November 2009 Lower Family Newsletter

[Chad T. Lower]

I find it amazing that there are only 2 months left in 2009.  It seems like the year has passed faster than I remember them passing in the past.  But with the end of the year comes three major holidays in a short amount of time:  Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.  Suzy has always planned her Thanksgiving and Christmas out on paper, and this year, she has decided to create a more formal version of what she does (and uses) and post it to her website http://MRsCHADT.com within the next couple of days for others to download and use for free.  If you are interested in a pre-printed version (for a nominal printing fee), Suzy is working on that as we speak.  In the meantime, feel free to print it in its entirety or the pages you think will be useful.  The entire document is around 80 pages.

 

Suzy also has updated her Mood Organizer for 2010 and it is available as of yesterday afternoon at http://mrschadt.com/Planner.aspx.  Our friend, Brandon Evano (who I have written about in past newsletters) designed the cover for us this year and it is a marked improvement over last year's cover.  The Mood Organizer is a 14 month calendar/planner (Dec 2009 through Jan 2011) that allows a person to organize their year week-by-week.  It was specifically written for people with mood disorders (like depression or bipolar) to help track mood changes as well as offer them encouragement and appropriate useful resources each month.  The description reads:

 

Millions of people suffer each year from mood disorders such as severe onset depression and bipolar disorder. Many of us live it, live with it, or befriend someone with it. This organizer was designed to be an efficient way for mood suffers to summarize information about themselves, their lifestyle, and their habits through the use of charts, lists, and calendars. This information can easily be shared with family members, significant others, and most importantly, doctors to assist in learning to manage one's life through their mood shifts, depression, and other mental health issues.

Speaking of Suzy writing, she is still writing on her romance blog (http://susanlower.com) and she is still writing articles for eHow as well.  As always, all of her articles can be found at http://www.ehow.com/members/mrschadt-articles.html.  Her newest articles include:

 

How to Size a Space Heater

How to Make a Purse From An Old Quilt

How to Choose a Recharging System For Your Child's LeapFrog Leapster Hand-held Gaming System

 

Malachi's preschool had a field trip to a local farm to pick pumpkins for Halloween.  The day was cold, wet, and miserable.  The farm had already picked some pumpkins and had them stored inside the barn.  The kids had a choice: they could choose a pumpkin from inside or they could go on a hayride and select their own.  In the 5-year-old classroom, there was only one child who wanted to go on a hayride--Malachi.  So Suzy, Malachi, and Ali went for the hayride on the freezing cold day in a torrential downpour of rain.  When it was time to select a pumpkin, Malachi found a really small one.  Ali chose a small one as well.  The people at the farm felt bad and told Suzy she could take another pumpkin since the kids' pumpkins were so small.

 

All three of our children have been celebrating Halloween in some form since last week.  Last weekend, we carved pumpkins.  Ali's was super tiny, but her tiny hand fit inside easily to help pull out the seeds.  They used markers to draw faces, then Suzy and I cut them out.  Malachi designed his with a belt -- so he wanted it cut all the way around.  We explained to him that if we did that, the pumpkin would fall apart.  As a result, he let us just carve the belt on the front of the pumpkin.  Isabella actually put 4 different faces on her complete with 4 different mouths and 3 different sets of eyes (the fourth face uses an eye from each neighboring face).  On Monday of last week, one of the dorms at my college was hosting Trick-or-Treat for children of Penn College employees and students, so our children participated in that as well.  Yesterday, our church held a Hallelujah Night where kids played games for treats.  They also had two large inflatable play-toys (like you see at carnivals).  Today, Suzy's craft sorority had a Halloween party.  Their costumes this year are Wonder Woman (Bella), Spider-Man (Chi), and Supergirl (Ali).  Needless to say, the bad-guys have been keeping their distance from our house this year!

 

Bella got swim lessons for her birthday in September and the last day for those was today.  Although last week was the only day that she put her face in the water, she seems to be more comfortable in the water and always looked forward to going on Saturday morning to go swimming.

 

It is hard to believe that the musical I am in starts in less than two weeks!  Opening night is Thursday, November 12 and the musical will run for three days.  It has been nice doing something extra that I enjoy, but it will be nice for it to be over as well, especially with finals around the corner.

 

Over the last few newsletters, we have looked at the definition of "love" from I Corinthians 13.  The definition begins, "Love is patient.  Love is kind."  We spoke about what that meant in the last two newsletter.  Continuing in the definition, we read, "It does not envy."  So let us take a deeper look into the meaning of this part of the definition.

 

When we envy others, we are committing a sin.  Paul writes earlier in the book of I Corinthians (3:3) ,"You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world?"  When we envy others, we are "jealous of one another."  Perhaps our jealousy is because of their advantages, success, possessions, qualities, etc.  When we envy, we desire to have what they have.  When we love, we should not desire what they have, but rather be content with what we have.  When we do otherwise, we are committing a sin.  If we try to sugar coat it (like other sins) by making excuses or trying to cover it up, it opens a door for the enemy (usually pride).

 

The last of the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20:17) reads, "You must not covet your neighbor’s house. You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor."  Covet is similar in meaning to envy (desire for another's possessions), only this time, instead of just telling us it is sinful to desire what another person has, it gives us specifics.  One way that we can help ourselves from envying others is to create our own list, but a list of our blessings.  For me, I have a beautiful wife, 3 wonderful children, a house, a job, a motorcycle, a God that loves me unconditionally... the list is nearly endless.  I know people who have bigger houses than I do, better paying jobs than I do, a nicer looking motorcycle, and even things that I don't have like a boat.  BUT, I also know people who are renting a tiny apartment.  I know people who have lost their jobs and cannot find another.  I know people who don't own a car (or any form of transportation).  So although I could have much more than I do, I could also have much, much less than I do.  To put it in perspective, go to http://www.globalrichlist.com/ and type in your annual income.  I am the 58,745,064 richest person in the world -- the top 1%.  Comparatively, I am very well off and should have no reason to envy anyone else due to everything I do have.

 

When Paul wrote to the Philippians (4:11-12), he told them, "Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have.  I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little."  Personally, I am in the top 1% for the richest people in the world, but even if I were in the top 1% of the poorest people in the world, Paul encourages us to still be content with what we have.  Living on almost nothing, with an empty stomach, we should be happy with whatever I have.  Whatever.  A very broad word and no strings attached.  It doesn't say to be happy with whatever we have as long as we get some food today.  It doesn't say to be happy with whatever we have as long as we are making minimum wage.  It says to be happy, even without those things.

 

To sum up, we should not envy others.  We should be content with what we have.  We should list our blessings to see all that we do have.  And we should be happy regardless of how long or short that list is!  However, all of those suggestions concern our attitude about ourselves.  I want to go one step deeper:  our attitude about others.  Yes we should not envy, but going deeper, I believe God wants us to be happy for other's good!  Two chapters earlier in Philippians 2:4, Paul says, "Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too."  Matthew Henry translates this to mean, "A selfish spirit is destructive of Christian love. We must be concerned not only for our own credit, and ease, and safety, but for those of others also; and rejoice in the prosperity of others as truly as in our own. We must love our neighbour as ourselves, and make his case our own."  If we are full of envy, it will be near impossible for us to rejoice in the prosperity of others!

 

As we love others, do not be envious.  Be content with what you have.  Be happy for other's when they prosper.

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