33 yrs ago tonight...

.

..I married my husband! This day is almost over for another year....another year to start off w/my true best friend. WOOHOO! It took me a long time to find him but finally we met...kissed and that's when I melted like butter. I tried for months to talk MYSELF out of love w/this guy but I kept coming back to my gut feeling that this was the right one for me. After all the other upsets in this area of love n trust....I didn't want to get hurt again....but something kept pulling at my heart.

I didn't know then but 1.5 yrs later I figured out that GOD was tugging at me to follow my heart this time. I am so very glad I did. Steve is simply the best for me, not for anyone else...but for me he is the best. I am so thankful for his desire to keep God first in his life, thankful that he always treats me as a fine princess at the ball. When we are in a room of people, I only have to see his face and he makes me feel like I am the only one there. It was wonderful to have children with this man of God. We parented as a team and many times he took duties of the household from me so I could "just rest." We have never had lots of money but we are so rich in the areas of trust, love, confidence, family and now a couple w/adult children and being grandparents together. What a blessing!

The bumps of life along the way has only given us more of the together-strength. Loosing a child, 7 straight yrs of schooling for him, raising teens, a couple back surgeries for me, making sure we were there for every grandchilds birth, every dance recital of our own girls and now granddaughters. Cars, jobs, moves to the many states we have lived in...I could go on and on.

It is a blessing to be able (in this era of marriage life) to look into your spouses eyes and honestly say "You have always been the one. I have always been true to you."

God if You sees fit, please give us 33 more yrs together! And may all the glory go back to You. For You are the reason we are together. We will keep that triangle tight w/You at the helm.

I love you Lord and I love you Steve.

A favorite part .....

..of the Christmas Story for me is located in Luke 2:25-35

NIV starts out like this " There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, looking forward to Israel's consolation, and the Holy Spirit was upon him."

All we really know about this man was that he was a "man of God" and possibly up in years. We also know that he listened to God quite often b/c he could quote the prophets of old. He was a man "in touch" w/God so much that God's Holy Spirit told him that he would not die until he saw the Messiah.

In my imagination, I think that he was a gentle man, rough large hands, maybe tall and lanky, but carried himself in such a way that others gave their respect and their listening ears. Some may have always looked at him as a crazy old man who never stopped talking about the coming Messiah....but he always knew better!

I like to think that he loved children. I don't know why but when I read V28 "Simeon took Him up in his arms, praised God" I can see the love in his eyes for this child he was holding. How he carefully handed this child back to His mother, letting her know that she was the mother of The Messiah. Smiling at Joseph with tears streaming down his face, knodding his head b/c he was so grateful to have held The Messiah!

V30-32 states "For my eyes have seen Your salvation. You have prepared it in the presence of all people, a light of revelation to the Gentiles and glory to Your people Israel."
V34-35 Simeon blessed them all and told Mary "Indeed this child is destined to cause the fall and rise of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be opposed! A sword will pierce your own soul, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."

I love to think of being a shepherd seeing the tiny babe...I admire the patience and travel time the Magi took to lay gifts at the feet of a small child....I so respect 2 young people in love for facing the insurmountable odds of 9 mos when they did nothing wrong in that situation all b/c they knew God was working thru them.

So when I read about Simeon, I am amazed! He had been waiting for this Messiah, this Savior for many years. No doubt many parents went in and out of the temple to perform what was customary to Jewish law...but Simeon knew the child at first glance! He scooped Him up into his arms and praised God for the Messiah revealed! He knew that his life could end that very minute b/c he finally got to see what God had promised all along!

What I can take from this? Well, I love babies, I love to give gifts (small or large), I admire anyone who perserviers thru trials and hard times....I understand the shepherds, Magi and being a couple in love-facing trials....BUT I CAN ONLY HOPE TO ONE DAY BE A SIMEON!

The true hope is: I don't have to one day be a Simeon, I have the Word in front of me, I have seen the child! I see Him in the kids we help at the schools near our church, the trailer court we support w/food, my small group of 4th-5th graders, my mother and Steve's father who both are ailing in their older years. The cashier at WalMart or a single mother trying to handle life w/an autistic child. I don't want to fail to mention our military. All these lay under the cross of The Messiah , including me.

Am I Simeon? Never will be but I am a believer of The Messiah, and have the Holy Spirit within me so may I never stop seeking and telling and helping others to know of the hope of the light of revelation for salvation giving all the glory to God.

Merry Christmas!

Traditions...

are such memory-keepers aren't they?

Our daughters told us their memories of Christmas: putting the manager scene together one piece per night, then finding Baby Jesus somewhere in the living room on Christmas morning & putting Him in His proper place...reading the Christmas story from Luke on Christmas Eve...buying a small family present for each other and opening them on Christmas Eve....knowing that daddy alway enjoyed buying the stocking stuffers...Christmas stocks....Happy Birthday Jesus cake for b'fast BEFORE opening presents.....watching all of the old Christmas movies starting 2 wks prior to Christmas.

Tonight Stve n I watched a memorable movie "The Charlie Brown Christmas". How much better does it get when (My fav character) Linus takes his thumb out of his mouth, hangs onto his blankee and says "Lights Please" then he starts to recite the real Christmas story. I love his lyspe!

Our first Christmas tree as a married couple was a "fuller brush" artifical tree from a grocery store(Piggley Wiggley) in southern Texas. BECAUSE to get real trees to southern Texas, they were shipped in refrigerated train cars and they cost A MINT~! The only one we could afford (real that is) really did look like the Charlie Brown tree, really! So we purchased our artifical tree for a whopping $10. (and kept it for at least 5 yrs) So $2 per/yr was a great deal!

While stationed in Va.Bch, Va....I was taking this tree down and one of the "fuller brush" branches was stuck, so I sat my sweet toddler on the couch and proceeded to pull, I got it unstuck but it went into my left eye!OUCH~!

But really, I would never take any of that back for a bigger, better tree or gifts or home. The laughter Steve n I went thru trying to pick out the perfect tree on an E2 paycheck, we were so proud of our little 5' tree.

Now we have a 10 footer but while living in an apt, can not put it up. And w/my vertigo, not much is going up anyway! The neat thing is: CHRISTMAS WILL STILL COME, we will celebrate w/family memories of yrs past, gifts that didn't work,Operation Christmas Child, batteries that were forgotten, knowing we helped needy families in our town, blessed w/lots of food to eat, and most importantly: the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus!

PS...I may not get all the decorations up that I want this yr, but I promise I will take down the harvest wreath and take "the sure to be ripe" pumpkins off of the patio table!

The Lord our Protector...

V1-I raise my eyes unto the hills, where does my help come from? V2-My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.

My "be still" moment today was in the 2nd step of the Psalm of the Accents-Palm 121. I pondered on the parts where it states that God is our Protector. He never slumbers not sleep. He is a shelter for my right side, the sun does not strike me by day nor the moon by night. He will protect me from all harm. He will protect my coming and my going.

That kept me still for most of the afternoon. I facilitated the Psalms of the Ascents by Beth Moore, I tried to find my study guide but it's to high up in the closet for me to read what we discussed. Protector by definition means: to cover, to keep from harm. Yet I know of many who believe in the great God of Creation and have suffered loss, was not protected, was struck down by the sun. I have even experience the same things in this life. So what does it mean? Then I took time to read a blog of a mother who lost her son to cancer this past spring. It does rain on the just and unjust ....so what about this protection thing? After I read her comments today I thought differently on the subject of protection.

I know His protection is not always around us yet He is always around. The verses talk of Hm never slumbering or sleeping. Meaning He is ever awake and watching us. We want to think of protection as the exact definition but I think God wants us to know His protection is that He is ever present, ever awake, knowing and walking thru ever minute of our lives.

Read this Psalm and tell me what you think it means.

No Letter...

this year!! Every year I write out a letter of events from that awesome year God allowed us to share together. All the good, bad and the ugly of life. But this year I am not do that. Now one thing my family has to put up with is the "Olan Mills Mother" that comes out of me when I know we will be together.. It may be a theme picture or color coordinated and every person has a smile on their faces! Now the guys of my family usually smile on cue b/c they are so NOT into standing around in strange areas for "just one more picture.' However for me, this is a treasure!

This year was a clarion call to wear fall colors. (easy right?) We tried indoors then went outside and those pics looks more "normal & relaxing" for us. We do have a wonderful family photographer, namely Shana....so we made sure that we got some of their family.
I already have next years theme thought out in my mind,but it's a secret, a good plan never fails!

Thanksgiving feast, which we are all blessed w/in this country was filling, so filling that we forgot to bake the Mrs. Smith Pumpkin pie! (we never even missed it) the guys watched football on a 52" screen while we girls prepared all sorts of good stuff. A sweet family came over b/c they lived states away from their family...we had so much food and I came away w/a great Corn Casserole Mexican style!

The grands made gingerbread teddy bear cookies, and also some sugar cookies. Sir n I was able to watch them put up their Christmas tree. Funny thing is their Christmas list wasn't very large this year, just onething "American Girl". We brought Christmas to them so I know that each day they see those presents, they are really itching to peek.

Shana took a wonderful picture of Marley that could win a contest! We went to Turtle Park in Albany, Ga and took some rustic pics in an alley and by the rail road station. Had to bribe Marley and the grands w/snacks n gum....teehee!

After doing all things the holiday traditions have required, the pastor at Jill and Warren's church made this statement....Jesus responds to us in the middle of our busy-ness and says "Be Still & Know that I am God." Jesus wants to spend UNHURRIED TIME w/us on a regular basis.

Throughout the week together w/our family I thought often of Jesus and what He desires of us...and then the pastor spoke it: UNHURRIED TIME.

So may I encourage you to spend some unhurried time w/Christ before we celebrate His birth. IF the last holly does not get up in time or the wrapping paper doesn't match or you run out of bows..or you don't have enough money to spend, or our home doesn't have that "martha stewart" look, so what! Our relationship w/Christ, family and friends is what really matters during the most stressful time of the year.

These are the things that will be remembered!