Thankful for CHRISTmas!

Tonight as I write this, I am so thankful for the wonderful blessings that the Lord has bestowed upon us this year!

First and foremost, He blessed us with a wonderful, healthy baby boy in our sweet Cooper. What a joy he is! I am enjoying going through all of the 'baby moments' again with him ... it feels like so long since we did any of this with Charlie and Mimi. He gets excited over the sweetest and smallest things -- like just walking up the stairs with me is an exciting adventure! He is crawling everywhere and getting into everything. This is a shock for the older kids, but nice to see that they are keeping their toys picked up!

Secondly, we have such a wonderful group of friends here in Dallas that we are walking through life with. They encourage us, love on us, admonish us and pray for us. I have truly seen the body of Christ in action through the love of His servants this year. We've laughed with them at numerous Christmas parties, served with them in one of Dallas' poorest neighborhoods, worshipped with them at church, cheered with them at sporting events, laughed together at our sweet kids at school performances, etc. Wow! I was reading through all of the names we are sending out Christmas cards to this year (close to 300!) and was overwhelmed by our good fortune in this area.

I've personally been blessed to be able to serve at CBS again on Leadership this year. If I had known how it would bless me to pour into these women (as much as someone with a newborn can!), I would have done it years ago!

We have health -- as we see so many friends struggling with serious illnesses in their families. We have happiness -- joy that really does come from the Lord is such a peace in the midst of the various big and small trials of life. We have a home over our heads -- as we saw last week during our yearly trip to Brother Bill's, there are so many around us who don't have that basic need. We have safety -- our recent robbery really showed us that even though we lost some valued items, at the end of the day, it is just STUFF. We have our precious children and each other. But most of all, we have our faith, which puts everything in its proper perspective.

This season gets so hurried and we don't want to ever forget the REAL reason that we celebrate Christmas: the Christ child who came to save us from our sins. As Isaiah fortold over 700 years before it actually happened, "The virgin will be with child and will birth to a son and call him Immanuel." Isaiah 7:14 We are so thankful for God's perfect provision for us in his One and Only Son, Jesus.

We pray that you would find new meaning in this season, as you reflect on God's great gift to us. Joy to the world!