Full of Joy: Nastalgia

We are so blessed! This is my parent's tree, and the crazy amount of gifts that surrounded it on Christmas day. I love my parent's tree so much. Growing up my Dad and I would go out to the woods, pick our own tree, and chop it down. Once I moved out of the house, my parent's caved and got a fake tree- which I now love. And if you look closely, you can see the gorgeous snow in the background. We really had a perfect Christmas day. All praise to God. The God of blessings and favor and rewards.

During my time with Him yesterday I was reading in 1 Timothy 6. I learned from the study portion of my Bible that true Godliness is "inner satisfaction with the situation God has ordained for me." It was instant relief to hear God's message to me. God has ordained our days. Chuck and I are in the exact situations God wants us in. He planned for us to be here. It's actually so much easier to be content. In Godly contentment there's no worry, fear, anxiety, or stress. There's peace, joy, trust, and rest- all gifts He longs to pour out on all of us. I'm raising my hands and saying YES to contentment.

Anyway....this picture below sums up exactly how I felt giving Chuck his gift this year.

God provided me with the perfect job to be able to save up and get Chuck one of his dreams. My friend Heidi made the gift certificate that informed Chuck he would be going skydiving. She did such an awesome job- way better than I had ever envisioned. (Heidi has her own design business. I LOVE her style. You can see her amazing stuff here: http://www.hethdesign.com/stationery/index.php ) And bonus, Chuck gets to skydive with Heidi's husband, and our friend Joe. I'm not super excited to see them potentially jump to their deaths, but boys will be boys.