Five Things on Monday

1. Thanksgiving is in 10 days.  What?!  How did this happen, friends?  It feels like just yesterday that we were spending our days at the beach, and now the heat is on, we’re planning our turkey dinners, and Christmas ideas are stirring in my mind.

2. My house goal for October was to finish decorating the girls’ bedroom.  It’s now the middle of November and we still aren’t done.  But I’m okay with that; we’ve made progress.  Sometimes slow is good and it will make me that much more excited when it actually is completed.

3. Our kids are a long way from the teenage years, but this post Launching Our Teens to Serve, Not be Served has some excellent principles to apply during the early years that will pay off in the long run.

4. The internet was a burdensome place to be last week, so I received a nice and welcome laugh from Amber’s post about being a serial hugger.  Sometimes we fight who we are, but it’s better to just embrace the way God has made us.

5. It was raining today as we walked to school.  The girls each had an umbrella and Mason was charging ahead, as he does, because he needed to be first.  Jennavieve noticed that he was getting wet, ran up next to him with her umbrella and said, “Mason, wait!  You are taking rain!”  And she placed her umbrella over his head so he could walk beside her, protected from the rain.
This was a beautiful picture to me of how I would like to live each day.  To look for those who are hurting, needy, or alone and to come beside them with genuine interest in demonstrating the love of Christ.  What would it be like if we had the attitude of Jesus who came not to be served but to serve?  It might look like more listening, less speaking; more giving, less receiving; more intention, less neglect.

As we enter a new week, I leave you with these words from Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians:

….may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.