As they are getting older, they enjoy more handing out the candy. Both DD and DS had a good time rushing to the door, with bowl of candy, to see the children and their fun costumes. Lots of sweet little girls with princess costumes, a few Harry Potters, a Sponge Bob. A few creepy ones too.
I try to take an approach to see the good and fun parts of it, and not focus on the other. That is just me, and I try to respect other's opinion about it too. I've never played it up much at all. Only had a very few decorations that were pumpkin related, and actually got rid of most and gave to my friend Lindsay before we moved.
I've given away a LOT more items before we moved. I still have a box to take to Goodwill or Salvation Army, that the movers accidentally packed...was too tired during the move to even notice they had packed it up. I gave tons of empty plastic containers away that I did not intend to fill again. Kept a few...but seriously, there were like probably at least 40 empty plastic containers! It is a good feeling to simplify. DH and I are going through the garage one more time, to see if there is anything we can give away or throw away.
God keeps calling me to go through again and again...keep simplifying. Not sure what this is about, but we have other friends in AL who have been going through this same feeling. Also another friend in Washington. Maybe God is getting us all ready for something, or calling His people to learn to live 'simply'.
Last week was a good week for me (as far as feeling sad about the move and this transition), and I've had my mind in a good place; My attitude in a good place. Well, last night I took a turn for the worse, I had a drop down that went south fast! Not sure what it was because I'm staying in the word, had a good day overall with the children, and have been allowing God to shift my thinking. Yet, out from nowhere, I could not stop crying.
I suppose grief can be like that....grief of all sorts. This move is a grieving. DH and I were also faced Sat. with dealing with grief of friends losing their father. Also, another illness they are dealing with. Which brought us around to losing our Gaga, and the children and us walking through more grieving moments too.
As much as we'd like to never feel sad again or shed a tear, the sad moments still come unexpectedly. We've got to allow ourselves to FEEL that pain, work through it....allow God to touch those places, and move through it. We are doing this with God walking us through. We get through the sad spots, with or without support of others. However, it sure would be much sweeter getting through the struggles and pain of life, with understanding others. Not someone to 'fix', or tell how us how we need to be acting, or what to do to 'get over it'. We all know that, We know the word. We love Jesus and HE is our Savior! Yet there are times we need to feel and cry...need a brother or sister in the Lord to 'be' beside us. A presence of a friend can be comforting; a word of encouragement and love...and uplifting word in season can bring a person from a very low place, to a much higher place. A sharp, harsh word, can take one lower into despair.
God help me be as Jesus to those who are hurting. Help me speak words that build up someone who is hurting, and lovingly remind them of their hope in Christ. No matter how long it takes, show me how to walk through it, and love others through, and allow YOU to do the work in us all. Not place burdensome or encumbering expectations on others or myself. Help me sharpen lives by your love and your word. Help me live out the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 6:1-10) in my own life, and to be this to others. Help me bear burdens with others, and help them carry their box of burdens too. Help me not be like the Pharisees, who were more interested in shoving the word down peoples throat, for the sake of being 'religious'. Help me to truly LOVE with your love as you teach us in 1 John 3. There is so much I am lacking in, but yet you have grace and mercy enough to cover and BE love through me.
1 John 3
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
Help me to live the fruit of the Spirit.
Galatians 5
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
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