
  • To separate light from darkness

Joshua 10:12 – 15   Sun stood still and the moon stopped (Joshua’s prayer answered by a supernatural movement of the sun and moon — were the ocean tides impacted?!? I like to ‘wonder’ as I read Scripture.)

Psalm 74:16 – 17     God established the sun and moon.

Psalm 148                 (verse 3) Praise Him, sun and moon.

Isaiah 40:26 God calls each of the ‘starry host’ by name (He knows my name, too, and my yesterdays, today, and tomorrows!)

Luke 23:45                Darkness covered the whole land because the sun stopped shining (sixth – ninth hours, while Jesus was on the cross). God uses His creation to bring emphasis to events.

Rev. 21:22 – 27        The New Jerusalem (new heaven/new earth) does not need the sun or the moon.

God’s plans and purposes are so different than my own. I am grateful for His sovereignty over all of creation, and my own life. For His glory, alone!

I may put my Eclipse Glasses on eBay tomorrow, along with this old Y2K water…Perhaps I can finance a grandchild’s college education?

It seems so…flat

Posted on by kristamarieaustin

So after doing school at home for six days now, I have learned three things:

The eraser icon is really fun to use on the Zoom whiteboard. Algebra may never be the same again.

The cookie jar is far too close to my kitchen table/desk.

Doing a virtual chapel just feels…flat.

I prep what I plan to say. I flip through the Benjamin’s Box story and make sure the Resurrection Eggs are nearby.  I have the Bible verse marked and ready to read. And then my sweet, understanding husband positions the camera and tiny tripod on the ironing board and does the 3 – 2 – 1 countdown. (We didn’t realize it at the time, but if you look closely at the video, you can actually see the ancient ironing board reflected in the fireplace glass. Sigh. I hadn’t counted on that. I have a lot more to learn!)

Everything seemed to go pretty much as planned. When finished, though, there wasn’t that normal feeling of ‘got it!’ I attributed it to doing this at 10:00 pm after two long virtual meetings. I silently prayed that the Holy Spirit would take the meager words from my lips and transform them into at least a few spiritually meaty morsels for the students and parents that would see the video the next morning.

I marinated on this thought throughout today.  I was sincerely puzzled. Why had the chapel time seemed so flat, for lack of a better word, last night?

You have it already figured out, don’t you?

The kids aren’t with me. I’m not seeing their faces, listening to their giggles, watching their wiggles. I’m not able to gauge the pace of how I read, or use a softer or slower voice if they’re really into the story. I can’t turn to look at them to drive home a particular point. It’s just me and the camera-on-the-ironing-board.

I miss them. My life is not the same. I am grateful for the technology we have so that we can still maintain a decent level of connection, but it’s…flat.

I have a new appreciation for the importance and value of other people with me in real-time. Thankfully, we will be able to fully rejoin the human race soon. And when we do, my world will be joyfully full of lively, noisy children who can teach me how to switch from the eraser icon back to the pencil tool more easily.

 

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But in the meantime…join me in spreading joy to our neighborhoods this week. It’s nearly Easter, so let’s hang those colorful plastic eggs on at least one tree in each yard of each neighborhoods. Think of it!

When I was a little girl, my parents would take us to ‘see the lights’ at Christmas. It brought some of the magic to the season for me. Now, we can bring some Easter cheer to our friends and families, in the midst of our safer-at-home scenario, when we all might have a feeling that life is a little ‘flat.’

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I can’t wait to see families take bike rides together to see egg-laden trees in our neighborhoods. Have some fun with this! Make all the eggs on one tree the same color. Another house do a different color. You could create a pattern (purple, yellow, purple, yellow)…can you tell I’m a math teacher at heart?

The point, though, is to just have fun together. Make our houses and neighborhoods a fun place to be. Who knows, once we can come out of our COVID-19 hibernation, we might strike up a few new friendships. That would make life definitely NOT FLAT.

 

Burgers and Fries

Posted on by kristamarieaustin

It’s been a 4-year journey to figure out how to manage my migraines. After a three-day, stay-at-home-in-bed episode, I knew that I needed to make some changes.

I had the sense that this was, at least in part, related to the food I was eating. We had just been camping and enjoyed eating all the camping treats we had grown to love. As I was taking another Skittle out of the bag during an especially intense game of Scrabble, I looked at the beautifully colored candy in my hand. I paused for a moment, thinking that the coloring was really bright, then popped it into my mouth.  Along with a few more.  And then a few more.

While I laid in bed the next day, I thought back to that moment.  Could it be the artificial dyes?

I went with only fresh fruits and veggies for six weeks. It was pretty boring and grocery shopping was rather depressing.  After all, I could really only eat food from one part of the store now.  But…the headaches did not return.

Other foods were gradually re-introduced, but the fast-food and highly processed foods were gone forever. Thankfully, I enjoy cooking and discovered how the use of pure spices more than make up for the chemical taste to which I had grown accustomed.

My husband and I recently took one of our Grands out for his Birthday Adventure. This means lunch with Nana and Poppa, a trip to Target for something to wear and something to play with as a family, then doing a fun park or museum activity together. The requested lunch destination was a nearby fast-food restaurant.

Our  four-year old Grand had eyes bigger than his appetite. Half of his burger was left on the wrapper while he went up for his dish of custard. True confessions here. I am a ‘burger and fries girl.’  Going to my favorite burger places and ‘enjoying’ a salad hasn’t always been easy or much fun.

Can you guess what I did?

I took one bite of the leftover burger, and then another.  To my shock, dismay and joy (all at the same time) — it didn’t taste at all like I remembered!

I discovered that I no longer had the taste for this fresh, never frozen, burger.  I had developed an appetite for better-for-me foods that was now actually preferred. Wow. I hadn’t seen that one coming!

It made me think about my spiritual journey. Is my ‘appetite’ for the things of the Lord — His Word, being in His Presence, serving alongside His people — growing stronger so that the people/activities of the world that once entertained/amused can no longer have a hold on me?

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness...” (Matthew 5:6)  Lord, draw me so close to You that I no longer have a taste for anything the world has to offer.

 

It’s Nearly Time

Posted on by kristamarieaustin

Just a few final moments to quietly sit in front of our Christmas tree.

It’s been a wonderful couple of days off school.  A triple batch of Chex mix is in the oven for our belated Christmas this week-end in the Cities.  But first, I need to take some time in front of the tree.

This year, we only put up the small tree in the family room.  Everyone had been home for Thanksgiving, so it didn’t seem to be important to put up the larger tree in the living room too. Still, this one was my favorite.  Bright, shiny red balls against the dark green needles of the Target after-Christmas sale tree a few years ago.  The soft white lights always seem to have a twinkly-magic to me.

My focus, though, is not the tree.  It is the nativity set underneath.  The rough-hewn stable was a Royal Rangers project my husband did with our youngest son several years ago.  The glued-on hay is nearly gone now (think ‘Velveteen Rabbit and his fur being loved off’).  The figurines, purchased at a going-out-of-business sale at a local drugstore, remained miraculously intact even with three boys helping to decorate and un-decorate each year.

This is one of my favorite spots during Christmas (the other being in the kitchen baking cookies!). Mary, Joseph and the shepherds quietly positioned in awe of the Baby in the manger.   I try to imagine the thoughts running through Mary’s mind as she experienced childbirth away from home.  Joseph, trying his best to help her, understood that the child was not his, but His.  Oh, the heavy weight of fatherhood he must have felt.

The angels are an intricate part of this story.  It was an angel who talked with Mary and Joseph, separately, about the Baby.  The angels announced the news to the shepherds, interrupting their very-ordinary third-shift job. The angels had been waiting such a long time for this exact moment in time. Imagine the sounds of celebration ringing throughout the halls of heaven that night.

But then my own thoughts are interrupted for a moment.  It’s nearly time to pack away the beautiful decorations, including the tree and manger scene.  How quickly the season comes and goes.  I wonder…what will the next 365 days hold for us? What scenes will unfold in our lives over the next 12 months? What will I be thinking of, hoping for, dreaming about next year as I sit quietly in front of the tree?

I am confident in tomorrow because of the One born in the manger.  No matter what the days ahead bring, I am in His Hands.  Peace and joy abide in my heart and home because of the Savior in the stable.

Yes, it’s nearly time to pack the manger carefully away again, but HE continues to be at my side each day of the new year.  I am grateful and hope-filled.

Making cookies or…

Posted on by kristamarieaustin

Thanksgiving is a WONDERFUL time of year. It is also a busy time of year.  Cooking and cleaning if you’re hosting; cooking and packing if you’re traveling.

Now that I’m old enough to have an AARP card, my sense of duty at holidays is less intense.  There is the scalloped corn recipe that MUST be put into Grandma’s ceramic corn dish.  A photo that will become our Christmas card WILL be taken in front of the fireplace.

But, maybe not this year.

Let’s throw caution to the wind and take the family photo down by the creek near the willow tree.  And, heresy of heresy: Let’s use paper plates instead of china.

As I was rolling out the dough to make the annual turkey cookies, a question began to surface in my heart.  What is my main focus to be this Thanksgiving? Why is it so important to create these wonderful traditions? What is Thanksgiving all about, Charlie Brown?

The answer was on the well-floured counter right in front of me.  Making cookies is something I look forward to each year because I ‘need’ 9 little helpers to slather them in chocolate frosting.  My heart was beginning to understand.

Making cookies? Yes, but it’s MAKING MEMORIES that will remain long after the last crumb disappears from the mouse cookie jar.  I commit to embracing each moment that will marvelously transform into a memory once everyone returns home on Sunday.  Now my spirit feels at rest and is filled with peace.  I’m ready for Thanksgiving.

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Heard later that evening: “Honey, could you please take your mom’s corn dish out of the cupboard for me?  Be careful; we don’t want to put another scratch in it!”  There are holiday memories passed on to us by our parents that are worthy of preservation. Those we keep and cherish!  Happy Thanksgiving and God bless us everyone! 🙂

Who could have dreamed?

Posted on by kristamarieaustin

John Stott teaching 17,000 college students each morning from the book of Romans.  Small group Bible studies.  Representatives from dozens of mission agencies waiting to talk with me.

Then there was the midnight communion service on New Year’s Eve with Billy Graham.  It had been an amazing three days.  Hearing his challenge to serve the Lord on the mission field was, to say the least, moving and inspiring.

Still, when the invitation came to stand…I didn’t.  I wasn’t sure I was ready to commit to serving the Lord in a foreign land.  He asked again.  And again.  What did I have to lose?  I stood up.  And meant it.

I began filling out the necessary paperwork to head to Brazil as a missionary teacher.  Funny thing was, the very next day this new guy started at work.  My co-workers said ‘he was perfect’ for me.  I didn’t know what that could possibly mean.

Fast-forward a couple of months.  My heart was torn.  I had promised God to serve Him on the mission field.  But the first day after returning from Urbana, I met my soon-to-be husband.  I was not expecting this turn of events!!!

After lots of tears, prayers and a hard-to-write letter to the mission board, I stayed stateside.  There was often a twinge of guilt when I thought about those days.  I had let God down and seemingly chosen the easier road.

About fifteen years ago, God gently reminded me that I HAD made good on my promise to serve Him full-time in ministry.  It was just in a different way and a different place…OCS.  Only God could shape my path in such surprising ways to serve His people.

Who could have dreamed it?  God did. And I am forever grateful that His dreams for me are so much bigger, better and far more beautiful than my own.

 

The Titanic

Posted on by kristamarieaustin

The majestic Titanic.  Look at the magnificent slipway that had to be specially built just to accommodate her size!

Children need similar support.  They can’t be expected to launch and sail successfully without the support structure provided by parents, school and church.  This necessary framework is carefully designed so that each part of the building process can take place with the best chance of success.  It takes hard work and time.  After all, the Titanic wasn’t built in a day. 🙂

Parents, keep a steady hand on building the support structure for your precious kids.  We can’t be haphazard in our approach.  Consistency, over time, is the secret.  They’ll be ready to launch ever so quickly; those hours today spent playing with them, pouring life into them, will soon yield the sweet fruit of a satisfying relationship with them during their teen and adult years.

(photo from the Library of Congress)

Titanic gantry

Hello world!

Posted on by kristamarieaustin

I have been struck by the word ‘heart’ lately.

“…acknowledge the God of your father, and serve Him with WHOLEHEARTED devotion and with a willing mind.” (David to his son, Solomon, in 1 Chronicles 28:9)

“…you do not set your HEART to honor IMG_0405My Name.” (God’s warning to the priests in Malachi 2:2)

May the Lord be pleased with all that He sees on this blog.  For His glory.  Alone.