Today we are headed out to West Yellowstone to snowmobile and fish. I can’t wait to get away for a few days. This entire year has been so busy, and to slow down with family and friends will end it all just right. I am so grateful to escape daily life for a bit and have a real break, this time in a hotel with power and heat. :) #givethanks
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| I say this way too much! Hopefully, I figure it out before I die. Haha |
I missed yesterday, so I will post two things I’m grateful for tonight. I know I’ve put this before, but I LOVE Sundays! I love feeling like I get a break from the daily tasks in life. I’ve had fun spending time with the kids and listening to them play games. I am grateful they are friends. They do argue, but they sure can have fun together too. #givethanks
The other thing I #givethanks for is a book I finished today—the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. I’ve wanted to read it for quite a while, and I’m so happy to have it checked off my list.
The book is a compilation of letters of a Senior to a Junior Devil as he teaches him how to get “his patient” to turn from God, whom he calls The Enemy. It helped me see more ways the devil tries to interfere and ruin our lives. It wasn’t an easy read. I had to focus quite a bit, but it was worth it. Here are a couple of my favorite quotes.
The senior devil speaking, “It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and into Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to hell is the gradual one.”
Sometimes distraction is good enough. That’s why daily immersion in the scriptures is so important.
Senior Devil again, “Flippancy builds up around a man the finest armor-plating against the Enemy [God] that I know, and it is quite free from the other dangers inherent in the other sources of laughter. It is a thousand miles away from joy: it deadens, instead of sharpening, the intellect, and it expresses no affection between those who practice it.”
This quote helped me make a connection I’ve pondered on for quite a while, and I found this article in the New Era from 1974. It uses the following quote along with this same quote on flippancy from Lewis’ book,
“Loud laughter, light-mindedness, and flippancy often betray a state of mind that is lacking in seriousness. “Empty levity,” as Brigham Young called it, detracts from the dignity of those who indulge in it to excess. Such people “have little sense, and know not the difference between a happy smile of satisfaction to cheer the countenance of a friend, or a contemptuous sneer that brings the curses of man upon man.”
“Closely akin to flippancy is irreverence. Making light of sacred things indicates a lack of affection for and faith in God.”
Humor is good, but there is a difference between good humor and not. Crude humor is, of course, always inappropriate, but there’s more to it. I’m grateful to have made this connection in my life.
The kids were excited to help get the house decorated this year!
Christmas and pre-Christmas activities were a little different this year. We were still able to have a lot of fun. Here are some highlights. We didn't have a ward party, and the kids weren't able to decorate my parents' tree, but they still dropped off some fun activities to do for fun.
We had my parents and Earle over for Christmas Eve. It's always my favorite.
Christmas morning was a lot of fun. We had our usual crepe breakfast and then opened presents. It was a great day.
