Morning Coffee - Live in the Deep

"If you live on the surface of life by focusing on ever-changing phenomena, you will find yourself echoing the words of Solomon:  'Meaningless! Meaningless! Everything is meaningless!'”

Sarah Young

Jesus Calling

I love this analogy, living on the surface of life. Isn’t this what the world is pulling us to do, especially right now; live shallow where every worldly – and constantly changing - thing is calling for our time and attention?   

During this season of Advent, it might be good for me to remember that the real Christmas story is found in the deep – far away from the clamor, chaos and glitz.  

Time for a second cup of coffee and some time spent in the deep.

Merry Christmas!

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Donate a Sweater!

Here is an easy way to donate a sweater to someone in need.  If you have a Facebook account, go to MerrySweater.com and create your own fun photo.  Caribou Coffee with donate a sweater for each sweater photo created. 

Merry Christmas!

Morning Coffee - Restoring order

Make me the focal point of your search for security.  In your private thoughts, you are still trying to order your world so that it is predictable and feels safe. Not only is this an impossible goal, but it is also counterproductive to spiritual growth.

Sarah Young

Jesus Calling

In my cloud of thoughts, GET ORGANIZED dominates.  It is huge and overshadows everything else.  How often I have declared that the goal of the day is to get organized; to get a handle on things again.  Because it is then that I feel I have control of my life.  But I don’t, really – it will all come undone again in a matter of days and I will once again feel anxious and out of sync.

Sarah Young points out that my focus is what needs reorganizing.  God should be the biggest tag in my cloud of thoughts.  I need to make His presence my goal for the day.  That is where lasting safety and security is found.

Time for a second cup of coffee and some ordering of my day!

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Christmas Ice Luminaries - Repost

I've been thinking about starting to make my Christmas Ice Candle Luminaries.  I posted about these once before - but I think it's been a couple of years so thought I would mention them again.  These big ice globes are so easy to make yet are so naturally pretty.

My little freezer is pretty empty so I have lots of room to store these until Christmas Eve and while I won't have my official Candle Lighter to give them a good start, I may just count on him to keep them lit through the Christmas night.

Here are the directions in case you want to try them.

Supplies Needed:

1 Ice Cream Pail – or something similar
1 large balloon
Water
Freezer

Attach your balloon to your facet and fill with water until the balloon fills the bucket.

Blow into the balloon to flatten out the top of the water and tie off the balloon.

Put the bucket containing the filled balloon into your freezer for about 14 hours - or until you have solid frozen walls but still a liquid center.  Remove bucket and pop the balloon.

Using a screwdriver or small hammer, poke through the top of the ice making a hole large enough to allow the lighting of the candle.

Pour out the remaining water and remove from bucket. 

Just add a candle and Ta Da! You now have a beautiful luminary for Christmas Eve.


(Obviously they can be frozen outside too, if it’s cold enough. But the freezer gives you a constant temp and therefore, a constant freezing time for easier planning.)

Enjoy!

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