A few fun little changes...

Not that they're super exciting or anything, but I thought I'd show you anyways! Whenever I take down our Christmas decorations, I get this urge to change up some of the decor in my living room... and this year was no different. The changes aren't huge - all the furniture is still in the same spot... but I changed my coffee table centerpiece, and made some changes to one of the corner shelves.

I had found this basket on clearance before Christmas, intending to fill it with pine cones and a candle in the middle. I got a candle in it, and an evergreen garland around it, but somehow the pinecones never made it! Oh well. I decided to find a way to use the basket for the rest of the year too, so this is what I did! I got the garland as a Christmas gift, and then just bought the wicker and some other kind of cool looking balls. Then I took some strips of fabric and wrapped some styrofoam balls to finish it off. I'm happy with how it turned out! The pictures of my coffee table are a little deceiving... it's not usually totally clear like that. It seems to be the collecting area for any books or magazines we're reading through... but for the sake of the picture, I cleared off the table!

As for the corner shelf, I had seen some pictures in a scrapbooking magazine, and came up with this. I found the twigs for the vase at a greenhouse, and just added a bit of color with the "pick" from one of my favorite little home decor stores. The quote on the front of the album says "And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count, it's the life in your years" (Abraham Lincoln). We saw it at my cousin's place when we were there, and liked it - and I couldn't decide on a picture to put in the spot, so I figured the quote would be just right!

Happy New Year!

We are looking forward to this year! Of course, we don't know what will all come our way, but somehow a new year just feels like a "fresh start" and we're excited about that! I'll be sure to keep sharing "glimpses of us" every now and again.

I thought I would start this year off by sharing a message that I read recently. It's by Nancy Leigh DeMoss, from Revive Our Hearts ministries. She is a gifted speaker and author - I have been so blessed by her ministry! This message spoke to me... putting things in perspective once again. Before I share that message, I also want encourage any women out there reading this to take part in the 30-day True Woman Make-over that she put together as well. It's a study through Proverbs 31, 1 Timothy 2:9-10 and Titus 2:1-5. All you have to do is sign up, and you'll get an email with the link to that day's message everyday! It's taking me longer than 30 days, as I'm not able to do it everyday, but I am learning a lot from this series so far!

Anyways, on to the message I mentioned earlier:

"Are you content not to be recognized, not to be appreciated, not to have people make a big deal about what you’re doing because you’ve accepted the goal for your life that you will make Him to be known? Your goal is to make Him to be seen, to be great, and it really doesn’t matter then what others think about you.
When Mary prayed her great prayer in Luke chapter 1, verse 48, she said, “[God] has been mindful of the humble state of his servant” (NIV). She did not see herself as worthy of the favor of God. She knew that it was all of God’s goodness and His grace that He was using her. She really had the spirit of John the Baptist. Remember how he said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30, ESV).
Are you willing to decrease—to be less known, to take the place of humility—in order that He can increase? You can never go wrong on the pathway of humility because it’s not about us—it’s all about Him. It’s about what God is doing through His Son Jesus in our world, and we’re just instruments.
Some time ago I remember meeting a woman who was a well-known violinist in an Eastern European country. She talked about this matter of humility, and she held up her violin and she said, “It would be foolish for this violin to think that it is anything.” She said, “What makes it something is when someone who knows how to play it begins to play it.”
Then she said, “We are as that block of wood in the hands of God, and if any beautiful music comes through our lives, it’s not because we were anything. It’s because the Master knew what to do with us and how to use us as simply an instrument in His hands.”
So we realize it’s not about this block of wood. It’s about the Lord who wants to make beautiful music through us, reflecting His glory to others."

God bless you as you go into 2009!!