MERRY CHRISTMAS MIGHTY WARRIORS!!! This blog update is obviously a Christmas blog so I hope you enjoy reading this on Christmas morning or if your reading this at midnight! Lets travel back into time and go back to when someone special was born in a little town called Bethlehem…..this is the Christmas story.
Hear the Word of the Lord:
That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. 9 Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, 10 but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. 11 The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! 12 And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in highest heaven,
and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”
and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”
15 When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
16 They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. 17 After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. 18 All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, 19 but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. 20 The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.
That scripture verse came from www.biblegateway.com
So on I want you to picture if you were one of the sheperds and you got this kinda news. How would you feel? How would you react? For myself I would probable be astonished and breathless to hear the news that a SAVIOR has been born TODAY!! So now lets talk about Mary because Mary is a BIG part of this story cause she is holding the Savior of the world in her womb. But Mary was a little confused when an angel appeared to her saying that she will be pregant with a child but a child that will SAVE and RENEW THE WORLD!!!! Now Mary was a virgin and she had never had intercourse so she was probable thinking "There's no way I could be pregnant with not a child but a SAVIOR" Now for those of you who are mothers and who have had kids lets just use this as an example when you take that first pregnancy test and its positive you are full of excitement right? Of course and you can't wait to tell everyone the good news. You make phone calls, you share it on social media with your family and friends and word gets out pretty fast but back in Mary's time they didn't have facebook,twitter and instagram to get the word out, it says right in scripture that and angel of the Lord appeared to the sheperds telling them of this wonderful news and right above where Jesus was laid in a manger there was a bright Shining star that shined and the sheperds followed that star until they reached the place where baby Jesus was born. That sounds like a pretty amazing night right? I mean today we celebrate and we honor Jesus' birth but sometimes we tend to forget or loose the sight because we have presents to get,wrap and give to friends and family. We have family meals to make, we have a house to clean and we don't take time to just enjoy the season. Wether that be taking a drive and looking a christmas lights on houses or watching the snow fall. This year I have a friend that use to be my counselor and she recently wrote a book called "Stop, Breathe Believe Mindful Living One Thought at a Time, and last year she came to Lutheran Church of Hope for a Christmas Brunch and shared with us how to do just that Stop,Breathe Believe.
I am going to describe to you what I have learned from this wonderful yet very sinmply technique to take steps to help live a peace and wonderful life using our minds and hearts and breath to help with this growth in your own life. If you would like to purchase this book you can get it on Amazon.com. So when I first started using Stop, breathe believed it really helped with my anxiety. I felt my anxiety decrease and more hope arise in my life. So for example if I am driving and I feel myself get anxious I am reminded of this easy technique because the book cover is a stop light and how it works is like this. When you feel yourself getting drawn into negative thinking or for some people maybe your mother used the phrase of "Stinkin Thinkin" you just say to yourself Stop Mariah and then the yellow is the breathing part of it and you take big deep breath in and when you retrace your thinking to a postive you exhale and let out all the negative thinking and believe in the green or hope filled thoughts and then repeat it everytime you feel those negatives thoughts try to creep in your head and steal your happiness and joy this holiday season. So with that I am going to wrap up my blog update with three songs Emmanuel by Micheal W Smith and Mary did you know by Rascal Flatts! The last one is a fun song sung by Luke Bryan and its called Run Run Rudolph! Enjoy everyone! I also want to give a special shout out to those who are reading this across the world I pray y'all have a very Merry and Blessed Christmas.
TODAY A SAVIOR HAS BEEN BORN TO YOU HE IS CHRIST THE LORD AMEN!
THANKS FOR READING
MERRY CHRISTMAS MIGHTY WARRIORS
~MM
Song 1 Emmanuel By Micheal W Smith
Song 3 "Run Run Rudolph By Luke Bryan
