What I Learned in 2015

The year 2000 seemed like such a mile stone, and now here we are, flipping the calendar page to 2016.

The biggest difference between the 2000-version of me and the 2015-version of me is that the old me thought she knew everything. She was intelligent, sassy, gung-ho, and ready to face the world. Then she was hit with real life: full-time work, a break-up, a marriage, one baby, two babies, three babies, unemployment…

The 2015-version of me is more humble and more dependent on God. And if she could give any advice to give to the 2016-version of me, it would be this:

Be humble and faithful in what you were given. Trust God in everything, even the unknown.

And don't stop striving and learning, because, hey, you don't know everything. Every year there are lessons great and small to be learned. And the great lesson I learned in 2015 was that I needed to connect with God more consistently. For years now, I haven't been attending a Bible study, or reading the Bible regularly. And that finally changed last year.

First, I stopped making excuses. Most days, I hit the ground running, but if I make a little effort, I can still find time somewhere in the middle or end of the day to sit with my Bible for a few minutes. If I have time to blog and look at photos on Facebook, I have time for God. Also, my friend Elizabeth had been inviting me to a Bible study at her house for the past several years, and I always said, "Well, it's during nap time, so maybe when the baby's older?" And of course, that day never came. But the day did come when I realized that my priorities were not in order. And I had to admit to myself that it was the quiet hour and my own nap time that I didn't want to give up. What was more important to me, naps, or my relationship with God? I asked myself. Foregoing a nap once every two weeks was not going to break me or the baby. But having fellowship with other sisters and diving into the Bible had benefits that were far-reaching and life-giving. I made a choice and started attending the Bible study in September.

Second, I needed accountability. All my previous attempts to read through the Bible or read a chapter a day petered out after a few weeks. So when my friend Kristin asked if I would like to join her online "study", I said, "Sure!" And we, along with several other women, read through Psalm 119 in six weeks. We followed a schedule and used e-mail to share with each other what we learned. And after six weeks, I felt connected to these other women, even though we had not seen each other face to face. I learned to not just read through the Bible passage and close the book, but to S.O.A.P., which stands for Scripture, Observation, Application, and Prayer. This acronym and the study comes from a great website called Love God Greatly. (I included their explanation of S.O.A.P. at the end of this post.) I've done three studies now with Kristin, and I am eager to do more in 2016!

Tomorrow, the sun will rise on a new day. Who knows what 2016 will bring for the Baird family? Who knows what lessons I will learn this year?

Though the questions sound rhetorical, they actually have an answer: God knows! And He knows what this year has in store for you too! I encourage you to seek God more courageously this year, whether it means spending more time in the Word, reaching out to more people, making a sacrifice, or being obedient.

Happy New Year!

What does S.O.A.P. mean?

S- The S stands for Scripture- You physically write out the scripture… you'll be amazed at what God will reveal to you just by taking the time to slow down and actually write out what you are reading!

O- The O stands for Observation- What do you see in the verses that you're reading? Who is the audience? Is there a repetition of words? What words stand out to you?

A- The A stands for Application- This is when God's Word becomes personal. What is God saying to me today? How can I apply what I just read to my own personal life? What canoes do I need to make? Is there an action that I need to take?

P- The P stands for Prayer. Pray God's Word back to Him. If He has revealed something to you during this time in His Word, pray about it. Confess if He has revealed some sin that is in your life.

Rethinking Christmas Gifts

I know we just celebrated Christmas. I know that we have 365 days until it comes again. But for some, it may take the whole year to reset how we approach Christmas presents. For some, this means making a change after a whole lifetime of giving gifts a certain way.

Don't worry. I'm not going to the extreme of saying, "Don't give any presents at Christmas! Ever!" What I am proposing is a change in focus, that we make birthdays be about people, and Christmas be about Christ. And this is all that means:

Some families have a tradition of giving BIG, expensive presents at Christmas: bikes, video games, stereo systems, etc. And most families have a tradition of giving gifts to each individual. How hard would it be to instead give those big, individual presents at a birthday instead of at Christmas? Birthdays are meant for celebrating a person, after all. That is the day we say, "You are special to us! We are so glad that you are in our lives!"

Then, on Christmas, the day that we celebrate Christ's birth, we give small gifts, or gifts that are meant to be shared. Parents can give their children a game, or an outing, or a roller hockey set (my brother did that one year; my kids LOVED it!) Or give Bibles or books that encourage growth and learning. We can also make presents for each other. My gift to my children this year was a marble maze made from a big shoe box, popsicle sticks, and glue. It's not fancy, and it may not last until next Christmas, but it was made with love and care.

The streets by my town's outlet mall are packed like a parking lot. There is a traffic jam on the freeway because so many people are trying to go there to return things or to hit the sales. But if we take a little time to rethink Christmas presents, we can avoid the trap of the gluttony and rediscover the heart of Christmas: love, kindness, joy, and Christ himself.

A Great Light

When we are in darkness, there is nothing but the darkness, because we cannot see anything.

Then, there is a glimmer, and the glimmer gives us hope, and the glimmer shows us beauty, for we find the glimmer itself to be beautiful.

As the glimmer grows, we see more and more. We begin to see ourselves, we see the path, we see the world as it is. 

But the light also shows us the darkness of the darkness. And we may feel overwhelmed by the darkness of the darkness, and therefore, lose hope, succumbing to its burden of sorrow. Or we may hate the light for revealing the darkness and its ugliness, and we turn away from the light to hide again in our former state. Or we may love the light, because it is beautiful, because it is warm, because we know that it is life-giving. It gives us courage to uncurl ourselves and stand up to reach for that which is greater than ourselves. The Light.

May your Christmas be merry and BRIGHT!

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. ~Isaiah 9:2

The Word Made Flesh

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. ~John 1:1, 14)

And as G. Campbell Morgan (1864-1945) said at the end of his sermon on this passage: 

Let me say in conclusion that we underrate the infinite value and meaning of this fact of incarnation when we speak of it as something in the past. The incarnation is an abiding fact, not something merely past. At this very hour that same Person is at the center of the universe of God, the risen, glorified and enthroned Man. And if you tell me that that is to state something that cannot be believed because it transcends the possibility of belief, I tell you that it no more transcends the possibility of belief than does the fact of the historic incarnation. If He came into human flesh, and tabernacled among us, and if while there He could speak of Himself as yet in the bosom of the Father, and as yet being the Word with God, so remember that today He abided for manifestation at the center of the universe of God, the risen and glorified Man, at once a prophecy and a promise, hearing which we dare believe that at last He also will perfect us, and we shall see Him, and be with Him, and be like Him.

What Are We Celebrating?

Over the years, a new tradition has emerged in the Baird household. The week after Christmas, I spend a week cleaning out the old toys and books, deciding what can be throw away or given away, just to make room for the new stuff. Believe me, it's never the way I plan to spend my vacation.

But that's what it's become on most occasions. Christmas Day begins with stockings, breakfast, and presents; then we clean up and move on to lunch, and sometimes more presents; then we cook and feast and crash into bed with a full stomach and a living room full of things.

Most Christmas Days come and go and I barely have time to think about Jesus. I'm too busy "celebrating" to pay attention to the Birthday Boy. The decorations and the giving add beauty to an already beautiful holiday, but do they also distract?

Have we made idols of presents and decorations? I wonder. Have we made idols of food, traditions, and even family?

If we took away the lights, the trees, the presents, the food, and the parties, would we find that we still have something to celebrate?

More Than the Baby

What is Christmas all about?

If you say Santa Claus and elves, you are far from the bull's- eye.

If you say goodwill and giving gifts, you are aiming for the nail, but missing its head.

If you say the baby in the straw, the angels, and the shepherds, you're partly correct. Yes, Christmas is the celebration of Jesus's birth, but that's not all.

Because if we only celebrate the baby, that would be like throwing my husband a birthday party and giving him tiny baby clothes and diapers. If we focus too much on the birth, we aren't looking past that one event to see what follows.

Christmas fills us with joy because the Savior had arrived.

Christmas fills us with hope because his life mission was to die in our place.
Christmas fills us with peace because God came to earth as a human to bring us back to him.

For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. ~Hebrews 2:17

If you don't know much more about Christmas than Santa Claus, wrapping presents, or even the baby in the manger, I pray that this is the Christmas that you will discover the deeper, truer meaning of Christmas.

May your Christmas be full of joy, peace, and hope.

Stretching My Wings- A Letter

Dear readers,

I apologize if I appear to be ignoring my blog. I've only posted twice in December, and one reason is perfectly legitimate– I'm enjoying the Christmas season! But the other reason, well, I've been posting my writing on another website. A friend connected me to the editor of Camera Words on medium.com, and after submitting one article (which she published!), my mind has been in a whirl of ideas. Camera Words combines photography and writing– basically, we are telling the story behind the photo. And I LOVE photography. And of course I love writing. So you can see how I got hooked.

Don't worry, I am not giving up on my blog. The writing I do for Camera Words is on a different plane. If you are interested in reading my writing there, here are the links:

A Moment Captured

My Little Man

My Grandfather's Gift to Me

Enjoy! And I'll be back, I promise!

~Rita

Trust in the Unseen

Turn on the television, and the children come running.

How do they know? I always wondered. It's like they have a sixth sense for the TV!

Then they told me. When the television is turned on, they all hear a high pitch sound. I don't. I'm too old.

But I can't argue that the frequency doesn't exist, just because I can't hear it. It's there, according to my children, and I have to trust them. I have to believe that they are not lying and conspiring against me. 

How about "seeing is believing?" How far can we really go with that? Many things happened before my lifetime. I didn't see them. I have to trust the people who wrote down what they saw. 

In reality, our senses are very limited. We are not unlike a blind person trying to cross the street, or a deaf person trying to understand an important message, because we all put our trust in something to help us through life. The question is… who, or what, do we trust? Experts? Health? Money? Good looks?

I for one choose to trust the One who sees all, hears all, and knows all. I cannot see Him, but I know He exists.

I wonder as I wander out under the sky
How Jesus the Savior did come for to die
For poor on'ry people like you and like I
I wonder as I wander out under the sky

One Year

I can't wait for him to get past this phase. My son climbs on the table and dumps everything he finds there. He throws his food over the side of his high chair. He screeches when he doesn't get what he wants. He pulls ornaments and lights off the tree. It'll be great when he learns to listen, when he has some words, when he's older...

Wait, what am I saying?! At the most, I will have only one year with my one-year-old. Out of how ever many years God chooses to give my son, I will still have only one year with my one-year-old. And how ever old I may live to be, even if I live to be a hundred and one, I will still have only one year with my one-year-old.

It may be difficult. It may be frustrating. It may be exhausting. But I don't want to miss any of it.

It's my one year, only one year, my only one year, with my one-year-old.