Archive for the Category »raising kids «

A five year old girl leaves an amazing spiritual legacy for her family in this short clip. Her story fits so well with Valentine’s Day preparations and teaches us that love can be expressed in unexpected ways. (You might want to grab the kleenex.)

If you received this post via RSS or email, please visit my Holy in the Daily blog to view this inspiring clip.

Well, did this provide tears as well as ideas of how you can love others? What surprises will you leave behind for your family to discover?

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Susan Gaddis, Helping you build a spiritual legacy
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Photo of Debbie Fuller for Holy in the Daily blog

The amazing Debbie Fuller

Really—I’m not kidding! Your hobby can become a way to communicate your spiritual legacy. My mother-in-law gave us a handmade quilt when Tom and I married. She had created it from scraps of clothes once worn by members of the family. Each scrap had a story to tell, and I wish I had written the stories all down, but I didn’t. My bad. I still have the quilt, but I only remember a few of the stories.

Not everyone is as shortsighted as I am. My friend, Debbie Fuller, took her hobby of collecting keys and turned it into a creative means of communicating part of her spiritual legacy.

Debbie and her husband, Foch, live in Vallejo, California. She’s the mother to 3 young men, mother-in-love to three wonderful young women, and grandmother to three gorgeous and brilliant grandchildren. She and Foch have co-pastored North Bay Foursquare Church for the last 22 years.

Besides serving Jesus with an amazing bunch of believers, Debbie says, “My personal passion is photography. I’ve always been our families’ historian. I think I may have taken the job a little too seriously over the years. We have thousands of pictures documenting every birthday, celebration, and accomplishment!”

I recently interviewed Debbie about using her passion for photography and her key collection to create a beautiful, new book titled Unlocked. Welcome to Holy in the Daily, Debbie, and thank you for doing this interview.

What inspired you to write a book about keys?

“It wasn’t my plan to start collecting keys. Years ago I purchased a key as a reminder of my grandmother’s house which held for me many wonderful childhood memories. After that, whenever I came across a unique key I found that I wanted to keep it.”

“God always spoke to me about a specific aspect of the authority He entrusted to us with each key I collected. Over the years people have given me keys knowing I collect them.”

How would you describe this book project?

“I wanted to do something with these keys that would treasure the lessons learned upon receiving each unique key. So I set out to photograph and write about them.”

Who do you hope reads this book and why?

“People who want to grow in their personal relationship with God will glean from this book. The pages beckon the reader to action. Our walk with Jesus is not simply an escape from hell’s fire, but rather it is a growing vital relationship. God has entrusted the keys to His kingdom to us! We need to know what they open and how to use them.”

What do you hope people walk away with after reading your book?

“I hope people walk away feeling personally challenged to use the keys that have been entrusted to us. I also hope the reader will do away with fear and intimidations that keep us living small and hesitant to take risks.”

How does someone approach a particular hobby as a way to communicate a spiritual legacy?

“God places desires in our hearts. I think those desires are given to reveal more of who Father God truly is. He’s more personal than we realize. In every little aspect of life, God is speaking to us. We just need to tune in and listen to Him.”

“I would suggest that you ask God to open your ears to hear what He’s saying to you through your personal passion(s). He will speak to you the way you hear—in your language! Enjoy the journey of growing in love with your creative Creator.”

Thanks Debbie for sharing. You’ve combined your passions for photography and keys to create a beautiful book that leaves a legacy with your children, grandchildren, and the folks you serve.

UnlockedClick here to preview Unlocked, Debbie’s beautiful book. Once you have landed on her Unlocked book page, click the bottom right corner to enlarge the book for better viewing of each page. The appealing photos give a face to each key and story of Debbie’s message. (Unlocked is also available for purchase, just in case you were wondering.)

Now it’s your turn: What hobby do you enjoy that might become a means of communicating something of your spiritual journey? Have you shared it with others and if so, how?

Susan Gaddis, Helping you build your spiritual legacy

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SundialWow, another year has passed for this self-reflection junkie. I reflect, muse, consider, meditate, ponder, and ruminate so I can grow in my relationship with Jesus. If you regularly read my posts, you know I don’t have it all together, but  I share what I have learned, and am learning, through walking with the Holy in the daily.

Thanks for stopping by and listening to the musings that work their way up from my thoughts and into cyberspace. It hasn’t always been easy writing about the processes that the Spirit Holy is working inside of me. Your company has made the journey worth it. Someday in eternity future we will sit down over coffee or tea, and we’ll remember these times of growing together in Jesus. I look forward to hearing your story from start to finish. *smile and longing look*

For now, I’ve decided to take a look back at the most popular posts of 2011. These are the ones that got the most comments, page clicks, or just meant a lot to me (author privilege *grin*).

The Ten Most Popular Posts of 2011 

1. How to Leave a Problem in God’s Hands and Not Steal It Back

2. Decorate Your Home With a Godly Heritage

3. How to Respond to a Drama Queen

4. Praying Your Child Through a Difficult Time

5. 5 Tips to Avoid Morning Depression

6. How to Pray a Celtic Christian Circle Prayer

7. Five Tips to Draw Close to God When He Seems Distant

8. How to Quiet Your Inner Assumption Lawyer

9. Five Thoughts for Adjusting to an Empty Nest

10. How To Talk to Yourself When You Feel Misunderstood or Rejected

What have you learned in your God journey in 2011? Did you grow closer to Jesus? Are you in better spiritual shape entering into 2012 than you were entering 2011? Share your comments below–I’d love to hear from you.

Susan Gaddis, Helping you build your spiritual legacy

Christmas Bible text

Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com

Are you avoiding Christmas this year because you aren’t in the mood? Is busyness or financial troubles making Christmas seem like too much of a hassle? I have a friend who doesn’t decorate for Christmas because she feels there is no one to enjoy it. The kids have all left home, and her husband has passed away. Another friend just isn’t in the mood for Christmas and plans to ignore it this year.

I can relate to sorrow invading the Christmas season, limiting our joy. I lost my mother a week before Christmas a few years ago, and it was a very sad time. The Christmas gathering at my house gets smaller every year as the kids marry and get involved in their extended families. Loneliness, sorrow, and depression are all valid feelings and shouldn’t be ignored during the holidays. But Christmas shouldn’t be ignored either.

Christmas isn’t about us. It is about the celebration of the coming of our King to planet earth–God becoming man. We call this season Advent, which means “arrival.” Christmas sets us up for the Christian’s main celebration of Easter–the death, burial, and resurrection of this God Man so that our sins could be forgiven. Without Christmas, there would be no Easter. In my book, celebrating Christmas is a form of worship.

Are you avoiding Christmas this year? Too busy? Financially strapped? Have sorrow, loneliness, or depression robbed you of the opportunity to worship the King?

Here are five tips for how to celebrate Christmas when you’re not in the mood:

1. Get yourself over to a senior citizen facility and ask the receptionist for the names and room numbers of those who have no family in the area to visit them. Then visit each senior and listen to their stories, pray with them, and leave a Christmas card or plate of cookies. If you have children still at home, get them involved in the baking and visiting.

2. Give a gift of value to those you love–a heart felt letter of appreciation for how their lives have touched yours, a pretty plate that belonged to your grandmother, a box of family recipes you’ve copied, or that set of teacups that are gathering dust in the china cabinet. Some things shouldn’t be left until you are too old to enjoy giving them away.

3. Plan a day to make Christmas crafts or cookies with your kids, grandkids, or some of the children from the church whose mother works and has little time for this kind of special activity. Play Christmas music, serve hot chocolate, and share with the children your memories of Christmas and how Jesus has impacted your life. Let them tell you their stories of Jesus.

4. Call your local homeless shelter or soup kitchen and find out what they need during December. Choose one avenue in which to help serve those less fortunate than you. Then do it.

5. Visit Ann Voskamp’s blog, A Holy Experience, and download her free Advent Jesse Tree book. For many years, our family has enjoyed the story of the coming of the Messiah as a December daily devotional. The kids enjoy putting the symbols of each Old Testament promise on the special tree as we slowly work our way up to December 25th, the day of the birth of the King. We use a traditional small fir tree, but my friend Vickie always finds a bare branch that she sprays white and sets in a weighted pot for her family’s Jessie Tree. Even though the kids have all left home, Vickie and Dave still celebrate Advent with their Jessie Tree.

What have you found helpful in keeping Christmas as a time of worship to our King? What brings Advent alive for you? I’d love to have your input.

Susan Gaddis, Helping you build your spiritual legacy

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window view at my Finnish home

Window view from our Finnish "home"

My home is decorated with a Godly heritage, and the decorating has taken years. I thought about this fact as I cradled my hot cup of coffee during a pause in my Christmas decorating.

Surveying the living room and kitchen from my perch on the couch, I noticed the hole in the vinyl floorcovering in front of the oven. The hole appeared about a week after the vinyl was put in when one of my sons dropped a hot skillet onto it. I’ve kept a kitchen throw rug over the hole in the years since the “christening.”  Today, the rug is in the laundry for a weekly cleaning. The laundry room floor, as well the hallway, is the original vinyl, over 27 years old. *sigh*

You’d think by now we would have replaced it all, but with the cost of raising six kids and other expenses that come with life, we haven’t. There. I’ve said it. My house reminds me of my grandmother’s–old, worn in places, and holding memories in each bump and bruise.

Luhtala home

The Luhtala home in Finland--our farmhouse "home"

This last summer we stayed in an old farmhouse while visiting Finland for our son Jonathan’s wedding. As soon as I walked in the door I felt the spiritual atmosphere of a godly heritage lived out in that home.

The small house stood empty now, but the memories smiled at me from the photos on the walls and the stash of knitted mittens in the mudroom. Loving family had lost a baby daughter and raised godly sons under a roof that kept the dark winters outside. Scrapbooks revealed a routine of worship services held in the main living area. Something else besides the physical memories lingered in that place–a sense of peace. The week we spent in that home remains one of my fondest memories of Finland.

Call me odd, but I’ve been an intercessor long enough to know that the physical realm is often influenced by the spiritual realm and visa versa. When a house has held prayer meetings, laughter, tears, and the daily living of honest Christian folk, there remains a sense of the Lord’s presence. You can feel it, and it wells up within your spirit connecting you with the kindred spirits who birthed the things of God in that house.

If you come to my home, you won’t find fancy decorating or the latest furniture styles. You’ll just find peace, people, and lots of books stacked next to each couch and comfy chair. Royal Rangers have graced my halls as well as many home groups and prayer meetings. Most of the children have been raised and the lessons taught and learned. Some of the dishes are chipped and the glasses don’t match, and that is how I like it. My house is almost done with its role in raising a godly heritage. I believe a little of our spiritual legacy has been deposited in this house for the next family who lives here. I hope they feel God here.

Are you decorating your home with a godly heritage? Are you leaving a spiritual legacy in the place where you live? Share your thoughts by clicking the green Leave a Comment link below.

(For more on this subject of creating a godly heritage in the place where you live, see my post “Is Your Home a Thin Place?“)

Susan Gaddis, Helping you build a spiritual legacy.

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How thankful I am, *sly smile,* that I’m not the only one with a sick sense of humor this Thanksgiving. I so related to this touching moment that my eyes leaked. Enjoy your coffee and a brief moment of pleasure this morning as two moms (the Skitzy Chicks) wish you a peaceful Thanksgiving.

If you received this Monday’s Moment clip via RSS or email and cannot view it, please visit my Holy in the Daily blog to allow your eyes to leak a little. Then pick yourself up off the floor and get your house clean for Thanksgiving!

So what’s left to do on your Thanksgiving preparations list? I’ll check in with you on Thursday to see if you survived.

Susan Gaddis

Helping you build your spiritual legacy

Handwritten Thank You NoteGrandma Chris taught me the lost art of a handwritten Thank You note. At least it was becoming a lost art back then. My generation slowly got too busy to write Thank You notes and bought the ready made ones from Hallmark that only required our signature at the bottom of a nicely worded sentiment.

The current fast track Thank You expression comes in the form of an ecard, if at all. I often use ecards, but they lack the needed feel of something in your hand that spreads emotional warmth up through your arm and into your heart.

With the holidays coming there will be plenty of opportunities for handwritten Thank You notes. Gifts of hospitality and kindness deserve Thank You notes just as much as a Christmas or birthday present. Who doesn’t wear a smile when discovering a personal note mixed in with the junk mail and bills sitting in the mailbox! Receiving my little granddaughters’ handmade Thank You notes shortly after Christmas is more pleasurable than the gift itself. My daughter, Kati, is passing on the spiritual legacy of kindness that Grandma Chris handed to me.

How to write a Thank You note:

1.  Keep your supplies of Thank You notes in a handy location such as a desk drawer or near your bill collection basket. This way you can express your thanks spontaneously without the needed burden of hunting down supplies.

2.  The sooner the better is the theme when it comes to writing Thank You notes. The longer you wait, the more difficult it becomes to express your thanks with freshness and enthusiasm.

3.  Keep it short. Thank You notes are just that–notes!

4.  Enjoy yourself while you write. That tone will come through in your words and bring pleasure to the one receiving the note. I sometimes write my Thank You notes on my day off when I can enjoy my morning coffee and a few moments of quiet reflection. Other times a quick lunchtime writing binge can add a touch of humor to my notes as I take the time to enjoy the break after a busy morning at work.

5  Instead of writing, “Thank you for the Christmas gift,” you can express your gratitude more specifically. For example, “Your gift of cozy slipper socks is warming my toes as I write. Thank you for helping me survive the cold mornings in New York.”

6.  End your note with a brief sentiment and your name, such as “Blessings, Susan,” or “With love, Susan.”

Gratitude seems to be the daily expression on Facebook and Twitter this month. Maybe Ann Voskamp’s message in One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are has worked its magic into other’s hearts as it did mine–making gratitude a daily expression. Perhaps the lost art of a handwritten Thank You note will once again become an expression of gratitude in a world that has forgotten how to properly say “Thank You.”

Have you learned the lost art of a handwritten Thank You note? Who did you learn it from, and who have you passed this art on to?

Helping you build a spiritual legacy, Susan Gaddis

June is a time of good-byes and launching our kids into their future, often in graduation or wedding ceremonies.  This prayer from the Northumbria Community is one of my favorites. It appears in their book Celtic Daily Prayer. I hope it touches your heart as it has mine.

My Prayer For You

May the Father of Life pour out His grace on you; may you feel His hand in everything you do and be strengthened by the things He brings you through: this is my prayer for you.

May the Son of God be Lord in all your ways; may He shepherd you the length of all your days, and in your heart may He receive the praise: this is my prayer for you.

And despite how simple it may sound, I pray that His grace will abound and motivate everything you do; and may the fullness of His love be shared through you.

May His Spirit comfort you, and make you strong, may He discipline you gently when you’re wrong, and in your heart may He give you a song: this is my prayer for you.

May Jesus be Lord in all your ways, may He shepherd you the length of all your days, and in your heart may He receive the praise: this is my prayer for you, my prayer for you.

Do you have a prayer that fits the launching of a graduate or wedding couple? I’d love to have you share it in the comment section below.

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

Jonathan

They really do leave the nest—eventually. But how do we adjust to the empty nest depression that accompanies them leaving the nest?

Jonathan, child number four of six, flew off to Finland last Saturday to marry the love of his life, Sanna. The wedding comes in August, but the adjustment comes now—at least for his parents.

Here are my five thoughts for adjusting to an empty nest. These are along the recovery path of “change your thinking and your mood will change” therapy.

Five thoughts for adjusting to an empty nest

1. Oldness doesn’t resonate as old until you really are old. Then it hits you that most of your life has already been lived. This revelation doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy living life to the full with the time you have left; just that time really will be coming to an end and you wish you could have done things better in the time you have already lived. *sigh for deep thought*

2. Most of those who have gone before us lived shorter lives than we have. The average life span during the Middle Ages was 25. I can be thankful that I have lived long enough to see my nest empty.

3. Many people throughout history were pretty dysfunctional, just as I have been. (“We really should have been better parents, but we didn’t know how” kind of stuff.)

4. God seems to get really involved in dysfunctional people’s short lives—I’m thinking Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Peter, and all those who have served God throughout history. To us, our life may seem seem like a vapor, but not to God. He sees our short lives as a beginning point, or why would he invest himself so much in dysfunctional people?

5. Therefore, *grin for big conclusion here* God is investing in something bigger than just our short lives here on earth. He has much bigger plans in mind—like all of eternity future kinds of things with us by his side.

Putting my life into perspective with the bigger picture allows me to acknowledge the past mistakes of my journey, and honor the future—both my future and Jon’s. The nest may be emptier, but it isn’t less full.

So, what are your suggestions for adjusting to an empty nest, whether you have experienced it as one leaving the nest or as one watching others leave?

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

This is a different Mother’s Day post. I wanted to honor those mothers who have lost children. This short video esteems life and the parents who make hard choices to love their children even if they know they will only have them for a short time. These mothers don’t have little hands to give them cards on Mother’s Day, but they have little hearts awaiting them in Heaven. I know–I’m one of them.

I hope this video puts this special day into perspective for you, and gives you a greater appreciation for the blessings God has given you.

(If you received this post via RSS or email and cannot view the clip, please visit my Holy in the Daily blog to view it–but grab the Kleenex first.)

Thoughts, comments, remarks? How did this clip impact you?

God bless you, and call your mother. She’d love to hear from you.

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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