Sponsor a soldier...12 Days of Christmas...Love from Iraq

Here's a beautiful way to help a soldier and his special lady back home for Christmas.

TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS…Love From Iraq

Our service men and women are doing more than their part. They need and deserve all the care packages, love and support that we can give. With the holiday season, they want to send their love back to their wives, fiancés, girlfriends and moms.

This program is designed to let our heroes be heroes yet again. It allows them to send their love back home in a loving and personal gesture.

Imagine your loved one is in Iraq and the holidays are here. You receive a box in the mail. Upon opening it, you find 12 beautifully wrapped gifts: bright red wrapping paper tied up with beautiful golden bows. Each gift is labeled with a card, “On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…” This is love from a serviceman overseas to the woman who is most important in his life.

You have the opportunity to make the holidays a little more special for a military family. Sponsor a serviceman’s Christmas present home to the woman that is most important to him for only $216.

You will be supplied with the name of the serviceman you are sponsoring.

An ad will be put in the Omaha and Lincoln newspapers to publicly thank all of the sponsors.

Please pass the word. People can get involved individually, corporately or as a group.

Ideas of groups might include:
Coworkers
Friends, neighbors, family
Church groups
Book clubs
School groups
Scout troops
Card clubs
Sports teams
Businesses


Please sign up your group and forward this on to others that want to support our troops for the holidays. This is such an exciting project! It was very successful in 2007.

The gifts need to be ordered, wrapped and ready to go by December 1, 2008. Please let me know as soon as possible if you are excited about sponsoring a hero. My goal is to be able to send out gifts for a platoon out of Kansas that has over 200 soldiers! I don’t want to leave anyone out! Please contact me through my website.

www.marykay.com/tniemoth

Anything you don't like?

We went to a concert Friday night at our church with Dennis Jurnigan. Wow, he was amazing. I did not really know who he was until I heard all of his songs and I knew them all! Okay, maybe not the one he wrote the day before and sang for us, but all the rest!

The one thing that hit me that I had to include on the blog was a comment/story from the wife of one of our pastors. What don't you like about yourself when you look in the mirror. You know, when you are getting ready for the day or getting ready for bed and you scrutinize yourself. Most of us have something....nose, teeth, smile, hair, short, tall, eyes, ears, etc.

Do you criticise yourself? Do you ever think of who you are really criticizing? Remember, we were made in God's image! You were made in God's image. That thought convicted me. Yes, I need to get healthier and eat better and take better care of the body I have. However, I SHOULD NOT dwell on the things that I can not change. I may not have the face of a supermodel in the world's view, but I am beautiful to those that love and know me. You are too!

Here's a little about our family. This is a picture of our 3 girls on our family trip this summer. We were gone for 17 days and we experienced 6 national parks, Disneyland, the ocean, a family reunion and a family wedding. It was quite a trip and we got along amazingly well in the van for that long!

I like the way the girls glow when they are doing something they love. They all do many activities, but they all seem to have that special something. The beauty shines through at those times.

Melody was named appropriately. She loves to sing and she really enjoys singing for others. She is even confident enough to sing at our church's Christmas Eve services where there are 2,000+ people. She has also recently become very interested in photography.

Anna is constantly playing the piano. We joke that she plays something everytime she passes by the piano, but it is pretty true. She hopes to be a professional pianist someday and travel around the world. I hope she takes us with her!

Cassidy is still working on determining her specialty. I would say it's a toss-up between comic relief, soccer and song writing. I'm routing for her to write the songs, Anna to play them on piano and Melody to sing them. Maybe they'll be famous musical sisters someday!

Beauty definitely shows itself when you are doing something you love and are passionate about. People can see your enthusiasm and joy...that's God's beauty. He gave you the gifts.

Proverbs 31 Woman

When I think of beauty from the inside out I think of the Proverbs 31 Woman. You know, the woman who is worth far more than rubies (31:10). It also says that charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised (31:30). In between, the verses list all the wonderful things the woman does to help her husband, family, and business. It can be encouraging and daunting at the same time.

I was encouraged by the notes in my Disciple Study NIV version today. "Women may play many roles in a successful family relationship. This appears to be a composite picture of the ideal wife and mother. One woman could hardly perform all the functions mentioned within one day. The woman is equally active in home and business duties. She is trusted by her husband and seeks to help him at all times. She works hard, makes difficult decisions, earns and invests money well, is compasssionate and helpful to the needy, is prepared for the future, and has wisdom to teach other people. She has earned a high reputation in her family, in the business world, and in the community. All of this is possible because her life is centered on God. The Bible thus challenges women to use their talents in as many areas as possible to bring honor to God, their family and themselves. It does not seek to bring a guilt trip on the woman who cannot succeed in all these areas. Few can succeed, but all should have the opportunity to try."

Simple interpretation, do your best at what you have been given to do and you will be beautiful and honored!