Daniel,
Danny,
Dan.
Bucky,
Uncle Bucky,
Uncle Dan.
Thunder
(personal best,)
Cuppycake
(only me,)
Stan
(never!)
Tag: friend
Oh by gosh, by golly! It’s time for Mistletoe and Holly!
Jesus knew, giving makes both the giver and the receiver happy. In pursuit of that happiness, many view gift-giving as one of the most important features of Christmas.
Many feel that Christmas gift-giving brings more stress, not more happiness. How so? A lot of shoppers feel compelled to buy gifts that they cannot afford. And since everyone is shopping for gifts at the same time, crowds and long lines make shopping an exasperating experience for many.
“Practice giving,” said Jesus.
“Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”
Luke 6:38
And He did not limit gift-giving to a certain time of the year when people would be expected to give. Jesus urged his followers to make spontaneous gift-giving a practice, a way of life.
“Let each one do just as he has resolved in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
2 Corinthians 9:7
The essence of Paul’s counsel is that “nothing is ever to be given ‘from compulsion,’ from a feeling that one is forced to give,” explains one Bible commentary. Being “a cheerful giver” rules out the feeling of being obligated to give a specific item to a specific person at a specific time—the way Christmas gift-giving often turns out to be.
Gifts given as a matter of Choice.
Gifts given as they should be.
Love is a gift.
Now give that gift away.
these hugs n’ blessings are for everyone choosing to give the gift of love this Christmas Season!
What Kind of Tree Are You?
My Sunday Reblog (as part of the NaBloPoMo challenge,) comes from one of my blogging HEROs!! I discovered Bill during my first Blogging101 course through WordPress. Bill was kind enough to “Like” one of my posts and moved by this stranger’s extreme kindness & encouraging words to me, I looked into his site as well. It has been a blog-loving-affair ever since!!! I cannot get to his site fast enough once I’ve received a notification of a recent post and I know when you go there you too will immediately understand why!
In late October of 1996, just weeks after his 36th birthday, Bill was diagnosed with a terminal disease called Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. (ALS or “Lou Gehrig’s Disease,” after the famous New York Yankee’s player who brought this Disease to the public light in a very poignant way.)
Bill’s motive for starting his blog is to pass along some of the lessons he has learned through the course of this trial and hopefully help others avoid some of the detrimental (hope-stealing) mistakes he has made. These are important lessons for all of us to learn because, as Bill points out, “If you’re not going through a trial now, a trial is coming. I know that’s not good news, but it’s the truth. But, as I hope to show, we don’t have to fear trials because God can handle anything that this life throws our way and we can handle them too if we see the trials through the eyes of Christ!”
I am rebloging today one of my favorite posts from Bill and I just know if you take time to read it too you will be just like me & the other 2,700+ believers…in Bill’s Unshakable Hope!
Some might be disappointed, but this is not one of those quizzes like I see posted on Facebook. (There actually is one of those quizzes with this same title, but I didn’t take it because I was afraid that the results would show that I was Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tree).
Ten or twelve years ago, let’s just say eleven, Mary and I were shopping at Home Depot. After finishing our shopping in the store, we wandered out to the garden department to look for some small trees. It was November, and most of the plants were marked down because they were making room for Christmas trees.
Mary got hung up looking at wreathes and other boring items, so I cruised my wheelchair over to go look at trees. As it turned out, there were not many trees left, and I didn’t see anything I was interested in. Just when I was…
View original post 542 more words
hugsnblessings 