December 2010 Lower Family Newsletter

[Chad T. Lower]

 It seems like every month seems to fly by faster than the one before.  November was no exception.  We started the month getting flu shots as a family.  Having 5 people in a small exam room, with 4 of those people not liking needles, it was quite an experience.  But we are all immunized and hopefully won't get as sick this flu season.

 

Bella and Chi had parent/teacher conferences in November as well.  Bella is behind in reading and math (nothing new there).  She seems to be doing well with her violin, though, as far as we've heard.  Malachi is doing well in Kindergarten.  The teacher said he was shy at the beginning of the year, but has since warmed up to the class.

 

Bella also attended her first craft show where she was selling some of her own crafts.  She asked Suzy if she could make crafts and sell them, so Suzy set her up with an account on Etsy.  Both of our daughters have Italian first names and French middle names, so Suzy combined their middle names as the shop name (Marie Chadée) and gave it a French designer theme.  This way, if Ali wants to help when she gets older, they can keep the same name.  Bella's shop can be found at http://mariechadee.etsy.com.  Suzy's shop can be found at http://mrschadt.etsy.com.

 

Right before Thanksgiving, Suzy got really sick.  So sick, she called our doctor office in the morning to make an appointment.  The earliest they had was that afternoon, but she couldn't wait that long, so she went to the ER.  turns out she had a really bad case of strep throat.  The doctor told her not to get out of bed for 3 days!  As a result, the kiddos and I cooked Thanksgiving dinner.  Suzy came down to eat, then went back upstairs to bed.  Bella helped me make an apple pie and a pumpkin pie.  Chi helped me make stuffing and Ali helped me make potatoes.  We also had the traditional turkey, sweet potatoes, broccoli casserole, and rolls.  When they weren't helping me make the meal, the kiddos were making costumes to wear to the meal.  We had a pilgrim, an American Indian, and a turkey join us for dinner.  Suzy and I had decided earlier to have Thanksgiving at home this year; usually we travel to my extended family's for Thanksgiving. That ended up being a wise decision as Suzy probably would not have been able to travel that far.

 

It just so happened that at the same time of being sick, Suzy had entered the Golden Heart Contest for Romance Writer's of America and her entry (manuscript) had to be mailed by black friday in order to arrive by the due date. We got it together and I took it to the post office. Turns out the disk (cd) we sent was damaged in the mail, so RWA allowed us to send it by email and they re-burnt the disc in order for Suzy's entry to be accepted.  So now, she's working on some revisions to send back to the agent on her manuscript FORGOTTEN REINS and working out the plot for a new manuscript. They won't announce the finalist for the contest until March!

 

With this month, we finally finish the definition of love from I Corinthians 13.  To recap, here are verses 4-8a:

 

 ⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ⁸ Love never fails.

 

We have taken each part of the definition and looked at one part every month over the past 16 months!  Finally, we come to verse 8: Love never fails.

 

A few verses later in I Corinthians 13, Paul writes, "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."  Love is greater than faith.  Love is greater than hope.  A few verses before, Paul writes, "if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."  Love never fails.

 

God's love never fails.  John quotes Jesus in John 15:9, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love." God the Father loves us.  God the Son loves us.  He will always love us.  It matters not what we do, what we say, how we think or act.  God loves us in spite of our imperfections.

 

A few chapters before this, John quotes Jesus again in 13:35, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."  We need to pray for a loving heart like His.  Love, true love like we defined in the past 16 months, is hard to master.  But as followers of Jesus Christ, we should strive to love like Jesus does. God knows if we are a disciple by looking at our hearts; people don't have that option.  They can only know of our allegiance by looking at our actions--how we love people.  How are you loving people? 

Chad T. Lower
a.k.a. Chopper
http://chadtlower.tripod.com/
 
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Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others.
Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.
Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
                               Philippians 2:3-4