Sheep and Goats

Matthew 25:31-46

New International Version (NIV)

The Sheep and the Goats

³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. ³² All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³ He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. ³⁴ “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
⁴¹ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
⁴⁴ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
⁴⁵ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
⁴⁶ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

I have read and prayed over this scripture multiple times this week.  I keep getting pulled back to it.  Again and Again and Again.  Am I a sheep?  A goat?  How do I want the Father to look at me on judgment day?  Is He going to say congratulations on winning Champion's Club in 2011?  Congrats on being elected to the Chamber board of directors?  NO!  All of my many accomplishments that I am so proud of this year mean nothing in eternity.  What I should be most proud of is the opportunity to just love and hug on people in China.  And the meansy God gave me to donate thousands of dollars of chicken after the tornado.  Those were lasting....  This year, my New Years resolution.  To live this scripture.  To slow down long enough to see Jesus in "the least of these."  To invite someone into my home, clothe someone, offer the shoes off my feet and the coat off my back.  Give a Father to the fatherless and hope to the hopeless.  How will the Lord use me?  I won't know until I surrender.  I surrender Lord.  I know that getting closer to God's heart is going to be uncomfortable and inconvient.  It will be messy and dirty. Not once in the scripture have a found anything that promises a comfortable life.  Jesus promises his followers a lot of things, but I have to find where he warns us to be safe and comfortable.
I am far more afraid of living a comfortable life and failing to follow Jesus than I am of any illness or loss of time and money.

Christ"mas"

I always feel a little let down when Christmas is over.  We get hyped up for Christmas for over a month and then its over!  I admit that we left our decorations up longer than is "socially exceptable."  My darling and wonderful husband took all the decor down and put it in the attic while I was at work one day this week.  What a nice surprise to come home to!
As I look at Gracie's 4 Christmas presents that she still hasn't unwrapped I started to ponder all that is Christmas.  Sweet Gracie is so loved that she had plenty of presents from Gigi and Poppi, Ashley and Jason, Nana and Papa. Mimi and Granddaddy, Amy and Maw Maw and Paw PAw.  There simply wasn't time to open presents from me and Blake.  (No worries, we are going to send her with little gifts while we are away and these are perfect)
I didn't study Spanish is school but I believe the term "mas" means more.  "Christ" "mas"  time.  "More time with Christ."  I believe that it is possible that the "mas" part of Christmas should be focused on Christ, and not on the abundance of Christmas.  I am speaking purely of adults, because I believe Gracie deserves mounds of gifts and Santa visits.  But I also believe that she needs to play with her little people nativity scene and understand the gift of "Jesus." Gracie's favorite song right now is:
"Jesus is a gift from God
gift from God
gift from God.
Jesus is a gift from God
born on CHristmas day."
I read her the Charlie Brown Christmas book and one of my favorite parts is when Charlie Brown sees that Snoopy has decorated his dog house in lots of lights and he throws back his head and yells, "Even my dog has gone commercial!"  Everytime I read that page G asks me, "Why is he crying?"  I respond every time with, "He believes there is more to Christmas than lights and big trees."
I have totally gone commercial.  Have you seen all the lights at Chick-fil-A?  It puts Snoopy to shame!  And I am not going to stop decorating, and buying gifts and making reindeer food with G.  But I am going to be intentional about spending an equal amount of time in the word and in prayer as I spend shopping, decorating and making reindeer food.  We will read scripture as much as we read "Twas the Night before Christmas."  Next year....  I may need reminding

Cousins

Aren't these the sweetest girls?  I must remember all the things Gracie says about Sydney so that I can remind them when they are older and fighting.  Gracie LOVES Sydney.  Maybe more than she loves me.  No really.  She thinks that S hung the moon.
Of course they can fight and push and snatch toys and hit and cry just like two sisters that are only 16 months apart.  But I believe they have a love almost closer than sisters.  Let's take this morning for instance.....

Today we got up early and got ready to go to Breakfast with Santa at Bryant Denny Stadium.  I have been talking up Santa for days now. 
All morning I ask G, "Are you ready to go see Santa?"
G replys, "And Sydney?" 
"Yes, Sydney too."

In the car I ask- "Gracie, you ready to go see Santa?"
"And Sydney, mommy?"
"Yes, baby.  And Sydney."
"I so excited to see Sydney."
"And Santa?"
"Yes. Ho ho ho."

The kid was more excited about going to Syd than freaking Santa Claus!  We enjoyed seeing Santa, however, G would not get within arm's reach of him.  I ended up having to sit on the floor next to Santa with G in my lap.  He was a very Santa but G wanted no part.  She would have rather sat in Sydney's lap.  Then we had breakfast and had templates to write letters to Santa.
I asked G," Do you want to write a letter to Santa?"
"No, I write a letter to Sydney."

Really???  She is sitting right here!  I'm sorry that I don't have any pics but we took Ash 2 camera because mine was at CFA for breakfast with Santa Cow.  We went there after and that was more G's cup of tea.

These girls are so special.  I love watching them grow up together.  They are best friends.  I really hope J&A don't move too far away so that these girls can stay close.  I am praying for close opportunities.

Fall Tree

Gracie loves going on walks.  During the fall we discovered lots of pretty leaves, and G would make mommy carry them until she could secretly discard them.  So Mommy thought we could put these pretty leaves to good use!  So we took the fallen leaves and put them back on a tree. 

THis was such a fun project!

We used Gracie's Step 2 car to gather up the leaves.

Check out my leaves!

While mommy and G hunted leaves, we sent Daddy on a quest for a good branch.

Doesn't he look proud?

Um...Daddy, this is Gracie's project......

There she goes.  We taped contact paper with the sticky side out so that she can stick the leaves up really easy.

We used our big window in the playroom.

Isn't it a lovely tree?  There are also lots of leaves on the ground because Gracie lost interest when she saw her baby dolls. 

Pirate Night at Chick-fil-A

Ahoy! The Gill Crew got all decked out for Pirate Night at Chick-fil-A.  Blake and I even practiced making balloon swords for the little pirates.

Capt. Jack Sparrow

Blake and I made a full bag of 100 balloon animals (all we could do was swords)

Arrg...Me like ice cream!

My matey Alison brought her swashbuckling kids looking for some chicken treasure.

On a side note:  Gracie was just walking around with her video monitor showing me and Blake her bed.  I suggested she go sit on her bed and see herself.  So she did and then she came out yelling, "Where Gracie going? Where Gracie going?"  I don't think she totally got it.  haha

Halloween 2011

Princesses Rapunzel and Cinderella went on a quest on Hallow's Eve.  They were on a quest for candy.  And suckers....lots of suckers.  And mommy brought coffee for her and Poppi!

We had a wonderful Halloween!

Zoo Trip 2011

Blake had a bike race in Birmingham and he dropped me & G off at the zoo for a fun day!  Gracie loved wearing her backpack around and looking at the animals.  She was such a joy.

Look!  Like on my shirt!  Giraffe

My family met me there and Sydney wore the same outfit.  Ashley and I never discussed what we were dressing the girls in.  Great Ashleys think alike.