Trust and Desires

We decided to go down to the city square in McKinney the other day. Right now they are doing what they call "Dickens of a Christmas" which is where they have games and booths set up all over the square and it is decorated with all the Christmas decor and everyone is dressed up just as if you were in the story of Scrooge. The boys saw real reindeer which of course they believed were Santa's and tried to figure out which ones of the nine they were. They rode the train around the square. We Ate lunch in "The Pantry" a restaurant that is in what used to be an genuine old west general store. Then of course they got their faces painted. Max as a Christmas cat and Josh and Tate as the ghost of Christmas future...or so we were told by the artists :) And once all the fun had been had it came down to the serious stuff and what Joshua had been waiting for with eager anticipation. Earlier Joshua had found an advertisement in the paper regarding Thanksgiving sales. In this paper was an add for a red robot ( a little reminiscent of the red raider BB gun from the Christmas story) Joshua had held and looked at that paper all weekend and finally the time had come! Santa was around the corner and what would you know? There was no line so up Joshua walked and pulled out his add before Santa could even ask what he wanted Joshua was pointing out the red robot. I have to admit this guy was the best Santa I had ever seen. He didn't just appease Joshua and send him on his way rather he spent the time to talk to him. He asked if Joshua had seen his reindeer because they had wondered off, he explained that Rudolf was always ornery and caused they others to do mischief. HE looked that add over and had Joshua tell him what he liked about it. HE told Him he wanted lots of cookies and milk. Explained how he came through the chimney with magic. Through it all Joshua ever so serious never cracked a smile. After all he was here on business and he was here for that robot. In Proverbs it tells us that if we trust in the Lord He will give us the desires of our heart. Now, by trust in the Lord it is meant that our desires are granted to us when we have submitted to Christ as Lord and thus His desires become our desires. Our desires are never to be Lorded by self rather by the one who is Lord of all.All to often we miss out on the blessings God desires to bestow on us because we are so focused on what we want rather than what God wants. If we will spend this Christmas being less self serving and spend more time focusing on what God wants for and from us, then he will give us His desires as our desires. And those are the best gifts of all!

When we were young

I took this shot of my youngest, Tate, a couple of weeks ago on a Thursday. Thursdays are my day off and Tate was playing with his costume from Halloween. Tate loves the Marvel characters and with on demand shows that come with Verizon he has his fare share of wolverines, iron man, spider man and superhero squad shows at his beckoning call. That day he was wolverine and no one was going to tell him otherwise!
I can remember when I was young not needing many toys or definitely not needing video games to have fun. Many times I would rather play and use my imagination. I didn't need a toy gun for example because the stick I found yesterday sufficed just as well. I didn't need a real horse to be a cowboy I pretended I had one. in that since I find the same applies to all three of my boys today. While they have more toys than they can even remember and DVDs galore, they still always end up playing and using their imaginations. I think it is innate in every child to be able to imagine whatever their little heart desires.
Somewhere along the way we lose that. Maybe as we grow up and responsibilities become larger and more often our sense of imagination and the ability to dream gets clouded with reality and a sense that dreaming is fun but non productive. But is that what God has for us? I am reminded of the Jews as God lead them out of Egypt and to the promise land. Upon arriving they sent spies into the land to see the land THE LORD HAD GIVEN THEM. Only to have them return and tell the people of God that they were to small to take that land from the occupants. Because of their disobedience God led that entire generation, anyone over the age of 20 to wonder the desert and die there. Only those younger than 20 along with the two spies who dared to dream and imagine that if God had given them the land, that He would provide the means to take it, were allowed to go in.
Maybe we need to become more childlike again. After all "for such is the kingdom of heaven."