Is your simplicity baited or abated?

Baited, used, manipulated, taken advantage of, is what people do to the simple minded. Those who, by their ignorance cannot take stock of the wisdom available from God, in the world around us. Let us study to answer and study to behave and decide with prudence. The advantage takers may get away with their guise for a short time and eternally suffer, as Christ says it is better that a millstone be hung around their necks and they be cast into the sea. Christ cares for His simple ones, but He warns us to be wise as serpents. Be wise, dear children. Don't allow the pride of life cause you to align yourself with those who mean you no good purpose in your souls. Defend your souls by worshipping God with your mind. God is good! God is alive and God is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Touch not, they say, taste not, they implore. If Christ has set you free, be free to love Christ and one another with truth and abandon. He is holy and undefiled and gives us all things richly to enjoy.
Enjoy Christ and one another's family love.
Have your simplicity abated.

There were Shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night.

Faithful to the task, God was faithful to announce to them, first. Who is on earth? The only Peace that there is on earth is in Christ. He was here and the angels were rejoicing. Peace is on earth, they kept saying. How come, only the shepherds could hear them shouting? Peace is on earth! Jesus is born. God is walking on the earth in human flesh. The angels carried their exaltation from heaven where it dwells in God's presence to the earth where He was. Alot of people missed it. Not the shepherds on watch that night. They heard the joyful sound and got to be among the first to worship Him. Halleluia!

The silence of the day before Christmas Eve.

hand cookies left out for "Santa"

Hark, How the Bells,

Sweet silver bells, all seem to say, throw cares away? Christmas is a time for shaking off the sloth and guilty fears of yesterday's sins. Christ has come in the flesh to seek and to save that which was lost.
Too often, in this season do I get caught up in the entanglement of covetousness. I get caught up in where I am not and what I haven't gotten yet. Christ's birth reminds me to shake those earthly thoughts off of myself. Get into the scripture's version of the Christmas story and receive the Gold and Frankenscence and Myrrh that God has travelled from beyond our sins to deposit into us, His redeemed people. We would have alot of stuff, but no access to God through Christ, had the first Christmas not happened. God had a plan for our redemption. Beyond our wildest dreams that God would travel from the throne of Glory to grant us the gift of communion with Himself. Do throw cares away! Your sins which are many have been sent to the deepest farthest part away from God, when repented of. Glory to God in the Highest should be our song this season, it belongs to us. The angels only know a part of the story to have sung that song. We who are already redeemed should be singing to His glory!

Now Thank We all our God!

She makes strong her arms.

Delightful music is the fruit of much learning and much practice. Learning a new skill can be tedious and wearisome sometimes but we are delighted by the results.
It was a joy to see my daughter playing in recital with the likes of the 7th and 8th grade band.
Tune our hearts, we pray in song, to sing Thy praise.
Tuning our hearts takes practice in prayer and in usefulness. The use of whatever instruments are in our hands to glorify God is worth the effort.
Thank you for sharing your talent with us Evelyn.

The Scriptures also say that

God Clothes Himself With Light, as with a garment and also with strength. When we are putting on the clothes for the day. Let us remember that God puts on coverings on our behalf also. No man can see God in all His glory and live. So He gives us just as much of Himself as we will allow and our flesh can fathom. He is so gracious that way. We too must curtail our relationships to those with whom we have more and less acquaintanceships appropriately.
Clothing is a type of protection against those who would use the knowledge of ourselves against us. Guard your hearts and guard your steps guard your life.

Listen to the Lord, children.

God has wisdom in his word. Please, listen to the wisdom that God has and not to your own understanding. That is my best birthday present.
"My heart will rejoice, when your mouth speaks good things."

Putting on the Whole Armor of God?

We have defenses now, in Christ to adorn our souls and to protect our hearts and minds. A greater goal, than putting on strength in Proverbs 31 which we are dealing with is putting on the whole armor of God. Why? "So that we can defend ourselves against the evil one." So that we can stay in communion with God through life and "love life? and see good days?"

I met a precious sister in Christ, whose clear ministry it was, to build up the believers in their helmet of salvation and shield of faith. Everything that she said was placing another layer of protective coating on my shield. Many times, we forget to put on our shield, or our shields are flimsy, every fiery dart of the enemy of our souls penetrates through. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. When we put on our whole armor, let us strengthen that armor in daily communion with God and His word.
Proverbs 31 is what King Lemuels' mother taught him about women and life. A life without the grace of God as the heart of your home, would truly be a difficult one. Learn the lessons of discernment now and God will bless and choose with you.

She puts on Strength as an undergarment.

Are you strong on your "inards"? Unfortunately, too often we are weak when we should be assuming strength. Did you put on your strength today? I don't like to put on strength.

She is Proactive in service to her family.

She is, not just commanded and responsive in relating to her husband, she is also considerate in thought and actions. She uses the means at her disposal for the good of the whole family and not just for the accumulation of stuff. Stuff is very good if it serves the purpose.
I love the fact that when she thinks about instructing her son on what type of woman would fit; she doesn't take out a tape measure and give him the physical proportions.
There will be time enough for that. And I like to think that she pounded this in far before the eyeballs were in gear for those things, or there would have been nothing to say.

"When I don't think, I do what my momma did."

She considers...
I walk past that candy machine every day and by impulse put my quarters and dollars into my impulse spending which become impulse calories on my body. Impulse spending is a mess and we must pray and watch and watch and pray. We have very little and trying to be faithful with very little takes thought and consideration. Christmas time is when we love one another with our thoughts and precious gifts. Last year we had the best time working together to make a ferris wheel out of the Kennex and it wasn't about what we had, but about who we were with. I love you children.
Follow the wisdom of Proverbs 31 and consider a field.

Back to Proverbs 31--

Aren't we glad that shopping is included as a virtue in the next verse- She shops?-- She considers, which is shopping. She doesn't consider consumer items, in this verse, awwww, She considers another profitable industrious purchase which will, ultimately bring more into the household. What a woman! Let us remember in our holiday dreaming and scheming that we have an end in view of the maintainance of the household and that will truly temper the spending which goes on.
I met a truly industrious woman whose husband had given her a precious new sewing machine and she said to me. "I want to make a special blanket and sell blankets so that I can bring in the money which he spent for the machine." Her sentiments hit me deeply when I was covetting such a beautiful machine. I thought, could you say that, No I just want to play with it. Do good and speak well and don't consume the precious gifts upon your lusts and God will use you, also to that end, we pray.