Sunday, December 2, 2012

#unbelievablyblessed

Explanation of blog title: For those not familiar with "hashtags" - they are used on the social network site Twitter. According to: https://support.twitter.com/articles/49309-what-are-hashtags-symbols#
  • People use the hashtag symbol # before a relevant keyword or phrase (no spaces) in their Tweet to categorize those Tweets and help them show more easily in Twitter Search. 
  • Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all other Tweets marked with that keyword..
  • Hashtags can occur anywhere in the Tweet – at the beginning, middle, or end.
  • Hashtagged words that become very popular are often Trending Topics.
 I use hashtags on Twitter and sometimes on Facebook also - with some people they are even used in conversation. I use the hashtag #unbelievablyblessed a lot on Facebook and I'm going to use it more on Twitter - it would be cool to get it in the "trending topics"


OK, now that the explanation for my title is done, on with my reason for writing this afternoon....

The Thanksgiving Season is over and just like that the Christmas Season is upon us. During the month of November many of my Facebook friends posted something they were thankful for every day. A little over a year ago I started a gratitude journal where I wrote down 5 things I am thankful for every night before bed. I had gotten out of that habit, so started the 30 days of thankfulness for November. About halfway through the month I decided to do it every month for the next year. After all, as one of my favorite passages of the Bible says: "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.

We have also entered the Advent season. I hadn't really heard much about Advent before coming to Grace EFC a couple of years ago. According to http://www.cresourcei.org/cyadvent.html

"Advent is the beginning of the Church Year for most churches in the Western tradition. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, which is the Sunday nearest November 30, and ends on Christmas Eve (Dec 24). If Christmas Eve is a Sunday, it is counted as the fourth Sunday of Advent, with Christmas Eve proper beginning at sundown.

The word Advent means "coming" or "arrival." The focus of the entire season is the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ in his First Advent, and the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in his Second Advent."

Entering this season right after Thanksgiving seems so fitting. During the next few weeks I will be doing a devotional that a friend posted on Facebook called Make Him Room that was a free download on my Kindle app on my phone.http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AEGID6S/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00AEGID6S&linkCode=as2&tag=monsavmom-20 I am really looking forward to continuing to count my blessings - and as we draw nearer to the celebration of Christ's birth I know I will continue to find more and more to be thankful for. I've heard Christians say that Easter is "more important" than Christmas because if He hadn't risen from the grave He wouldn't have paid for our sins. While I agree that celebrating Easter is awesome for that very reason I don't think it's fair to say one is more important than the other - after all, if He hadn't been born, He wouldn't have been able to be the sacrifice for my sins. You can't really separate the two - you can't have one without the other so one isn't more important than the other. I think the important thing to realize in celebrating them both is to remember the REASON for the season... and I would also say it is important to remember Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection every day and not just during those "seasons"

OK, that was a bit of a rabbit trail - but my point is I am truly #unbelievablyblessed and I thank God for all the amazing blessings in my life!

#unbelievablyblessed,

Sherri