First Day of Autumn

Leaves fall, cool air, harvest moon, and plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. These elements of autumn symbolize the closing of a year. Here are some ideas to celebrate the Autumn Equinox:

* Make scarecrow dolls out of straw and old clothes and set up a tea party with them on your front porch.
* Burn pumpkin spice or apple cider scented candles.
* Make dolls out of pine cones.
* Create fall place mats: collect colorful leaves and arrange on an orange or black paper. Place between two pieces of wax paper and place between pages of a heavy book. After a few days remove from the book. Take off the wax paper and laminate the page with the leaves.
* Take a scenic drive to see trees in fall color.
* Visit a local public garden.
* Take a walk through a forest or along a river.
* Decorate your house with autumn wreaths; pumpkins and other fall vegetables; orange, red and brown ribbons; bouquets of autumn flowers, etc.
* Rake leaves into a pile and jump into them: see how much crunching noise you can make.
* Collect leaves from the neighborhood and make a collage.
* Carve pumpkins.
* Visit a lake or a pond and watch the geese or ducks prepare for their journey south.

Labor Day

Labor Day

Labor Day: the last long weekend of summer and the first long weekend of fall. Labor Day falls on the first Monday of September. The summer closes with a bang. One more trip to the lake, one more excursion to the beach, one more weekend to complete those outdoor summer projects. Labor Day weekend brims with activities, memories of summer gone by, and expectations of what fall will bring.

This holiday was originally established to celebrate the workers of our country. Men and women of the past who formed unions to fight for their freedoms made it possible for us to enjoy the luxuries of today.

Although the majority of people in the United States are not members of unions, they have all benefited from the historical fight for freedom unions fought over 100 years ago. Few celebration of workers activities are held today, but we all rest from our labors and the name of this special day reminds us of those Knights of Labor who stood up for workers' rights.

Here are some ideas to celebrate Labor Day:

* Have a Knights of Labor BBQ invite family and friends and have them dress up as knights. Have paper tube jousts and suction cup archery contests. Post a picture of a knight's horse on a wall and pin the name of an original Knights of Labor onto the horse as the rider.
* Have a Minimum Wage Lunch Rounds set up a lunch rounds with friends and family. Visit each participating home and receive a portion of a meal for under minimum wage. For example, visit the Whites and receive cool aid; visit the Browns and receive hotdogs; visit the Blacks and receive a Jello dessert.
* Put on your own Labor Day Parade have your kids dress up as different workers (tailors, construction workers, mechanics, etc.), play parade music and march around your back yard. Finish the march with throwing confetti and eating hamburgers.

First Day of School

First Day of School

I sit in my garage, looking over the school supply list for my two school returnees. Surrounded by bags from various stores I sort pencils, paper and various art supplies into backpacks. Hours of shopping prepared the way for the big event, the first day of school.

The kids jig and dance, anticipating seeing their friends after a summer packed full of activities. They talk about who will say what. They giggle about who will do what. They whisper, wondering what the new school year will bring. Electrified anticipation zings through the air.

I wipe a tear. Where did the summer go? It slipped away behind kid's camp and family camp and swimming lessons. It slinked behind Grandparents' visits and birthdays. Soon the days passed, time spent, never again to be retrieved. Tomorrow my children step into a different dispensation, the school dispensation.

The high order of school takes over as I drop my smiling-faced offspring at the entrance of its institution. It administrates my time with their dear souls, dictating my schedule and ordaining my banishment from their presence for seven hours of my day. I cower over my steering wheel as I leave its presence.

The school bell rings. The day is through! My munchkins giggle and chortle and dance to the van, shouting their news to my ears that long to hear every word. A smile spreads across my face; I have my wee ones back again.

Yes, the first day of school brings great emotion. It pushes me forward, forcing me to let go, reminding me to make the most of every moment I have with these living treasures of God.

Woe to the Hyprocrite

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Matthew 23:23

I rushed from a church friend's place to a birthday party for one of my children's classmates. As usual, I stayed and visited with the adults while the children played. One of the mothers noted the way I was dressed and said, "Oh you must go to that church . . . that one that makes the women wear dresses." The woman then went on to tell of all the horrendous things people at that church had done to her.

I blushed in shame, fidgeted and wished like crazy I had changed into a pair of jeans.

********

"Oh, you go to that legalistic church, the one that says you have to behave in such and such away to prove that you are a Christian." The man furrowed his brow and shook his head.

I tried to defend my church and replied that no, we believe that by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of ourselves . . . but was I living it?

*******

"The men in that church think women are beneath them . . ." the woman spoke with derision.

I knew her case, what she'd been through, and understood her bitterness, but I couldn't agree. Nonetheless, had we treated her in such a way as to cause her to believe this?

*******

I believe we must live good lives before all men to honor God and bring Him glory, but I also recognize that when my 'good-living' isn't coupled with judgment, mercy, and faith, it wears the cloak of a hypocrite.

Jesus didn't tell the Pharisees to stop tithing or to not clean the outside of their cups, but He did rebuke them for performing good works so that they would outwardly appear righteous unto men.

I want to live a good life. I want to please my Lord. And I don't want to be a stumbling block, an excuse for an unsaved person to resist the Gospel.

My desire is that when strangers meet me, or people who do not go to my church meet me, that they do not look on the way I dress or how I act and scorn Christ. Rather that upon my countenance they see something for which they long; that through my words and actions they are drawn to the Holy Spirit living within me; that my interaction with them leaves them wanting more of Christ.

It is not what I wear that makes me a Christian. It is not the good-living that brings me salvation. It is not how my husband treats me that makes me better than anyone else (and he treats me like I'm his greatest treasure). All these things are nothing more than cleaning "the outside of the cup and the platter." (Matthew 23:25)

What will make me appear as a Christian to the unsaved is what comes from within me; what proceeds from my mouth; what they see on my face; what spirit they feel in my presence; and whether they experience from me judgment, mercy, and faith.

But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: . . . Matthew 15:18-20

Will I lower my standards which I uphold to keep my heart and my mind close to God just to not offend? No. But I hope that what a person remembers of me is not that I don't do certain things, rather that I showed them Christ's love, mercy, justice, and faithfulness, and in addition to that, I live a righteous life.