An Unlikely Christmas Newsletter

Ahhhhhh… 2007. Thank you Jesus for being the only reason we made it! This year we managed not to kill each other, we found a dog that loves us better than we’ll ever love anyone, we have managed to only mow our lawn twice in 6 months, and watch every episode of 24 on DVD…. But that's just the beginning.
Well, this was a big year for Meg. Literally. She finally reached her highest weight ever of 160 pounds. To top it off, she found this out at the doctor’s office scale, which is pretty reliable, so there’s no denying this. She really enjoys it, however, and hopes that the rest of the world will start to realize that 160 is a great weight.
Brett reached his highest potential at Duke by shielding himself from people and burying his nose in books all semester. All for some good grades. We both agree this is the best training for ministry ever. Ummmmm--NO. It does make us look good that he goes to Duke, though, so he’s going to stick with it so people will be impressed with us.
As you all know, we’ve had a drought this year and so Meg has been pro-active about doing something about it: she only showers every 3 days or so. She does manage to pluck her eyebrows approximately every month & chip the paint off of her toenails about that often, too. She finally has a dermatologist appointment that she’ll go to in January and is hopeful that this time he’ll actually be able to help clear up her adult acne that has plagued her for years.
One of Meg’s biggest accomplishments for this year has been her ability to stop answering her phone as much and let people become more acquainted with her voicemail. However, she still managed to leave her phone on the top of her car and drive 60 miles an hour down the highway, breaking the phone into pieces. She salvaged it for another month until it finally died and she had to spend $100 to replace it. This didn’t make Brett very happy. As a result, he is now compulsively cutting coupons and doing the grocery shopping to save money.
As you all know, the Lybrands moved this year. It’s been great because now we actually have a normal sized house & we can spend time in our house away from each other. The most exciting part of this move has been correcting our address for our credit card company and everyone else in the world who likes to send us mail. The peak of the excitement came when our credit card companies tried to screw us out of our money and so Brett called them and let them have it.
Sam, our yellow lab--who isn’t really ours, but someone else’s who lost their dog and never found him—is a great dog. He pees on his front right arm every morning when Meg lets him out to pee. He sheds & so one of Meg’s new hobbies is constantly picking up dog hair. Meg & Brett don’t wear dark colors anymore. Sam is an inventive dog—always finding new ways to show Meg & Brett that he doesn’t like it when they leave: digging through the trash, eating the blinds, eating a whole plate of cupcakes… He especially enjoys sleeping on Meg’s side of the bed, which pushes her over to Brett’s side of the bed, which, as you can imagine, makes for a tight fit for a 6’5 guy on a queen sized bed.
Good news, though, this might be the winning argument for Meg to convince Brett to get a king sized bed. :) In all seriousness--I am so grateful for the ability to be honest about our lives and our year and who we are--imperfections and all! Here has been my prayer for this year:

Colossians 1:19-22
19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. 21Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation

Holy in His sight... wonderful words to end on. :) Love you.

Seeking+Waiting=Surrender

Surrender is in seeking and waiting.

Now: it's Christmas. And at Christmas we do a lot of seeking. For presents, cheap plane tickets, different families to visit (haha)....

And we DON'T do much waiting. We order online, drive over the speed limit, get mad when it takes more than 5 minutes to go through the Biscuitville drive-through (that was me this morning).

Here's where God's got me this Christmas:

Seek HIM. Howard Baker quote: "Seek the One, and the many will be taken care of."

WAIT. Advent, is afterall, the season of waiting for the birth of the Messiah. The One who RESCUES US.

Praying that surrendering will be a joy as much a challenge for y'all as it has been for me this Christmas!!!