Barnyard Benders

Aren't these cute? This rooster and farmer are bendable figures with magnet feet which stand up on their little tin barn boxes.

Giving Gifts at Christmas

What fun it is to take exchange gifts to a Christmas party and then play a game of some kind to distribute the gifts between the guests. Perhaps you have played the Left-Right game. Everyone in the circle holds a gift in his hand while a "Left/Right" story is read. (The story can be changed up to fit any group or situation.) Whenever the word “left” or “right” is heard, everyone passes their gift to the person on his left or right accordingly. When the story is over, the participants keep and open the gift they ended up with.
Here is a variation of that which I used with my Dayspring folks (the residents at a Senior Living facility where I go). I brought one gift bag which they passed around as I read this story:

Christmas Shopping for Grandma Wright

One day, with just a few shopping days left before Christmas, the Wright sisters, Wanda, Anna and Gracie, were excited to go shopping. They wanted to find just the right gift for their Grandma Wright. Grandma Wright was very special to them. She seemed to have a special “connection” to God. She prayed for everyone and about everything, She could not even sit down to eat her breakfast egg without praying for those in far-off lands who had little or no food at all.
Now what do you think Grandma Wright would really like for Christmas? They thought about it as Wanda pulled out the driveway, and turned right into the street. Suddenly, the frugal Anna, the middle sister, cried out, “Wait a minute! I cannot find that 50% off coupon! It is not in my purse.” Anna checked her left jeans pocket, and then her right pocket. “Let me run back into the house to find it.” In a few minutes she was back. “It was right where I left it on the counter to the left of the refrigerator,” she explained.
So off they went, dodging the traffic to the left, and then to the right. Then they turned right onto Main Street and made another right into the mall parking lot.
“Oh, look at the fancy Christmas sweaters in the window! I like this colorful one with the snowmen on the front,” Gracie said.
“I think Grandma Wright would prefer this blue one, the one to the left--or this one with a zipper. See, it’s reversible with red on the right side, and green on the inside!” exclaimed Anna.
“No, since we can’t seem to agree on this, I don’t think that a sweater is the right thing at all for Grandma Wright,” said Wanda, the oldest sister. “We’d better get going or our choices will be the leftovers after all these shoppers have picked over the best things!”
“How about perfume?” suggested Gracie, the youngest sister, eying a pretty rose-shaped bottle.
“Oh, yes, I wonder if Grandma Wright has any perfume left from last Christmas. Isn’t that what we gave her last year? We can’t give that to her again. Come on,” Wanda insisted. But just as they turned to go, Gracie was sampling a sniff from the beautiful glass perfume bottle and it slipped from her hands. It fell to the floor with a tinkling crash!
“Oh, no!” The accident left a wonderful smell in the air, but paying for the broken merchandise also left a chunk out of the money they had planned to spend. The girls were so embarrassed and disappointed that they trudged right back to the car to go home. “We’ll come back another time,” they thought.
The disheartened trio arrived at home from their fruitless shopping trip. As Wanda drove into the garage, Anna went to the mailbox to bring in the mail. She came into the house excited and shouting, “I’ve found it—the perfectly right gift for us to buy for Grandma Wright!” She showed her sisters the little catalog she had found in the mailbox. “It says here that we can buy a brood of chicks for a needy family in a third-world country in her honor.”
“Oh yes, wouldn’t she like that!” agreed Gracie. “What would she like more than to see the answer to her prayers for the hungry people on the other side of the world?”
“That’s right, we have found the right gift for Grandma Wright!” declared Wanda. All the sisters agreed, and Grandma Wright was delighted with her special gift that Christmas.

When I had finished the story, I had the person holding the bag to open it. Inside was a card from Samaritan’s Purse informing the group that a gift of a brood of chicks had been given in their honor by the Chicken Lady.

I had another idea which I think would be a lot of fun too. Inform the guests ahead of time that they are to bring a gift bag with a note in it simply telling about one thing they did or gave for someone else this Christmas. No need to write your name on it or the amount of money involved. Then play the left/right game using an appropriate story. After the story ends, the participants take turns reading the notes inside the bags. You'd be surprised what diverse and creative ways people have given. One may have given canned goods to a food pantry, or sent a donation to a missionary, or made a crib quilt for an orphanage, or helped at a soup kitchen, or given a cow to a family in a third-world country through an organization like Samaritan's Purse, or given some homemade cookies to a co-worker, or simply given an encouraging word to the harried cashier at the store. It will inspire everyone to want to give in new and exciting ways at Christmastime.

Flat Stanley Is Going to Alaska and Cameroon!

Have you ever read the children's book, Flat Stanley? It was published in the sixties. It is a story about a small boy who was accidentally flattened when his bulletin board fell on top of him. Not to worry! Flat Stanley adjusts quite well to being two-dimensional and enjoys traveling in an envelope, because the cost of a postage stamp is less than that of an airline ticket!

Thirty years after the book's publication, a school teacher in Canada grabbed onto the idea of sending a paper likeness of "Flat Stanley" on some adventures to enhance his students' geography and letter-writing skills. A friend of mine received one from her second-grade nephew. She mentioned it to me and we thought it would be great to send Stanley to Alaska and Cameroon with my granddaughter, Rachel. Rachel will be flying from her home in Cameroon, to Houston this week to go with a Methodist Youth Choir to Alaska. She will return to Houston the first of January and then fly home to Cameroon. Rachel will report Stanley's adventures in Alaska and Africa to the second-graders. Doesn't that sound like fun?

Junk Jewelry Pin

Here is a pin (back view and front view) I made at our Red Hat Convergence in Austin this year. They are fun and simple to make. As a base, use any large round badge. Then squeeze all over it some glue (Goop adhesive) and place on it odd pieces of broken jewelry, beads, sequins, whatever, until it is totally covered. Place the larger pieces on first, letting them extend out over the edges, then fill in with small pieces. Your creation will be totally unique, an interesting conversation piece!

My Red Hatter Chicken

How do you like this swell picture that some of my co-workers gave me for Christmas? Wow! This appeared as a little cartoon in the Readers Digest. They enlarged and framed it, and it has become a treasure in my collection of chicken things!

Baby Jesus and the Seventeen Bears

Can you find the seventeen "bears" in the following story? Read it aloud to a circle of friends. You might have a teddy bear to pass around the circle. Whenever the word "bear" is heard, the person holding the bear passes it on to the person to his right.

One day when God’s people could hardly bear the oppression of Rome any longer, an angel appeared to a young girl named Mary. Mary was told that she would bear a son, the promised Messiah, who would bear the weight of the world on His shoulders, just as her Jewish forebears had prophesied long ago.

So it was that Joseph took his donkey bearing Mary to Bethlehem to be registered in the mandatory census. They arrived barely in time to find shelter in a barn before the Baby was born.

That night angels suddenly showed up in the field bearing the good news of great joy. The poor shepherds, lacking but the bare necessities of life, rushed to offer their worship.

Then some very wise and important foreign dignitaries arrived bearing extravagant gifts for the Child.

When King Herod’s anger was brought to bear upon all baby boys in the region, Joseph quickly removed his family to Egypt for a period of time.

The child grew up to be a great teacher. He encouraged people to bear fruits befitting repentance, to quit bearing grudges, and to bear one another’s burdens. More than that, this man Jesus was cruelly killed on a cross, bearing the blame of our sins. He was buried and descended into hell.

However, the gates of hell could not bear the weight of His powerful love for us. He arose and lives forever.

Thousands of people bear witness to the fact of His resurrection, that He was and is indeed the Son of God, the promised Messiah.

Celebrate Jesus This Christmas

Here is a piece of an email I received recently. I think it says a whole lot about the Jesus we love and celebrate at this season:

Jesus had no servants,
yet they called Him Master.
Had no degree,
yet they called Him Teacher.
Had no medicines,
yet they called Him Healer.
Had no army,
yet kings feared Him.
He won no military battles,
yet He conquered the world.
He committed no crime,
yet they crucified Him.
He was buried in a tomb,
yet He lives today.
I feel honored to serve such a Leader who loves me.

A Long-Lasting, Loving Marriage

Walter and I recently were invited to speak on the subject of marriage to a couples Sunday School class at church. We took on the project in much fear and trepidation. People think that if you have survived forty-three years of marriage, you must have some special secrets. Well, we have no secrets and no advice that is particularly new or sensational, but we found it to be a very rewarding and fun experience to put together our presentation. Of course, Walter begins with a joke—

Adam in the Garden of Eden was very lonely. He asked God about it, and God said, “I’ll tell you what—I will get you a wife. She will be very beautiful and intelligent. She will say kind words, fulfill your every need, cook your food, clean your house, and be devoted to you.” Adam thought that sounded wonderful. “But how much will she cost me?” God replied, “She will cost you an arm and a leg.” Adam thought about it and then asked God, “What could I get for a rib?”

Then we proceeded to let the people get to know us a little better. We told them about ourselves, our story, our backgrounds, and how we met. Walter met the Lord at the University of Maryland through the testimony of Don Shinnick, a football player for the Baltimore Colts. Then he came to Columbus, Ohio, to Capital University where he met me. While we were there, we used to drive out to attend a Bible Church in West Jefferson. Walter loves to tell how the high school girls at church used to fight over sitting beside him. He was really perplexed with this problem, so Pastor Dave suggested to him that he just pretend that he was going with me. “But I couldn’t do that—Marie will think I’m interested in her!” And he tells about falling in love with me through my letters one summer. Truth was, I just needed someone to “talk to” after coming into a personal relationship with Jesus myself. I had been really impressed with the kids in a small Bible study at Cap who seemed serious about the things of God and talked about Jesus as if he were real!

We were married at that Bible Church in June of 1964. I related some of the advice we were given at our wedding shower there. One young married friend told Walter never to put his dirty socks on the dresser. The pastor’s wife told us never to go to bed mad. Others said, “Live within your income” and “Go easy on the credit cards.”

I reminded them that the secrets to a successful marriage are not really secrets—you’ve probably heard them before. And we related a few of those keys we had found to be important:

Commitment to God
It is most important for each marriage partner to have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ into his/her life. In a Christian marriage, both must be believers, committed to the Lord. Their wedding vows are promises to God and cannot be taken lightly.

Commitment to one another
Our commitment is to one another until “death us do part.” Our Pastor Dave who married us had a question he asked of all prospective couples: “Can you think of any circumstance whereby you would ever get a divorce?” If they answered yes, he would refuse to marry them.

Listening to your spouse
It is very important to patiently listen to your spouse when he/she wants to talk. Often a wife (or husband) just wants to vent, to tell about the problems she had that day, and she really doesn’t want you to solve her problems, she just wants you to listen. Give her a sympathetic ear to show her that you care. She doesn’t want your “You ought to do this or that.”

Understanding that men and women are different
It took me a long time to “get” this. God made men and women different. They think differently, they are programmed differently. When I learned that, it helped me a lot!

I inserted this anecdote:
While attending a marriage seminar dealing with communication, Tom and his wife Grace listened to the instructor, “It is essential that husbands and wives know each other’s likes and dislikes.” He addressed the man, “Can you name your wife’s favorite flower?” Tom leaned over, touched his wife’s arm gently and whispered, “It’s Pillsbury, isn’t it?”

Submission
A big issue in the past has been submission. I was taught early in my marriage that I was responsible to obey my husband and the elders of the church. They were responsible to God to lead. I had the attitude that I would always submit to the judgment of my husband. If he was wrong, it was not my fault, I was just obeying him and the elders. Then I learned that I must take responsibility for myself. I must face the issues, seek God for myself, and express my opinion to my husband. Blind obedience was a cop-out for me. The Bible not only says, “Wives, submit to your husbands,” it also declares, “Submit to one another.”

Continuing education
We have found it very helpful in our marriage to read books and attend classes and seminars that will improve our marriage. We are growing up and growing wiser as we grow older together. One thought I gleaned at one marriage seminar was that as each of us draws closer to God, we will be drawing closer to each other at the same time. (I use an illustration. The top circle represents God. The other circles are husband and wife. As they get closer to God, they automatically get closer to one another.)

Agreeing to disagree
It’s okay to have your opinion. It may be different from your mate’s opinion on some issues. Can you agree to disagree agreeably?

Freedom
We must allow each other to pursue his/her own individuality, interests and uniqueness. Don’t smother your spouse. Walter supports me in my projects, my Chicken Lady activities (See, he’s wearing a tie with chickens on it!) and my crazy Red Hat antics (I’m wearing my purple dress and red hat today). And I enjoy the sound of Walter’s Cowboys game on television, although I don’t understand the game of football.

Forgiving
Forgiveness is a necessary every-day ingredient in marriage. Be the first to say “I’m sorry.” Forgive and overlook the other’s faults. I have learned that even if I am right in an argument, I am wrong if I have a bad attitude, and I need to apologize.

Sharing
A good marriage involves sharing your thoughts, dreams, hopes, fears, concerns. Your spouse is your best friend and confidante.

Laughter
Laugh often with and at one another. Humor will help you through the tough and mundane times. Laugh together and cry together.

Healthy choices
Take care of your body not just for your own sake, but for the sake of your spouse and your family. Eat properly. Exercise regularly. Avoid destructive habits.

Respect
Show respect to one another and honor one another. Be polite and kind to one another as you would be with any friend or stranger.