There is something about family traditions that not only makes for special memories, but also bonds family members together. This is “their” menu, “their” way to celebrate. It connects them in blood and heart. Someone said, “Family traditions counter alienation and confusion. They help us define who we are; they provide something steady, reliable and safe in a confusing world.”

• Serve the same menu for Christmas brunch, perhaps a coffee cake and special beverage.
• Read the Christmas story from Luke before opening presents.
• Go caroling together in your neighborhood on Christmas Eve.
• Take a family picture in the same spot in your home every year on Christmas morning.
• Put the same items in the stockings each year – an orange, Whitman’s sampler box, a candy cane, etc.
• Listen to the same music while decorating the tree or having Christmas dinner

Our Twelve Days of Christmas starts this Saturday! Hmmmm, what should I do to make it special since it’s our first year as Empty Nesters? Any suggestions?

What family traditions does your family observe at Christmas?

Good food is truly a gift from our God. It’s a blessing to be able to use good ingredients and fix a meal for your family and friends, isn’t it? Cooking is one way we can show our family how much we care for them. They need good meals when they’re well, but they especially need nourishing meals then they’re sick. It’s also a nice gesture to serve it in a special way if they’re bedridden – perhaps on a pretty tray with nice linens, special dishes and a flower in a small vase.

I’ve had a sick hubby for a couple of weeks. What started out as “sinus problems” turned to bronchitis, then to walking pneumonia. Poor guy! He’s had a good appetite during his illness, but has been more particular about what he’s wanted to eat. He’s been hungry for “comfort foods.” So for Sunday dinner yesterday, rather than opting for chicken soup, I planned a menu of Homestyle Chicken Bake. This is a Southern Living recipe I found a few years back that replaced my old chicken and rice recipe. It’s substantial because it has chicken, rice and carrots in the dish. A salad and bread are all that’s needed to make this a full meal.

Here’s the recipe:

Homestyle Chicken Bake

1 cup uncooked long-grain rice
1 cup sliced celery
3/4 cup chopped onion
2 tbl. butter or marg., melted
2 tsp. dried parsley flakes
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
small bag of baby carrots
6 chicken breast halves (could also use dark meat or a cut up fryer)
1 can cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
2/3 cup sour cream
1/4 cup milk
paprika

Cook rice according to package directions. Combine rice and next 7 ingredients; mix well. Spoon into a lightly greased 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking dish; top with chicken breasts.

Combine soup, sour cream, and milk; spoon mixture over chicken breasts. Sprinkle paprika over top. Bake, covered at 350 degrees for 1 hour. For a Sunday after church meal, I put it in the oven at 280 degrees when I leave for Sunday school.

What do you do or make when you have someone sick at your house?

Making decisions can be difficult. Perhaps because we’re afraid we’re going to make the wrong choice, we won’t step out and make any decision at all.

I heard about a farmer who hired a man to work for him. He told him his first task would be to paint the barn and said it should take him about three days to complete. But the hired man was finished in one day. The farmer set him to cutting wood, telling him it would require about 4 days. The hired man finished in a day and a half, to the farmer’s amazement. The next task was to sort out a large pile of potatoes. He was to arrange them into three piles: seed potatoes, food for the hogs, and potatoes that were good enough to sell. The farmer said it was a small job and shouldn’t take long at all. At the end of the day the farmer came back and found the hired man had barely started. “What’s the matter here?” the farmer asked. “I can work hard, but I can’t make decisions!” replied the hired man. What could have helped the man sort the potatoes? Prayer. “Prayer?” you ask. “About potatoes?” Yes. God is concerned even about our work, and if we go to Him He will give wisdom.

Monday night in our Bible study of A Woman After God’s Own Heart by Elizabeth George, we learned that if we have a heart for passion in prayer we will make no decision without prayer.

Another blessing she learned in prayer was greater confidence in decision making. Before Elizabeth learned the principles of biblical decision making she made her choices based on how she felt at the moment someone was asking her something. If they called early enough in the day when her energy level was high, she found herself drumming her fingers on the table waiting for them to take a breath so she could say, “Yes! I can do that! When do you want me to come?” If the phone call came later when she wasn’t quite so perky, she found herself shaking her head, no matter what the other person was asking. Then she realized that she wasn’t making spiritual decisions, she was making physical decisions. If she felt good the answer was yes. If she felt bad the answer was no.

In Acts 13:22 we read: And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave their testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will. To be a woman after God’s own heart, we must fulfill all God’s will. It’s important how we make decisions because we want to do His will. In Acts 9:6 we read about Paul on the Road to Damascus on his way to kill Christians, And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. We must ask the Lord the same question, “What would you have me to do?”

When Elizabeth faced a decision she learned to write them down on a 3×5 card and prayed about it. When she was invited to a baby or wedding shower, she wrote it down and prayed about it so she would make no decision without prayer. Who should I disciple? How long? Which Bible study should I teach? These decisions were all made seriously in prayer. She refused to accept a responsibility that took her away from home until her girls were married and out of the home so she could keep her priorities that the Lord has given her.

On the 3×5 card she would write the decision that needed to be made and also four questions. Jeremiah 17:9 says, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
The questions to ask when facing a decision are:

1. Why would I do this?
2. Why would I not do this? –

The reason to ask these two questions is that it surfaces our motives. Elizabeth’s example is if someone’s asked her to teach a Bible study. She asks, “Why would I do this?” Her deceitful heart says, “Because your name will be in the bulletin. Everyone will know you’re a great Bible teacher. Even if they don’t come they’ll know you’re the teacher!” Proverbs 11:2 says, When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom. This is a bad reason. Then she’d ask, “Why would I not do this?” Perhaps it’s an invitation to speak to a large gathering and her heart says, “I’m afraid!” That’s another bad answer. God has not given us the spirit of fear…

3. Why should I do this?

4. Why should I not do this?

Another safety valve for those of us that are married is the advice of our husbands. If he doesn’t want us to do a particular thing we need to listen to his counsel. How blessed to have a husband that will support, pray for and bless his wife’s endeavors. How blessed is the wife that has a husband that would tell her “no” and protect her by his loving decision for her! Listen to what he has to say.

If you’re making a decision and you feel pressured by the church secretary who needs to put your name in the bulletin as to whether or not you’re going to teach that Sunday School class, say “no.” if God hasn’t given you direction about it. Susanna Wesley said, “God forbid that I should venture on any business without first begging for thy direction and thy assistance.”

The farmer’s hired hand in our opening illustration could have made light work of those potatoes had he prayed about it. “Lord, give me wisdom to make the right choices here. Guide my hands as I work and help me to know which pile to put each potato in.”

Today as you “sort your potatoes” don’t make any decision without prayer!

Have you ever heard the idiom “Who’s minding the store”? According to http://www.yourdictionary.com/idioms/mind-the-store it means, “to attend to local or family matters, as in, “Ask Dad for permission; he’s minding the store while Mom’s away.” If you had an important ministry to accomplish who would be minding your store in your absence?

December. The word brings thoughts of the wonderful season now upon us. However, December also brings thoughts of being busy, very busy, doesn’t it? Not only do we have our own baking, decorating, shopping, wrapping and card writing to do, we have events to attend – cantatas, school programs (and practices for both of those), church parties, individual’s open houses and get togethers, family gatherings, light shows, and caroling.