Christmas In The Hospital

Isn't it interesting how we take things for granted? Christmas for me, especially since I have had kids of my own, is really all about family. The gifts are fine and the food is fine, but getting together with family (some that you don't see but twice a year) is what Christmas is all about.

That's what makes this a sad blog for me. Last night we spent Christmas in the dining room of the nursing home where my grandmother is. She is confused and feeble, yet she is still alive and able to come to the party.

It is Christmas Eve and my brother and his family can't come home due to a virus running through their family. He just turned 36 years old and we have never spent a Christmas apart.

My dad is still in the hospital and will spend Christmas there. He is still having a hard time breathing. His oxygen saturation levels this morning were only 85% even with oxygen being given to him. Mom shared with me just a few minutes ago that he was crying. I hate to see my dad cry. There's something about him crying that just seems wrong. He has never been one to hide emotion necessarily, it's just hard to see him cry.

Please pray for us. I don't want to bring you guys into my pain, but it is a way to receive strength. It is awesome to have friends who will pray and I know you all will. Thank you all and I pray that you have a very Merry Christmas!

Lunch With Dad

It is awesome how things work in our walk with God. This has been a rough week for me and Ellen due to a misunderstanding with a sister in Christ. It has really caused a lot of emotional grief, but what is the awesome part of this is that God can, even in the midst of hard times, place little jewels of enjoyment if we will just look for them.

My little jewel of a blessing came yesterday. My dad is in the hospital right now. He is having a hard time getting over pneumonia. He is some better however and during my visit with him they brought his lunch to him and he said, "Why don't you go and get some lunch and eat with me." I did and we did and it was a great lunch. Just me and my dad. In our busy life we don't get to do that very much. What a blessing!

In a way that is a testimony that we are too busy. I pray that we can have more times together and that we don't wait till he is in the hospital to share time.

Gossips Ruin Friendships

I am convinced that one of Satan's greatest goals is to destroy relationships. I believe that if he can destroy our relationships that he certainly can destroy not only the church but society, family structure, and even the world. It's that serious.

One of his greatest tools in destroying relationships is gossip. Once anger has come in a friendship, talking about it to others simply compounds the issue.

You know how gossips work. They tell just enough information to get the conversation turned in the direction of the pain that has been caused and they WHAM, they let the object of their anger have it. They may never mention names, but they don't have to. There is enough information for everyone to know who it is and that they are hurt.

Gossip is really a cowards game. They are too afraid to go to the person like the scriptures instruct, especially when they know that they are wrong. The only way to inflict the pain they want to inflict is to stir up trouble for the object of their destruction.

Gossip smacks at one of the only two rules in the scripture that God gives--to love your neighbor as yourself. There is no way to do that when one is talking evil about another. Remember the proverb, (Proverbs 16:28 NCV) "A useless person causes trouble, and a gossip ruins friendships."

God help gossips to stop! They need You Lord--the need salvation. God we need the relationships and You need to be glorified.