Faithful Friday - "Mary"

Thank you for joining me for the Christmas tours the past few days! I’m taking a break today to share a Faithful Friday post with you.


Last week during the Sunday morning church service, our pastor brought the message on Promise. And that was just the beginning for me of a lengthy thought process that opened up a flood of emotions.

As Pastor Michael painted the picture that I never thought about so deeply until then, I was able to imagine how things might have been for Mary, the young virgin chosen to be the mother of Jesus.

Can you imagine being so young and being visited by an angel that told you that you were favored by God and chosen to be the mother of Jesus?

But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.  You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.

 

Luke 1:30-32 

First of all, something I had thought about before…..we always see angels as these pretty dainty female angels, but in fact, the angel that visited Mary was a male….Gabriel. And the fact that every time an angel is seen by someone, the first words are “Fear Not” makes me think that the angels must be more like big muscular burly males that would cause even the most courageous person to fear them! And it makes sense to have such angels guarding us and protecting us by the power of God too!

Anyway, as our pastor continued painting the picture, can you imagine Mary having to go home and as time passed and it began to show that she was indeed growing bigger and expecting a child…….can you just imagine her father wanting to know who he was? Who was the father of this child? Who had done this to his daughter? I’m sure he was ready to go after someone! I mean this couldn’t have been easy to believe and accept, even by her family. And just knowing how folks looked at Mary and talked about her had to break her heart, even though God prepared Joseph’s heart and he stood by her. I mean this was a time when she could have been put to death for such a thing! I know I would hate for people to think bad things toward me!

Already I was thinking on this, and then we went to see the program The Singing Christmas Tree that Sunday evening (which was wonderful by the way). When it came to the part that walked through the account of Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem and Mary giving birth to baby Jesus in that stable, oh the emotions that overwhelmed me and the tears flowed. At that moment, I saw it all. I imagined myself in Mary’s place. Oh how beautiful baby Jesus was. You know how it feels as a mother when you first hold that baby and you feel like you would do anything in the world for him or her and always protect him or her…..that you will shelter your baby and keep him or her from harm! 

Then it showed Jesus at the age of about two or so when the wise men came to honor Jesus with gifts and I could imagine how it must have been with that sweet Jesus boy at that age. I love the age of 2….how proud Mary must have been to see him honored so! And I imagined how the look of love and pride on her face must have shone!

And then I had a fast forward and I imagined how it must have been being his mother all those years and then watching him being put to death, a horrible death on a cross. How helpless she must have felt! How awful it must have been. I tell you I had an overwhelming picture of it all and the tears just flowed.

This Christmas season, I have a deeper appreciation for Mary as the mother of Jesus.

But, I’m thankful that I got that mental image because it made me focus on God’s plan and His promise for us. I’m thankful that Jesus was willing to live life on this earth knowing He would die on that cross for us one day. I’m thankful that Mary accepted her favor from God and never looked back as mother of Jesus. I’m thankful that Joseph was sensitive to God and stood by Mary and was a wonderful earthly father to Jesus.

This Christmas season, as we celebrate what Christmas is all about…..I have a deeper appreciation. And by the way, it’s not Happy Holidays or Happy Winter Holidays, it’s Merry CHRISTmas! I’m so thankful that we celebrate Christ! But in the midst of this, I still have a new deep appreciation and love for Mary.....mother to mother.  :)   

Merry CHRISTmas!

If you would like to participate in Faithful Friday, you can link up with Joy here. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend! I hope you can stop by tomorrow and join me for another Christmas tour too.  :)

♥ A Cozy Christmas Tour (The Dining Room) ♥

Thank you so much for joining me today for another Christmas tour! I sure did enjoy your visits and the very kind comments!

Today I’m taking you on a tour of the dining room. The kitchen, living room, and dining room all flow together and are visible to each other.

The tablecoth doesn't look so prim, but we use the table quite a bit, so it's more of a practical thing.  :)



I hope you enjoyed your visit.  Thank you so much for stopping by today!  Tomorrow I'll be back with Faithful Friday and possibly a Christmas pic or two.  But Saturday, I'll be back with another Christmas tour for sure!

I hope you're making lots of Christmas memories with your families!  Isn't this really the best time of the year?  What's not to love about Christmas!  I just can't get enough of it!  :)

♥ Tammy ♥

♥ A Cozy Christmas Tour (The Kitchen) ♥

Welcome back for another Christmas tour! Yesterday I showed you the sunporch. That’s the first room you see as you enter the back door. Today we’re going on into the kitchen. It still smells like chili from supper last night. Come on in! 

Coming in through the backdoor off the sunporch


 

 

This is my view standing at the kitchen sink.....the pass through into the dining room.   

Thank you for stopping by today.  If you can come back tomorrow, we'll walk through the dining room.  :)

I hope you're enjoying all the blessings of this Christmas season!  :)

♥ Tammy ♥

♥ A Cozy Christmas Tour (The Sunporch) ♥

Welcome back for another Christmas tour! Today I’m sharing the room that we first walk into when we come into the house……our sunporch. After parking in our carport/garage, we enter our home through the sunporch and into the kitchen.

Again, Christmas décor out here is simple, with a tree of pinecones, greenery and berries, and birdhouses, with a few touches of Christmas here and there on the table, back door, and potting bench. It’s just enough to make me happy when I walk in.

We do have a heating and air unit out there, so we can enjoy it all seasons. We like to use the sunporch as overflow when we have a dinner. We set up a table out there, so it’s nice to have it decorated for that reason too.

So come on in! Backdoor guests are best!

 

 

Jason made the potting bench from a door

I hope you enjoyed the tour!  Come back tomorrow and we'll walk on through the back door into the kitchen!  Thanks so much for stopping by!  :)

Pinned it, Made it! Monday ~ Week 20 ~

It’s time again (already) for Pinned it, Made it! Monday. It seems like Pinterest is just oozing wonderful images and ideas. I’ve pinned so many more than I can possibly get to this year. But it’s nice having them collected there, I must say. It’s wonderful to just pull up a board when I want to make use of an idea.

This week, I’m sharing our Elf on a Shelf variation. We don’t make a big deal about Santa because we're trying to keep the focus on Jesus. So our twist with the Elf is that he’s like a fairytale or a book that we read. His name is Pete and he likes to play hide and seek with Luke. He hides and Luke finds him the next morning when he wakes up. Pete is a little on the mischievous side and likes to have fun!  (On a side note about this:  We are also reading the Bible and talking to Luke throughout the Christmas season about the true meaning of Christmas and teaching him to give to others). 

We pulled several ideas from Pinterest and I have a board there called Elf on a Shelf if you want to check them out. And we came up with a few of our own too.

Pete arrived last Saturday on December 1st when Luke opened the TV entertainment center and Luke was holding a Christmas DVD of Veggie Tales.  (We forgot to get a pic of that before he grabbed it).  :)

But here are the adventures of Pete (the elf) so far:


Pete the Elf was cruising with the barbies.

Pete likes putting together puzzles.

Pete went for a boat ride in the bathroom sink.  :)

 

He was riding the sheep.

Ole Pete was experimenting with shaving.  :)

Hanging out.  :)  Pete was trying out his gymnastics on the pot rack.

Pete likes to build.  He's my kind of man.  :)  And look, it's a log cabin! 

Pete got carried away brushing his teeth.

Pete likes the iPad

What about you? Have you got something you’d like to share for Pinned it, Made it! Monday? We’d LOVE to see it!

To participate in Pinned it, Made it! Monday, here are the guidelines:

1) Just do a post about what you’ve pinned and made from Pinterest, then come back over here to Country Girl at Home and link that particular post (not your blog in general) on this post below.

2) I don’t mind if you link up more than one post….multiple entries are fine.

3) You must add my Pinned it, Made it! Monday button on your post or sidebar of your blog linking back to Country Girl at Home. You may get this button code on the page at the top of my blog labeled “Buttons”. Just copy and paste the code into your post.

4) Be supportive and visit blog entries. I do ask that you visit at least one and leave a comment there. And don't forget to leave me one here! :) We all love comments, don’t we? It’s encouraging and uplifting!

5) By linking up and participating, you give me permission to use your entry photo if I decide to feature an entry.


Thanks for stopping by today!  And thank you for the kind comments on my living room Christmas tour post!  Tomorrow I'll be back with more Christmas tour photos from another room.

Happy Pinning!  Have a great week!  :)

♥ Tammy ♥