Cynthia Ruchti: Christmas and God’s Restoring Love
Psalm 51:12 Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, And sustain me with a willing spirit.
We celebrate Christmas because God came to earth as a baby to die for our sins. That’s a pretty huge event, very worth celebrating.For many people, it’s a painful time. You may have sustained a loss during the year or miss someone who died years ago. We don’t often think about Christmas and restoration in the same sentence, but my guest, Cynthia Ruchti wrote a book, Restoring Christmas. What an interesting concept! I looked up the word restore and found it occurred about seventy times. (depending on your translation, that may vary.)
After giving the matter some thought, I agree with Cynthia. Jesus came to earth to be our redeemer. He came to pay the price for our sins so we can have restored fellowship with God. But what about all those other hurts we experience? Cynthia shares her heart on heartache during Christmas.
1:45 Share the basic story of the book
5:35 Did any event in your life prompt this story?
12:10 Talk about restoration for those hurting places.
19:50 Jesus is close to the broken-hearted. Share with people who may be there this year.
21:25 What about folks who are stumbling through Christmas with sadness or depression?
[tweetthis]I can’t unravel, I’m hemmed in hope[/tweetthis]
[tweetthis]Christmas is all about God’s love[/tweetthis]
Raising a Young Modern-Day Princess: Author Karen Whiting
How should a mother raise a ‘modern-day’ princess? That’s a good question. Being a woman today is more complicated than it should be. I don’t mind the women’s movement. After all, those early activists gave us the right to vote in 1920. However, a radical feminist movement has become part of our culture. Those women who lead the movement believe women live oppressed in a male-dominated world. Here are three of their stated goals. First, they want to take the masculine he/him out of our language, which has largely happened. Second, they want to refashion the role of women in society and the home. Third, they want to free women from childbearing through abortion and birth control.
As a result of this movement, many young women are confused about who and what they are. However, moms can have a significant impact on our children as we rear them according to Scripture. My guest today is Karen Whiting. She’s a best-selling author and mother of five. She has written the book, Raising a Young Modern-Day Princess.
2:10 What prompted you to write this book?
2:55 What are some ways a mother can teach her daughter to be a gracious lady?
4:10 How can you foster a teachable spirit?
5:00 It’s natural for mothers to find fault. How can we encourage toward excellence instead?
5:45 What are Mom tools?
7:40 Give us tips on how to get to know our child.
9:20 What if you have a melancholy child?
10:35 What should you do if one child has a birthday and another sibling, who is watching, becomes jealous?
11:35 Give us ways to infuse Scriptural principles into our girls?
15:00 What if your daughter refuses to talk?
15:59 Mothers do a lot. How can a busy mother find ways to climb into her daughter’s mind and personality?
Difficult relatives can make your Christmas miserable. Family can give us the most fulfillment when we actually connect with them, However, they can also cause the most heartache because we love them and long for their approval. With the holidays coming, we all dread grumpy Uncle Bill or feisty Aunt Sally. Past hurts can also intensify the impact of uncomfortable encounters.
My father used to crack the same jokes every year and expect us to laugh. If I didn’t respond to his humor, he’d tease me about how my face looked, as if he thought I was holding in my response.
Mother would make a huge meal for Thanksgiving. I’d select certain foods, but not others, knowing I couldn’t eat it all. She would always point out what I missed, as if I overlooked that dish by accident. Plus she would attempt to get us all to eat more, even when we were full.
My grandmother would make snide comments with an innocent look on her face, and she’d do annoying things. she favored boys over girls and she’d always make sure we knew how much she spent on the boys. If we asked her to do anything, she’d do the exact opposite.
Well, you know how it goes. Romans 12:18 says, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.” Wow! That’s a hefty command.
Today I have two guests. The first is Angela Breidenbach. She’s a life coach and a terribly fun person. The second is Linda Rondeau. Both can give insight on this issue.
Karen Whiting: Christmas Advent – Teach Kids While They Wait
As a child, Christmas was a magical time for me. I loved the lights, the color, the carols, the excitement. I have lots of fond memories. At our church, combined choirs would do parts of Messiah every year. What a feast for the senses! Mother always made us wait for a tree because she liked real trees, and she worried about the tree drying out. It seemed like we were always the last to get a tree, but the big day would always arrive. Once the tree was up, she’d let us decorate. She’d hand us icicles, which were long, thin and shiny. She expected us to hang the icicles one by one one. I found it much more exciting to toss them on the tree. They always landed in interesting shapes which reflected the lights so nicely. However, I can remember how Christmas took forever to arrive. I remember talking about the eve of the eve of Christmas Eve, and then the eve of Christmas Eve.
The Christmas 2016 has arrived. The baby in the manger can easily be overlooked in our digital world. Parents must work to keep the focus on the true meaning of Christmas rather than the commercials and ads that catch the children’s attention. What a challenge! While we are busy preparing for the holiday, our children may grow restless since time passes slowly for them. Karen Whiting has written a book called Christmas is Coming, but Waiting is Hard. She has lots of ideas to share.
1:25 What are some activities that can help kids focus while they wait?
2:55 Do you cover the history of Christmas?
4:15 Share some traditions of the past and their meanings.
5:10 What is the peace candle?
7:01 What does red have to do with Christmas?
7:30 How about green?
8:00 What about the Christmas stocking?
9:15 How can you keep the new gadget or toy from becoming the focus of Christmas?
How can you be a phenomenal grandparent? A few months ago, I became a grandparent for the very first time. First, I saw my daughter in labor. What an experience. That wasn’t my favorite part of motherhood. Second, I gazed at this beautiful baby girl who is now part of my family, and I found it hard to express the emotions that washed over me. I recalled my own grandmother and my mother. Plus I thought of the day I had my first child.
I love that precious little girl with every cell in my body, but in many ways being a grandmother is different. Grandmothers aren’t mothers. We aren’t in the driver’s seat. Instead, we sit in the back seat. We don’t name the baby, nor do we make decisions about how the baby is raised. While we still want the best for that child, we play a secondary role in the child’s life.
So how can you be a good grandmother? I think about the passage the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.”
God does work in families. He is, after all, the originator of the family. He does want us to impact the next generation. I love the words of Dr. Mary Manz Simon, “We are life veterans. We bring wisdom, experience, and a clear sense of what’s important.”
Dr. Mary Manz Simon is my guest today and she has just written Faith Footprints with my Grandchild.
2:05 Why did you write this book?
3:10 As a grandmother, what have I left behind?
3:30 Is there a meaning behind the book title?
4:45 What are some worries grandmothers have?
5:45 The word grandmother sounds old-fashioned. How can we get past that?
6:55 How can you build a relationship with your grandchild?
[tweetthis]Leave a legacy with your grandchild[/tweetthis]
I can recall when I was a child in class. We were getting ready to study the human body, and I was so excited to learn what my internal organs did. I had some strange idea that my organs did wonderful things for the world. How disappointing to discover they merely kept me alive. Of course, in adolescence, the question of identity rose.Those questions are important to ask because it’s difficult to live without meaning.On the other hand, it’s very easy to build our self-worth around what we do.
When I finished school, I became a nurse, but I gave up that career to raise five children. That made me really sad, but I’ve been giving up my whole life in some ways. Later I found myself as a young mother who nursed her babies, but that didn’t last either. I grieved that role when I weaned my youngest child. Then I saw myself as a homeschool mother. That job lasted longer, but that distinction disappeared also. Each time my job description changed, I felt pain and had to adjust. I had to rethink life as a child of God. Someone Jesus loved and died for, but that transition can be tough.
Sometimes life really falls apart. How can we pull the shreds of life back together? How can we get through those times of disappointment when we wonder who we are?
Cynthia Rutchti is my guest. She has written Song of Silence. In this novel, the main character loses her gifting and finds herself afloat.
4:30 The main character, Lucy, was giving to others from her gift of music. How can we find that sweet spot so we can bless those around us?
6:30 Lucy was based on a real person who ministered through music.
8:40 Music contains rests, and Lucy taught her students to ‘play the rests.’ How can we do that by using those hard times in life?
10:10 What if we resist that reset time?
11:20 What does a healthy identity look like? How can Christians get there?
13:50 How can we achieve a healthy marriage in later years like Lucy and her husband?
16:25 Lucy’s family did things to comfort her she didn’t like. How can we avoid facing that in a crisis?
19:00 Lucy’s doctor sent her to a club. What was that great idea about?
