Category: holidays

it’s like this… I’m in the bank line.. you know the drill… I’ve got a deposit to make… I choose the line next to the window, because I can’t find a pen, so need to share one with the teller (you know the old pen & teller bit)… besides, there are only two cars in front of me… couple of lines beside me with only one car… and I’ll be quicker in this line, because the pen won’t have to travel through a tube… well… I sit… and I sit… the line beside me has only one car in it… I get out of my line… you know what happens… I get in the line with the one car… unbeknownst to me, he is handling all of the deposits for Christmas shopping for a big weekend at the mall (apparently)… I wait… the line I have just left… it clear two cars pull up and zip through while I am still waiting… during all of my waiting I play with Max… who is babbling to himself in his car seat in the back… I sip my coffee…. I dig through my purse.. wow I do have a pen in here… ugh!!!… finally I am next… I place my checks in the tube… and I wait some more.. I am staring at my teller as if that will speed up this process… finally she greets me saying something nice and Christmasy like good morning … hope your holidays are going well… I’ll be with you in a second… by now I am wondering what the rush is … why am I so impatient…. the sermon from Sunday is wafting my way…. Advent…. waiting…. preparing… being patient…. making room for the Christ child in my life.. in my heart… ugh!!! she sends me my deposit slip and says Happy Holidays…. I drive off thinking of Sunday…. why are we–am I–so impatient…. for me … it’s difficult to just slow down sometimes and enjoy the moment…. enjoy this season… to realize the importance of Advent…is maybe to realize the importance of waiting… preparing our hearts… preparing our lives…. for the coming of the Christ child…

… I am reflecting back on my life today… waiting to begin my music career… starting it in Dallas… all I learned about myself and life… during college times and teaching school after college…. if I had gone straight into music after high school…. I would not be where I am …. I know the waiting to make that step … for me was the right one… waiting to get married… we dated for 6 years…. no need to rush in to things …right!!… for us, it was the right decision… during those years we learned so much about ourselves… our relationship… and how to truly love and accept each other….the move to Nashville… waiting for the right time…. the right reasons… the support of friends and family… the churches in Plano and Franklin believing in us and encouraging us made a huge difference… waiting to have children… having Max this year has been a life changer…. it has been wonderful.. and I am so glad I was in tune with God’s time… and I didn’t miss this oppurtunity… Ron and I working together now … traveling with Max… my life is rich in ways I cannot begin to express or explain… and some of it has been the choices I have made.. and others have been the choices I have waited on and been patient to listen to God’s lead….. finally we just bought a house… a home of our own… for years we have looked…it never was right .. always obstacles… always pushing and trying to make something work… then this fall … seems like it all fell into place…. I’m sure you can look back on your life.. and recall similar stories….

so what does God have to teach me about myself … my life this advent season… like my past … maybe I need to trust that God is doing something new…. in my life… if I’d just get out of the way… and not try to rush God.. If I’d just slow down a little and be still… I’d hear God whisper… Celia … I’m coming for your this year… I’m coming to be born in your heart… I’m coming to heal your hurts… I’m coming to bring reconcilation in your relationship… I’m coming to be your Savior… I’m coming to love you and teach you to love… that’s worth waiting for… right….

Merry Christmas… may your lines be short this year…your eyes still filled with a child’s wonder…. and may you learn in the waiting moments… God (like the good parent I want to be..) could use this time as a teachable moment… if we’d only be open to it….

celia

What do you want to be this Halloween? I called a friend to ask him what his children were going to be this Halloween and he said that is yet to be decided… what I always loved about Halloween was that every year you had a do over… what worked last year hardly ever was repeated… new ideas… new directions… new interests and trends had to be carefully taken into consideration… two Halloweens in my childhood stick out in my mind

one when I was very young and my older brother and sister took me walking around the block in our hometown at the time, LaPlace, La… I might have been eight… they were older than me and I don’t even remember what I wore that year… but what I do remember was being with them… feeling safe that they were with me… and the fun we had… and walking quickly past some lady’s home that gave me the willies (she had spooky music playing on her porch… I didn’t even knock on her door!)

another year I remember going it alone… my brother and sister were off to college… I recall dressing up that year in some ballerina/fairy outfit… tutu, wand and all…it rained that year… trick or treating in the rain… ugh!!

oh yea the candy…I remember the candy… mounds of candy… much more candy than any child should consume… smiles from my neighbors… every once and awhile running into someone who did not give candy… who maybe gave a little toy… or the one year someone give me a fifty cent piece… I thought that was neat… and always the quest for the quintessential costume… some years a mask from the local discount store would suffice… remember those things… how funky it was to look out of those eye holes… and I’d always stick my tongue through the mouth… funny what we remember… and other years I needed something more elaborate… more creative… more unique… kids talking at school who already knew who they were going to be… and sometimes not knowing

Sometimes I find myself… right back at that question… What am I going to be? forget the mask.. the costume… the candy… this year in my life what am I going to be… now

Halloween has many meanings for folks… and really I’ve always seen the fun in kids dressing up … family and neighborhoods getting into it… also I remember that Halloween came from All Hallows Eve, before All Saints Day (Websters calls All Saints Day a festival in honor of all the saints… November 1)… remembering those who have gone before… those whose lives have touched us… maybe that’s where the spooky part got involved… Halloween was never about something really evil for me.. (although I believe in evil, but that’s another newsletter – see Psalm 23 if you are having trouble with that evil thing… it helps me)

All Saints Day is about remembering those who have gone before… what they changed about this life… how they made it better… how they are remembered… how will I be remembered… what was important in their lives… what is important in my life .. some churches have services or moments in services to reflect on these people in our lives… and maybe to look at our own lives and ask ourselves who we want to be? Who does God want us to be… want do I want to change in my life this year… what do I have the power to change… what resources are available to me… what worked last year might not work this year… on a personal note, this year we lost our saint of-a-dog Smokey… he died on Easter morning… he had been with us for 14 and 1/2 years… what we could learn about living and loving from that dog…

I don’t know where you are in your life but those are some great questions for me… what I am going to be in many areas of my life has yet to be decided… but what I do know is, I am following God’s lead a little more… trying to listen better… spending more time giving than taking… kissing Max and Ron and our other dog Blue as often as I can… celebrating my work and all the people I get to meet as I’m out singing… telling family and friends that I love them… laughing out loud as much humanly possible… accepting people for who they are, instead of who I want them to be… continuing to let go of past hurts and forgiving quicker… feeling really good about who I am today and what’s important in my life right now… so who do you want to be this year?… if you haven’t decided that’s OK

may you hear God in your life… may you smile when you remember someone in your life who is no longer here and have a moment of thanksgiving… may you always know that you can be anything you want to be… with God’s help… you can be yourself and that’s enough…

celia

by the way the Whitlers this year have decided to be clowns (I know, it’s a stretch)… we’ve got our red noses ready… and we like chocolate!!!!!

It’s hard to believe that Christmas is right around the corner again. It’s been a quick year. I hope in the midst of all that this time of year is: (shopping, final exams, holidays, parties, family, friends, trying to find that just right gift, card writing and mailing) that you make time to remember that first Christmas. What a chaotic time that must have been, but in the midst of all the noise, crowds, smells and confusion that must have come with that day–there’s an incredible birth. Lots of folks surely didn’t even know that it was going on. Are we, you and I, making time to find the significance in this day? I heard a pastor say that he felt that if we could get our priorities right on this one day of the year, that we could get them right on all the rest of the days.

We’re not going to wind the year up just yet, I’ll send a year end update of our lives in a couple of weeks. Merry Christmas–Celia