Thursday, December 13, 2012

It Was The Best of Times, It Was The Best of Times

"Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn."   ... Romans 12:15

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There will be no printed-out Christmas letter from Tom and Debra this December.

Why not? Because we had too many blessings this year. And well, those of you who care enough about me to read my blog are already aware of those blessings so they're oldy, moldy news. The rest of my relatives and friends who choose not to read my blog--many of them--would rather not hear about all the good stuff. It will irk them, even if I give all the glory to God, which I always do, since it's always Him who's doing the blessing.

Did you see that verse, above? It's not too hard to mourn with those who mourn, but I'm thinking it takes lots of maturity to rejoice with those who rejoice. Many of us become bonkers when others splash through their good seasons while we're sinking under our bad ones.

We all have good seasons, we all have bad ones, too, but seldom does everybody's 'seasonal timing' occur simulataneously.

So again, there'll be no 2012-was-the-best-of-times letter from my family. We'll mail our cards with simple, loving greetings, instead, for this year I'm feeling it's the right thing for Tom and me to do. But for the record, I hope we'll receive lots of Christmas letters from everybody. I think Tom and I finally became mature enough to handle them with purest joy a couple years ago. :)


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Oh, I am in love with this Hobbit House. Maybe you want your heavenly mansion to look like, well, a heavenly mansion, but I think mine will resemble this, instead. 

Click on 'enlarge gallery' for more photos. The library captured my heart, (but of course), as well as the backyard.

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4 comments:

Thickethouse.wordpress said...

Be still my beating heart!

What a darling house. So glad someone actually built it!

Bonnie said...

It's nice to see someone do something fun and harmless with extra money. It's a beautiful piece of architecture.

You know, over the years we've received our share of the "bragging" christmas letters. Some have been almost comical and I find they are from the same families year after year. There is something about talking too much about yourself that just is just not very thoughtful, I think. I suspect it comes from needing to be heard. Listening....*really* listening to someone ...is a wonderful gift to give.

Anonymous said...

I think one of the least observed among those who claim to follow GOD, at least in our country, is the ablility to truly rejoice with those that rejoice!! I agree with what you say on this. We did not say very much at all in our greetings which we sent out at Thanksgiving, the time we most often have sent out greetings. Not in detail at least. Most of us who have lived awhile have learned that the good times and the bad happen in life...and one must enjoy the blessings times to savor later when times are hard too. Heh, if your kin do not read here, it might not be all that bad!
Elizabeth in VA now

Terra said...

We are sending out lots of Christmas cards this year, but like you, no long letter; just personal notes. Those letters are hard to write as you suggest, because of people's reactions. Merry Christmas dear blog friend.