a follow-up

Good morning!  Ok, so I wanted to write a P.S. to my prior blog post about the living nativity.  I received a comment that left me wanting to elaborate.

First, I am so thankful that so many people have had a wonderful experience visiting the living nativity.  The fact that a church has the funds in this weak economy - and the volunteer man power - to pull off offering a free community outreach as large as the living nativity, is amazing.  How many families, perhaps because it was free, or because they offered hot chocolate and refreshments, went ahead and spent the evening there with their families and heard about what Christmas is REALLY about?  How many people perhaps now will visit that church again, and hear more about Jesus as Savior?  

Second, my post was NOT about the nativity, it was about the WAIT.  That is really important!  It was a joke.  Kevin would never make a joke about anything concerning his relationship with Jesus, it is sacred to him.  Every morning that he does not leave before the children wake, we pray as a family together about our day ahead, and Bailey reads from her Bible.  We talk every night about how we saw God that day, and we attend church together - more than once - every week.  I don't need to explain my husband's spiritual life to you, but I don't want it being questioned, so I thought I would let you know Kevin does in fact have a strong faith.  He simply was joking around about the hours we spent waiting for the walk-through of the nativity.

So many friends have said that since they got there early, they were able to enjoy the nativity scenes.  Please go, and see the hundreds of hours of work this church put into this ministry.  The actors, the props, the message itself, about what Christmas is REALLY about, is simply amazing.  I am going to call the church next year and ask what day and time is the best to go, and we will visit it again, because it really is wonderful.

Also, even though the wait was long, and Kevin ended up getting ill (and made a few jokes!) I was so thankful about the conversation my girls and I had afterwards.  They asked a lot of questions, and we were able to look the Scripture up together and talk about it.  Interestingly, their main interest afterwards was about Satan not the nativity, bc the church put on a skit about Adam and Eve while we were in the sanctuary.  They were asking about how Satan can disguise himself...and we told them about the background of Satan, and what presence he tries to have in our lives now.  

So in summary, we encourage you to go early to the nativity, do not let my prior blog post about the wait discourage you please.  I would hope - to my few readers that I have - that my words would not weigh so heavily as to change your mind if you were planning to attend.  In addition, I have the feeling that if I continue to write on this blog, not everyone will like what I have to say.  That's perfectly ok - I don't like everything everyone else has to say, either!  And that doesn't mean we can't be friends, or enjoy each other if we are family :)  I don't ever want to offend anyone, and if you're worried I might, please don't read.  This blog serves as my journal, a glimpse into my life.  I'm not handing out pamphlets with my opinions :)  But my hope is that much more often than not, I can encourage someone, not tear anyone down.  That makes me very sad, thinking I might ever do that.  I spend hours a week giving to others, and trying to encourage and uplift - I would hate to think anything I ever say or do would be counterintuitive to that end.  

Thank you for reading.  My next post will be about what Taylor thinks I should do with my life - it will add some levity for sure :)