[Aquamarine]

Good Morning Everyone. Am filling in as hostess again in order to post the annual Christmas Music Post. Hope you'll join in and play your favorite Christmas songs today.

[DollyCali]

Lovely job Sistah.. great tables & sentiment.. I hope my computer cooperates to hear the melodies!

[The Mayor]

December 21, 2005

White Space

Read:
2 Timothy 4:6-8

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. —2 Timothy 4:7

Bible In One Year: 2 Timothy 1-4

For nearly 50 years, Ann Landers dispensed advice in a daily column carried by more than 1,200 newspapers worldwide. When she died on June 22, 2002, her daughter Margo Howard wrote a farewell column. She asked the editors to leave a blank space for the last part of the column as a memorial to her mom.

The idea came from a column written years earlier when Ann and her husband divorced after a long marriage. Ann had requested the editors to leave white space at the bottom as a memorial to a once-good marriage "that didn't make it to the finish line."

When somebody writes your last column, how much "blank space" will it include? When you come to life's end, will there be important things left undone? Will that white space bear silent testimony to goals you never reached, good habits (like consistent Bible reading) you never formed, help you never gave, kind things you thought about doing but never did? Will a sizeable empty space say that you intended to develop a deeper relationship with God, but that a close intimacy remained an unfulfilled ideal? Or will others be able to say of you that you "finished the race, [and] kept the faith"? (2 Timothy 4:7).

Let's make sure our white space is small! —Vernon Grounds

Only the truth that in life we have spoken,
Only the seed that on earth we have sown;
These shall pass onward when we are forgotten,
Fruits of the harvest and what we have done. —Bonar

To get the most out of life, make every moment count for Christ.

FOR FURTHER STUDY
Finishing Well

[DollyCali]

From the Glenn Beck Show
To the tune of "Holly Jolly Christmas
SING ALONG!

Have a RamaHana KwanzMas!
Its the PC time of year.
Every holiday
Display
Becomes a morbid fear.

Happy RamaHana KwanzMas!
Yeah, we know the name is queer.
Oh, good golly,
Can't offend nobody
On *beep*-mas this year.

Oh no,
The Eskimos
Need a holiday.
We'll get right back to you
When we think up one for gays.

Happy RamaHana KwanzMas!
What a time for winter cheer.
But if you see
A Christmas tree
You'll hear a Christmas jeer.

Screw you
ACLU
For winning a twelve
Million in your lawsuit
Versus Santa and his elves.

Have a RamaHana KwanzMas
And everyone must now adhere.
So by golly
Don't hang up that holly
On *beep*-mas this year!

(Elf voice, "Yeah, and no more sleigh bells, either!")

[GodBlessUSA]

This is so Gorgeous Aquamarine!

I'm enjoying Silent Night now. Thank you so much :)

[FreeTheHostages]

[MEG33]

Thank you, Aqua!

[daisyscarlett]

Thank you for doing another Christmas music thread. Your selection of renditions is always wonderful...I especially enjoyed Maria Callas singing Ava Maria...gave me chills...

Merry Christmas, Aqua...

[JustAmy]

From email from JulieRNR21 .... hope I'm not re-posting something that has already been posted but if so, it deserves another look. :)

An old-fashion Christmas story that puts the meaning back in Christmas!



A Christmas Story

I remember my first Christmas adventure with Grandma. I was just a kid.

I remember tearing across town on my bike to visit her on the day my big sister dropped the bomb: "There is no Santa Claus," she jeered. "Even dummies know that!"

My Grandma was not the gushy kind, never had been. I fled to her that day because I knew she would be straight with me. I knew Grandma always told the truth, and I knew that the truth always went down a whole lot easier when swallowed with one of her "world-famous" cinnamon buns. I knew they were world-famous, because Grandma said so. It had to be true.

Grandma was home, and the buns were still warm. Between bites, I told her everything. She was ready for me. "No Santa Claus?" she snorted.... "Ridiculous! Don't believe it. That rumor has been going around for years, and it makes me mad, plain mad!! Now, put on your coat, and let's go." "Go? Go where, Grandma?" I asked. I hadn't even finished my second world famous cinnamon bun. "Where" turned out to be Kerby's General Store, the one store in town that had a little bit of just about everything. As we walked through its doors, Grandma handed me ten dollars.

That was a bundle in those days. "Take this money," she said, "and buy something for someone who needs it. I'll wait for you in the car." Then she turned and walked out of Kerby's.

I was only eight years old. I'd often gone shopping with my mother, but never had I shopped for anything all by myself. The store seemed big and crowded, full of people scrambling to finish their Christmas shopping. For a few moments I just stood there, confused, clutching that ten-dollar bill, wondering what to buy, and who on earth to buy it for. I thought of everybody I knew: my family, my friends, my neighbors, the kids at school, the people who went to my church.

I was just about thought out, when I suddenly thought of Bobby Decker. He was a kid with bad breath and messy hair, and he sat right behind me in Mrs. Pollock's grade-two class.

Bobby Decker didn't have a coat. I knew that because he never went out to recess during the winter. His mother always wrote a note, telling the teacher that he had a cough, but all we kids knew that Bobby Decker didn't have a cough; he didn't have a good coat. I fingered the ten-dollar bill with growing excitement. I would buy Bobby Decker a coat. I settled on a red corduroy one that had a hood to it. It looked real warm, and he would like that.

"Is this a Christmas present for someone?" the lady behind the counter asked kindly, as I laid my ten dollars down.

"Yes, ma'am," I replied shyly. "It's for Bobby."

The nice lady smiled at me, as I told her about how Bobby really needed a good winter coat. I didn't get any change, but she put the coat in a bag, smiled again, and wished me a Merry Christmas.

That evening, Grandma helped me wrap the coat (a little tag fell out of the coat, and Grandma tucked it in her Bible) in Christmas paper and ribbons and wrote, "To Bobby, From Santa Claus" on it. Grandma said that Santa always insisted on secrecy. Then she drove me over to Bobby Decker's house, explaining as we went that I was now and forever officially, one of Santa's helpers.

Grandma parked down the street from Bobby's house, and she and I crept noiselessly and hid in the bushes by his front walk. Then Grandma gave me a nudge.

"All right, Santa Claus," she whispered, "get going." I took a deep breath, dashed for his front door, threw the present down on his step, pounded his door and flew back to the safety of the bushes and Grandma. Together we waited breathlessly in the darkness for the front door to open. Finally it did, and there stood Bobby.

Fifty years haven't dimmed the thrill of those moments spent shivering, beside my Grandma, in Bobby Decker's bushes.

That night, I realized that those awful rumors about Santa Claus were just what Grandma said they were: ridiculous. Santa was alive and well, and we were on his team. I still have the Bible, with the coat tag tucked inside: $19.95.

May you always have LOVE to share, HEALTH to spare and FRIENDS that care...

and may you always believe in the magic of Santa Claus!

[JustAmy]

Thank you for the lovely thread and the beautiful Christmas music, Aqua.

Hopefully, I will be able to find some of my favorites later.

Merry Christmas.

[Billie]

Good afternoon, Aqua, I am enjoying this beautiful thread and music all over again - didn't think it could be better than last year's, but it just might be. :)

I read your post that you left Dolly's name off the ping list, but guess what? LOL! I'm not there either - I think I'll pout. :) Not really - don't want to give you an excuse not to do any more threads. :)

[Billie]

Good afternoon, Aqua, I am enjoying this beautiful thread and music all over again - didn't think it could be better than last year's, but it just might be. :)

I read your post that you left Dolly's name off the ping list, but guess what? LOL! I'm not there either - I think I'll pout. :) Not really - don't want to give you an excuse not to do any more threads. :)

[ST.LOUIE1]

Beautiful thread, lovely (((((Aqua)))))
And great graphics. : )

All of this music made me run to the piano and join in. : )