The love of God

I chanced upon a quote today that I want to remember.

There is nothing you can do to make God love you more. There is nothing you can do to make God love you less.

Certainly puts it all in perspective, doesn't it?

gratitude

It was my turn to lead staff devotions a couple of weeks ago. Normally that is a tense and stressful time. What, oh what will I talk about? This year it was easy. I chose gratitude as the topic as that's what I'm trying to focus on this year. Gratitude is hard, but it does help me deal with certain situations. I even had time to put it into practice the week I was on staff devotions. When it's your turn for staff devotions, you're also responsible for staff room clean-up. Miraculously I remembered to do this every day that week. A momentous occasion, to say the least! Usually when I have to do this, I grumble about people who can't do their own dishes, meaning I have to do a sink full of dishes. This time, when I was tempted to grumble, I stopped myself, and tried to find a way to be grateful in the situation. And, I found one! There's now a dishwasher. So all I had to do was put the dishes in the dishwasher. It was good.

Below are some quotations and Bible verses I shared in my devotions that week.

Johannes A. Gaertner
To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.

John F. Kennedy
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.

Melodie Beattie
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.

David Steindl-Rast
Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy -- because we will always want to have something else or something more.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
Colossians 3:15.

Do you see what we've got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship. Hebrews 12:28

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4: 6 and 7

Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High.
He who sacrifices thanks offerings honours me, and he prepares the way, so that I may show him the salvation of God.
Psalm 50: 14, 23

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever. 1 Chronicles 16:34

Black and White and ????? Sudoku

I finally put together the 9 patches for my black and white Sudoku. The squares had been cut for months (since September!). Now to decide what colour to use for the sashing. I took some pictures with different ideas. Any preferences?

It's a New Year!

It's a new year. I'm not so good at the hype of New Year's Eve. I like a quiet night at home. And that's what I had. A movie. Chatting with a sister. It was all good.

I'm also not so good at New Year's Resolutions. I'm not sure why. Part of it may be that I am a teacher, and it seems to me that my year calendar runs late August to June, so this feels like a funny time to make resolutions. Having said that, I read a blog yesterday where the author picks words to have as her focus for the year. I really liked that idea. So much so that I'm actually taking her two words as my words for the year. And adding one of my own.

GRATITUDE

I'd like to think that I show gratitude in some ways. But I'd like to make a more conscious effort to show gratitude to those who add to my life. More importantly, I hope I can cultivate an attitude of gratitude. I want to cut down on the complaining I do - and see more of the good God gives me in my life. And there is so much good!


GENEROSITY

When my sister and I talked about this last night, and I said I wanted to be generous with more than money - with my time, she told me that I had already met that goal. In many ways, I think she's right. But somehow I still think there's a ways to go with this. Some of the times I'm giving of my time, it's out of a sense of duty, and sometimes accompanied by irritation that I have to be doing it. I need to change that and that's what I want to work on. Lessening the sense of duty and increasing the acts of giving freely.


BALANCE

Now anyone who knows me is laughing. This is not a new thing for me at all. I'd like to believe I'm getting a little better at this balance of life and work, but there's still a ways to go. Here's hoping!


May we see the wonders of our loving and faithful God as we attempt to walk in the paths He has laid out for us. Happy New Year to all!

Reason for the Season

Yesterday I finished this small wall hanging. I've been working on it for the last couple of months. It's a real group project. Much of the fabric came from a friend who is a quilter "extraordinaire" who has quite the stash and freely gave bits and pieces to be used in this project. Two Saturdays were spent with friends, selecting the fabrics for the different sections and cutting them out. Only the actual sewing was an independent project. Three of these nativity hangings were made. When the others finish, I'll have to get pictures so they can be compared. All one pattern, many similar fabrics, yet the creativity of each shines through.

As I worked (well, played really) on this, I was constantly reminded of the reason for celebration at this time of year. The gift of the Prince of Peace, the King of Kings, the light of the world. May your Christmas season be filled with the wonder of this priceless and precious gift. May you be wonder-filled with the realization of God's amazing love.

The joy of energy!

It's funny how many things we often take for granted. Like just having the energy to do what needs to be done. And the energy to enjoy doing those things and feel good about them. That's the gift I've felt the last couple of days. I've been so tired and I've felt somewhat flat. I never did get sick, really, just felt tired and more tired. BUT the last couple of days I've felt a sense of energy and positiveness. What a gift! When I really think about it, I am reminded that I do that with the gift of God's love for me. Take it for granted more often than I'd like to admit. And it's new every morning. Great is His faithfulness!

My Favourite Quilt(s)

Last spring I chanced upon an online quilt festival. Wow, was it inspiring! The stories, the quilts, the thoughts. What a privilege to enjoy the entries. I was inspired at that time to start my own blog. But, life got in the way of keeping it up. Maybe now I'll be inspired to keep it up.

Like many people who quilt, I can't choose a favourite quilt. So, I'm going to choose two - both of them made for anniversaries of people I love. My parents celebrated their 50th anniversary just over a year ago. I wanted to give them something special - a gift of love. I saw a quilt like this one - crossword of family names - at an outdoor quilt festival and thought it would be perfect for them. What fun (really, it was fun) it was to fit the names of all our family members into a crossword puzzle for them. As my parents love playing Scrabble, it seemed a fitting gift for them. It sits on the end of their bed. And I even had to make matching pillow cases for them. I guess they like it!

My brother and his wife celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary this past summer. I was going to surprise them, but my brother came right out and asked for a quilt. Pretty cheeky, eh? So, the cat was out of the bag and I asked my sister-in-law what colours she would like. (Got in trouble with my brother for that, but oh well.) She picked red and orange. Certainly not colours I would have ever picked. Or even that I thought would look at all nice. Fortunately the fabric designers are doing fabulous jobs with designing and I found some that looked great! Now I even entertain the idea of making a red and orange quilt for myself.