This weeks events

Youth Group Christmas Party

 Last Sunday night we had a Christmas party at our house for our youth group, we had some delicious dinner, played "Honey if you Love me won't you please please smile?"...very entertaining  :)  We did a silly white elephant gift exchange, ate some good deserts, and enjoyed a bon-fire in the back yard.  I'm so thankful for these lovely folks, they brighten my life, and I always look forward to the time we get to spend with them.  As crazy as they are I love them dearly  :)

Everyone showing off their white elephant gifts

 

This Christmas Eve before going to church

30 weeks

 This is the second year I am spending Christmas away from my family, the first year being when I was in South Africa.  It's kind of weird, but yet feels so natural to be spending this Christmas with my little family in our own home.  Today we have been wrapping presents, and getting things ready for Christmas day, we also got some lunch and went to the park to eat and play with Ava on the play ground, it was a fairly relaxed day I would say.  Tonight we went to the Christmas eve service at our church, then came home had a nice dinner, and are getting the kitchen and house cleaned up for tomorrow... I mean, who wants a messy house on Christmas day?!  Anyway, I'm feeling rather ready for Christmas day as far as preparations go, as far as the Christmas season goes, I am sad that it has almost come to an end, it's definitely one of my favorite times of the year.

The lines on my shirt do trippy things  :)

On another note but still concerning Christmas, my Jehovah's Witness friend came over the other day and we talked for a while, one of the things we talked about was why I don't refer to God as "Jehovah" every time I talk about him.  She felt it was irreverent of me, and as we were talking, I realized a few things.  For one, God has many names so just to stick to one of His names doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.  She mentioned that we are to make his name known, to her that name being Jehovah, and I explained that I don't think God is offended by me not calling him Jehovah every time I talk about him, He wants to see and know that I'm living for him, that my complete trust is His, that I have surrendered myself to him and his work in my life.  Also, because I believe Jesus is God, I want to make His name known... I want to let people know who Jesus Christ is, the He is God and that He humbled himself by becoming a human like us living in a sinful world, and then taking Sin upon his perfect self and dying so that we don't have to... and after ALL that, raising himself from the dead, so that we can LIVE forever in Him.  So... is Jehovah my God?  Yes... just as Jesus Christ, his son is my God.
I feel like this girl and I are going around and around on this subject of Jesus being God, she wanted to talk about other things last time, but I explained to her that this is the cornerstone of my faith, and there is no use talking about other things, when she is believing a lie, when we disagree on such important things... pray for her, only God is able to do a work in her heart.