A Peek into Our Saint Nicolas Day

     At Christmas time we have a few traditions that makes Christmas special for our family and I thought I might share them with you through this season.
    So our Christmas traditions start December 6th with St. Nicolas day. This is our "Stocking day." My family started to celebrate this after we got a book about St. Nicolas which talked about the real man behind our modern day Santa.
        In the stockings we always put gingerbread people because this man named Nicolas would give gingerbread to the poor children as treats. We also always put chocolate coins in the stockings to represent the story where Nicolas found out about a poor man who had 3 daughters of marriageable age.
     In his day if girls didn't have a dowry they had little if any chance of getting married. The eldest daughter was going to sell herself into slavery so that her sisters would have a chance at getting married. Nicolas went at night secretly and threw money into the window to keep this from happening. When he did this the girls had hung their stockings by the fire to dry and the money landed in the stocking (hence why we use stockings to put gifts in).
     So that's the bare bones version of the story of St. Nicolas. December 6th is the day of his death and we celebrate him not only because he was so generous but also because it helps to get Santa out of the way so we can focus on the real reason of why we celebrate Christmas.
       We also have more fun this way because we aren't trying to do both gifts and stockings and food and clean up all on the same day. We do have the most awesome gingerbread men on the planet, just sayin'.





     What else do we put in the stockings? Well we put a couple of candy canes someone ends up with some coal in their stocking (this year everyone did with this cool recipe we found on Pinterest).
                                                


(The recipe is on http://sweetpeaskitchen.com/2011/06/grand-cayman-no-bake-cookies-and-cream-bars/) we made ours coal shaped and let them harden that way rather than pressing the mixture into the pan like Sweet Pea does.
     The rest of what we put in is random stuff we find at thrift stores, little snacks, and candy. Most of it is under $5. It's pretty laid back and it's so fun to watch the kids come running out in the morning to get a peek at what St. Nicolas brought them.

Modesty Part 4: What is our Focus?

      Our primary focus should be to bring honor and glory to God in the way that we dress. 

     I think a lot of times people think that they should focus on the men in their lives and get hyper sensitive to how they dress because of them and lose the fact that this should be an act of devotion and love towards God. Not that we should completely ignore the men in our lives and how our dress might affect them but it should not be the main focus.

     I know it's easy to look at our clothing/bathing attire and ask ourselves if we are going to be too distracting to our brothers (and sisters), I've done it and I'm sure I'm not the only one. It's easy to get distracted. 

     Our whole motivation shouldn't be am I being a distraction to this guy or that guy. If we were always worried about that then shoot, we shouldn't even be stepping foot outside our own house because we will always potentially become a distraction to a guy. If he is looking at you with the intention to lust he is going to do that no matter what you are wearing. 

      Should we dress like sluts? No! We should dress in a way that honors and pleases God. We should do our best to not dress in a way that is sexually distracting. Not only does this dishonor God it brings dishonor to yourself. 

     Should we then dress like nuns? No! We should live in the world but not be of the world. I think that finding a balance is the key. 

     It's hard for me to lay down rules for people to follow but I think that we should dress to enhance our figure and not expose it. God gave us our bodies and He has blessed us with closets full of clothes, it isn't wrong to wear things that make you look (and feel) pretty and enhance your figure. It is wrong to flaunt it and let everyone know what you have. 

     This is a good video on the background of bathing attire while I agree with the speaker on a lot of points I think it's important for Christians to recognize that our primary reason for dressing modestly is because we are trying to bring honor and glory to God.

http://www.qideas.org/video/the-evolution-of-the-swimsuit.aspx

Modesty Part 3: Leading Worship and Loving People

     I'm the daughter of a teaching elder at my church so I have been influenced by his teaching on this particular verse. Every time he talks about modesty when people have questions he brings up this verse.

Leviticus 16:4 (ESV)
He shall put on the holy linen coat and shall have the linen undergarment on his body, and he shall tie the linen sash around his waist, and wear the linen turban; these are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water and then put them on.

    So in the context this is God giving Aaron instructions on how they are supposed to offer the sin offering. When the priests offered sacrifices on the alter they would go up steps and be standing a little above everyone else. Anyone who was standing close to the alter would have potentially have the ability to look up the priests garments and see if they were wearing anything underneath.
     What does this tell us? Well, what I got out of it was if you are leading worship it's important that we are to avoid dressing in such a way that we are distracting especially in a way that draws attention to ourselves in a sexual manner.
     Notice it is the priests, the ones who are leading worship, who God calls to be modest.  Not necessarily the worshipers.
     Is it important for us to be modest? Yes, but it is especially important for those who are leading worship that they be modest so that people don't become so distracted by what you are wearing (or aren't wearing) that they can't focus on God but rather are focusing on you.
     Does this mean that when we are gathered to worship that we don't allow anyone in who is dressed immodestly? Absolutely not! Jesus welcomed the worship of a prostitute in Simon the priest's house. He was known to be friends with tax collectors and sinners.
     It is preposterous to think that we should suddenly become unwelcoming of someone just because they sin differently from us. It makes us no different from the Pharisees.
     I once was with a family who made it obvious that they disapproved of a shirt that I was wearing. It was a tank top that had no sleeves. Now I know every family has different views as to what is appropriate and what is not but at the time I felt that I was being judged just because I was wearing something that this particular family didn't approve of.
     This was a shirt that my dad had never said anything indicating that he disapproved of and my mom said looked fine when I asked her about it later. If they had talked with me frankly about it and then been gracious to me showing that they still loved me even if I did make mistakes I might have received the rebuke better. At the time I was a little upset at how the whole thing came about.
     Now was I right? My attitude might not have been. I should be just as willing to recognize others for making mistakes as well and be willing to forgive them. Nobody is perfect and I'm sure they felt that they were doing the right thing.
     Was what this family believed Biblical? I don't know that it was. I haven't come across a passage or verse in scripture that says "thou shalt not wear shirts without sleeves".
      I think that it's good to have boundaries for your own family but to be gracious towards others who have different rules from your own.

John 13:34,35
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

    Now I still will wear tank tops on occasion and people may disapprove but it's a man made rule that I'm not required to follow. I am required to love my brothers and sisters in Christ though no matter what they believe about what is modest and what is not. I shouldn't let their rules distract me from what's really important and that is loving Jesus.
    Modesty is a good thing and something that we should strive for but we must consider why we are being modest. Is it because we are so in love with God that we have lost a taste for the immodesty of the world or are we being modest because of rule

Why Purple Ink Splotch?

     Why Purple Ink Splotch? Was a question that I got from one of the men who attends our church. There is a reason behind the name believe it or not. (Isn't there always?)
     I named it this because I see us all as splotches on the page of history. Some of us are bigger splotches than others and some of us have barely made an impact yet so our splotch is hardly formed.
     What is a splotch? Is it perfectly symmetrical? No, and just like splotches aren't perfect so we also aren't perfect. We all make our mistakes but God chooses to use us anyway.
    Each splotch is important because in the end we all contribute to the picture the master artist is making. He is writing his story in each of our splotches and making something beautiful out of all of it that we will be able to look back on and admire as his work of art, his beautiful plan.
     In a sense our splotches have already been set as to where they will go and the purpose that they have to the completed project but we are still being filled in and still being worked till our lives come to a close. When they do our splotch remains behind for the next generations to build upon.
     Why purple? Well I like the color purple and ink splotch seemed too plain so the purple part really doesn't have that much thought behind it. It just gives the name a little more pizazz.
      The master historian is drawing the picture of history and your life is just a splotch on his page. And so with that I am just an ink splotch (perhaps i'm one of the purple ones) on God's page and I can't wait to see what the picture looks like in the end.

Modesty Part 2: Is it Love?

1 Peter 3:3,4
3 Do not let your adorning be external-the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear-
4 but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.

     When I came across these verses in the Bible at first read I thought it came across as a little hard. Does this mean I can't ever braid my hair or put on jewelry or wear pretty clothes? What if I want to wear those things? But after looking a little more closely at the  passage and the verses it isn't saying that. It's saying that you shouldn't be obsessed with looking pretty.
     In our culture in America it's very easy to become obsessed with looking pretty and have that become an idol for us. Our hearts should be captivated by Christ and we should be seeking him and what pleases Him rather than trying to please ourselves and the people around us.
     Does that mean that we never wear jewelry or do fancy stuff to our hair or wear things that look pretty? No, God is our creator and sometimes he supplies us with the gifts of having these things and he allows us to enjoy these good gifts that he gives to us.

James 1:17a Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above....
   
     It is not wrong to own and wear jewelry otherwise why would God tell the Israelites to ask their Egyptian neighbors to give them jewelry. (Ex. 11:2) God never forbid them to wear it so its safe to assume that the Israelite women were wearing jewelry while walking around in the desert. (I would have been if I was one of them).
     That aside God wants us to be captivated by him. Our entire motive for being modest should be rooted in the fact that we desire to please him. If you love someone enough you are going to want to do things and give up stuff in order to please them. It's easy to want to sacrifice things because you love someone.
     I love my family and I know recently I haven't been as good about this since my single life sort of took off but when I was fresh out of high school I could have went off to some college somewhere and left my family (who was houseless at the time) and started my own life right away. Everyone was saying that I should but every time I looked into it it just didn't seem like the right thing to do. I couldn't just leave my family moving from house to house with my mom trying to homeschool and feed a family of 13 on her own.
     Yes, I was an extra mouth to feed (raising that number to 14) but it wasn't like I sat back and let my mom do all of the work. I helped to grade papers, I would run to the store if we needed stuff occasionally, I worked with the younger kids on their reading and math, I watched the babies when my mom needed to go out to get stuff or take someone to class, I made dinner, and just generally kept busy.
       Why did I choose to do this instead of getting away and starting my own life? I did it out of love for my family and it was worth any sacrifice no matter how big or small that sacrifice may have been. When you love someone it is much easier to sacrifice for them than when you don't love them. Those months were not wasted, they were months that I am glad that I went through.
     If you love God anything that he desires for you will be the best thing for you. For every person that's going to look different. Ultimately are we being modest for the external pleasing of men or is it because of our love for God that modesty is just an outpouring of our love for him? Just like staying with my family was an outpouring of my love for them our modesty should be a small outpouring of our love for God.

Modesty Part 1: Matters of the Heart

     This past summer I was reading a blog and the issue of modesty came up. Now when people talk about modesty a lot of times people have an imbalanced approach to the subject. A lot of times people talk about modesty but fail to talk about the heart. Ultimately it's not the outside of a person that matters but what goes on in the heart.
     When we see a girl walking around with a bare midriff we have a tendency to judge her outward appearance but we know nothing of this girl! When we see these girls and women walking around on the streets our hearts should go out to them and we should be concerned with where they are going to be spending eternity. Will it be in eternal punishment or in eternal joy with our Lord and Savior?
     This should be our first and primary concern for people. Are we all called to spread the gospel? Yes, we are according to Matthew 28:19,20.
     A lot of judgement went around recently for Miley Cyrus' twerking display that she gave at the VMA's. (She also got a lot of applause too for what she did but that just shows you how sick with sin this world is).
     This poor girl is looking to be fulfilled and she will do anything in her power to get that fulfillment. If girls do not have the transforming power of Christ in them then they are just another Miley Cyrus, just another girl looking to be fulfilled. Looking to feel like she's got it, the attention, the money, the friends, the connections, whatever they perceive it takes to get that is what these girls are living for.
     Until we give them a reason to be modest we can't introduce (or force) our ideas of modesty on someone who isn't saved. It just won't work.
     If they respect you and your position they may change on the outside but the inside remains the same. They still have a heart that desires the things of the flesh. To put it in perspective, they still are dressing immodestly on the inside even if the outside meets your standards of modesty.
     Maybe they will reject Christ when you share your faith with them. That's ok. It's not your job to convert them but to give them the gospel. God may be using you to prepare them to receive the gospel in the future. You don't know what the future holds so its better to have given them the gospel and have them reject it now then to have never given them the gospel and have them die never having been told of who Jesus is.
     We had a woman who came to our church for a little while who I don't believe was saved. She wore things that most people might consider inappropriate. We loved her and did what we could to help her feel welcomed in our fellowship.
     Eventually, for many complicated reasons, she left. Years later my mom asked my dad if he remembered anything of what she wore and he honestly answered that no, he did not remember. His primary concern for her was her heart. Was it captivated by Christ or by the things of this world?
     Now my dad is a sinner just like any other man but when your heart is captivated by Christ and you are pursuing a relationship with Him then it's possible for you to care so much for someone else's eternal state that everything else doesn't matter. This I believe is where my dad was (and by the grace of God still is) when God brought this woman into our fellowship.
     When talking about modesty I think it's important for us to first be concerned with the heart of a person. Is it one that has already been transformed by Christ? If not their salvation should be our primary concern. After that its a little easier to deal with what it is exactly.
To be continued.....