Miny 'appy Reterns! ;)

HAPPY 20th BIRTHDAY, DANIEL!!!!!
We love you and look forward to seeing the Lord working in you this year. :) Here are 20 things we love about you:

1. Your sense of humor
2. Your loyalty
3. Your character
4. The fact that you like to take us places. :)
5. Your passion for the Lord
6. Your passion for culture-changing
7. Our escapades with you. :)
8. Your accents
9. Your thoughtfulness
10. The fact that you're a gentleman
11. Your "witch" laugh (...long story, it's not what you think.;)
12. Your pride in your little car. ;)
13. Your stinkin' new jeans!
14. Your love of reading
15. The way you steal tastes of everything we cook
16. Your patriotism
17. The carnivore in you
18. The retriever in you ;)
19. Your musical talents

20. Your songs you write and share with us!

Love,
Rachel and Sarah

So Much More Than Turkey Day

"Some hae meat and cannae eat,
And some cae eat but want it.
But I hae meat, and I cae eat,
And tae the Lord be thankit"
~Scottish blessing

"Happy Turkey Day"- in my mind, that term conjures up some idea of a fat turkey, with those horrid white stockings, grinning while he sits safely on the grocery-store sign as his brethren are snapped up and carried home to be stuffed and roasted. It's a term that sounds completely animal and vulgar. "Happy Turkey Day!" I mean really! "Turkey Day" belongs in Golden Corral and other greasy, gluttonous restaurants like that! :)
This beautiful day is "Thanksgiving Day"- a day set aside by our forefathers to worship and thank God for all his bounteous blessings. Read this quote by George Washington:

"Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be."
- George Washington, From the Proclamation of National Thanksgiving

Notice there is no mention of eating turkey in that passage! :) To have a "Turkey Day" in November is absolutely no different than having a Hamburger Day in March. Can you imagine that? "Um...boss...I'm taking Hamburger Day off next week. You should too...the post office is stopping for the day!"
Yet for "Thanksgiving" the whole country practically stops. Why? I can assure you that if it was merely for a chance to stuff yourself with a feast, companies would be less lenient about giving their employees the day off. No. It is because our country in the past, and, I hope, many Americans now, realize the value in setting aside a day of rest to thank the Lord with. Sadly, with too many it has become merely a day of laziness and gluttony. Sorry, but I have to say it like it is! In our home, we always enjoy the huge Thanksgiving meal, and the change of pace, but the underlying reason for it all is remembered, recognized, and renewed. We take this job of giving thanks seriously! :) I know some of our friends don't much like Abraham Lincoln, but you all must realize that the quote below is so true and fitting.

"We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us."
-Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation

I must agree with Mr. Lincoln. As a country we have been intoxicated with unbroken success, and we no longer feel the necessity of thanking the Lord for all his mercies. Thus the gradual decline to turning this holiday in "Turkey Day". So let's change it! There are 43 followers of this blog. And a few more who read it! If you read this post, I challenge you to spend some real time thanking God for all his blessings, and of them all, most importantly, for Jesus Christ. ~Rachel

~Psalm 100~
Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

Just Hear Those Sleigh Bells Ring-a-ling...Well, not yet!

It may not be time yet for Christmas music, but in our home, the Christmas spirit is already lurking around in every corner! In past years, Dad has forbidden the listening to or singing of Christmas songs until the day after Thanksgiving. But this year we moved the date to the Wilson's turkey-pick-up day! :) So for about 4 days now, we've been singing Christmas songs, outside of choir! But all that to say, I *know* Christmas does not start until after Thanksgiving! Nevertheless, I am already plotting gifts to give to people! I make many of the gifts I give, and the rest, I am going to buy thriftily! :) But I am not a cheap person. I hate giving felt-covered tin cans and telling people it's a pencil holder! ;) So rest assured, all the gifts will be the best my little self can think up, aided and abetted by an unexpected Christmas bonus from my boss! ;) (Dad! :)
The only irritation is that I can't post about my ideas till after Christmas when no one wants to hear them! :P Oh but this is the season of the year I might love best of all! (I say that each month, don't I?)
The music, the smells, the sights, the traditions, and the waiting! But most of all, I love advent, which I will talk more about! Or you can go to Daniel's blog and read his awesome Advent posts from last year! :) Ha! You know what song is playing? ♫"I'm doing my Christmas dreaming a little early this year"!♫ :P I guess it's fitting! :D Oh mercy! I'm so excited! At choir this afternoon Maryanna and I plotted gifts and and fun things like that! I'm hoping to get some good deals with Daniel when he takes us (hopefully) Black Friday shopping! :) ~Rachel

Love of Literature Review Series: Epic: The Story God is Telling

All I will say, is that if you have not read Epic, you must. This has to be one of our favorite books. John Eldredge, using Scripture and quotes from various famous books, shows the magnificent story God is writing for all mankind. At 104 pages long, it is an easy read, and one amazingly worth the hour or two you will put into reading it! One of the things I love is how he uses examples from other famous books to illustrate the faintest shadow they resemble of God's love story for us! :) Instead of describing the book to you, I'll just list several quotes from it, to give you an idea of it!

"And they lived happily ever after. Stop for just a moment, and let it be true. They lived happily ever after. These may be the most beautiful and haunting words in the entire library of mankind. Why does the end of a great story leave us with a lump in our throats and an ache in our hearts? If we haven't become entirely cynical, some of the best endings can even bring us to tears. Because God has set eternity in our hearts."

"Christianity, in its true form, tells us that there is an Author and that He is good, the essence of all that is good and beautiful and true, for He is the source of all these things. It tells us that He has set our hearts' longings within us, for He has made us to live in an Epic. It warns that truth is always in danger of being twisted and corrupted and stolen from us because there is a Villain in the Story who hates our hearts and wants to destroy us. It calls us up into a Story that is truer and deeper than any other, and assures us that we will find the meaning of our lives. What if? What if all the great stories that have ever moved you, brought you joy or tears-- what if they are telling you something about the true Story into which you were born, the Epic into which you have been cast?"

"Then Aslan turned to them and said, `You do not look so happy as I mean you to be.' Lucy said, `We're so afraid of being sent away, Aslan. And you have sent us back into our own world so often.' `No fear of that," said Aslan. "Have you not guessed?" Their hearts leaped and a wild hope rose within them. `There was a real railway accident," said Aslan softly. "Your father and mother and all of you are--as you used to call it in the Shadowlands--dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.' ....All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before." (C.S. Lewis "The Last Battle")
"If a story has been true to life in all its sorrow and hardness and longing, to life as we know it, and if it also offers that turn at the end in hope beyond hope, then our eyes swell with tears and we get a glimpse of Joy-- Joy, as Tolkien called it, beyond the walls of this world..."

Sorry to run on, but this books is *so* great! :) You have to read it! Please! It will, to quote Dad, "Bless you socks off" :)

Plot: ******************
Characters: ***************
Recommended age: 16+ (younger readers would not relate yet)

The Child: America's Battle For The Next Generation Premier! :)

Listen up everybody who reads this post!!!! This Saturday, November 20, 2010, is the National Premier of "The Child: America's Battle For The Next Generation". This is the documentary that Watchman Cinema has made this past summer, and that Daniel went on the filming tour for. If you could find a showing near you, take your whole family, your friends, anybody, a watch it! parentalrights.org has a page of showings (around 350 of them nation-wide!) here.
(Not all the showings are on November 20, so if Saturday wouldn't work for you any how, that's perfectly fine! :) We are really trying to get people to see this documentary, so please, please try to get to a showing! :) Thanks so much! ~Rachel and Sarah! (Below are a trailer, and the promo! Please watch them!!!)