The True Meaning of Christmas

Christmas: Open Your Gift from God
by Rick Warren

By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. Romans 5:1 (MSG)

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You’re not reading this by accident. No, God knew before you were born that you would be here in this moment. He planned to get your attention for just a few seconds so he could say this to you: “I’ve seen every hurt in your life, and I’ve never stopped loving you. You matter to me. I love you more than you will ever know. I made you to love you, and I’ve been waiting for you to love me back.”

God is saying, “I want the rest of your life to be the best of your life. I’m with you, and I’m for you. I want to save you from your past. I want to save you for the purpose I made you for. And I want to save you by my grace. If you’ll let me do that, I will give you peace with me, peace of me, and peace with other people. But you’ve got to open the door and receive the Christmas gift.”

If you gave me a Christmas gift and I never opened it, you would be disappointed. And it would be a worthless gift because I don’t receive the benefit of a gift I never opened.

Jesus Christ is God’s Christmas gift to you. Yet some of us have gone Christmas after Christmas and never opened the best gift of all – God’s gift of salvation. Why even celebrate Christmas if you’re not going to open the biggest gift? It doesn’t make sense to leave unwrapped the gift of your past forgiven, a purpose for living, and a home in heaven.

Jesus Christ says to you, “I can replace the frustration in your heart with peace. I can replace the guilt, resentment, shame, and grudges with forgiveness. I can replace the worry and anxiety with confidence and faith. I can replace depression or despair with hope. I can replace emptiness with meaning and purpose. I can replace confusion with clarity. But I’m not going to break down the door of your heart. You’ve got to invite me in.”

God says: “It makes no difference who you are or where you’re from, if you want me and you are ready to do as I say, the door is open.”

It doesn’t matter what your religious background is – Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Mormon, Buddhist, Baptist, Hindu, or no religion. This is not about religion. God didn’t send Jesus to give you religion. He sent him so you could have a personal relationship with God. It’s all about relationship.

Below is a prayer I prayed years ago when I stepped across the line and became a friend of God’s. It’s a pretty simple prayer. If these words express the desire in your heart, read them as if you are talking to God.

Prayer:

Dear God, I’m scared, but I want to get to know you. I don’t understand it all, but I thank you that you love me. I thank you that you’re with me even when I didn’t recognize it. I thank you that you are for me; that you didn’t send Jesus to condemn me but to save me.

I admit I never even realized I needed a Savior, but today I want to receive the Christmas gift of your Son. I ask you to save me from my past, my regrets, my mistakes, my sins, my habits, my hurts, and my hang-ups. Save me from myself.

I ask you to save me for your purpose. I want to know why you put me on this planet. And I want to fulfill what you made me to do. I want to learn to love you and trust you and have a relationship with you.

I need peace with you, God, and I need you to put your peace in my heart. I need you to take away the stress and fill me with your love. Help me be a peacemaker, to help others find peace with you and each other. In your name I pray, amen.

A great reminder of what Christmas is really all about.

Go Elf Yourself

Merry Christmas!
Send your own ElfYourself eCards

The Answer

Again, just wanted to share another message from my daily devotional. It touched my heart today in a way that I was needing it to be touched! It never ceases to amaze me how God works like that. So here for your reading pleasure.

I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question? Romans 7:24 (MSG)

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Have you figured out yet that a lot of times you are your own worst enemy? It’s your own reactions, your own fears, your own inadequacies that cause you to act in foolish ways. I know that’s true for me.

I need to be saved from myself because there are things I don’t like about me – things I wish I had done differently, things I’d like to change. But I can’t change them, not on my own power. I need an outside power source.

You may be saying, “I can change.” I hate to say this, but you can’t. In January, you’re going to make a list of New Year’s resolutions. And, by the end of January, that list will be in the dumpster. Why? Because you can’t change on your own; you need God’s power. You need a Savior, someone who can make the changes you can’t make yourself.

Let me make an important point here: God never wastes energy. He doesn’t waste effort on things that are unnecessary. In other words, if you didn’t need a Savior, he wouldn’t have sent one. The very fact that God sent a Savior means you need one.

The truth is, if you are honest about it, sometimes you feel like your life is out of control. That’s a pretty common feeling. Welcome to the human race!

The apostle Paul felt that way 2,000 years ago. Paul says this in the Bible: “I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does” (Romans 7:24-25 MSG). That’s the answer!

Let me be honest with you. You may be looking for salvation in the wrong places, that’s why you’re frustrated. You’re looking for that one thing that’s going to give you fulfillment and meaning and peace in life.

Some of us think that if we could just get married, or if we could just get a certain job, or a promotion, or attain a certain level of wealth, or have a baby – or if our babies would grow up and graduate! – things would be great.

You’re looking in the wrong places.

A lot of people are looking for salvation in a self-help book. Or they’re looking for it in therapy or in a fad or diet. Or they’re looking for it in a vacation, “If I could just escape to Tahiti, everything would be great.” The problem is that if you go to Tahiti, you’re taking you with you!

The answer is not in a place. It’s not in a program or a pill. The answer is a person: Jesus Christ. You were made by God and for God, and until you understand that, life is never going to make sense.

And to end, a video and song from a group that has also helped me realize a lot about what I am going through right now.

Christmas Is a Time of Salvation

Each day I get a daily devotional sent to my email that Pastor Rick Warren of the Purpose Driven Life has written, and given all that has been going on around me lately, not only in my life, but the lives of people I love, I thought this was an especially fitting "story" to share with you.

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Luke 2:11-12 (NIV)

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Today in the town of David (that’s Bethlehem) a Savior (there’s the salvation part) has been born to you (for you – a savior for YOU); he is Christ the Lord.

No doubt you’ve heard the phrase, “He was saved” or “She was saved,” but maybe you’ve wondered what that really means?

Let me give you a simple illustration. When my oldest child, Amy, was still young enough to be strapped into a car seat, she was with me as we were driving on a very, very hot day. She finally hung her head out the window, and being a three-and-a-half-year-old unable to get herself out of the car seat, she said, “Please, God! Get me out of this!”

Amy needed a savior! She couldn’t get out of her predicament by herself; she needed someone else to set her free. She needed someone to rescue her, to deliver her, to release her.

Maybe you’ve hit a point in your life when you felt the same way? Or, maybe you feel that way today? You simply want to hang your head out the window, and plead, “Oh, God. Get me out of this! Hello, God, I need your help here … please!”

What you’re hoping for is a savior. You’re hoping someone will somehow save you. The good news is that your hope is no longer an empty dream. God is actively engaged in a plan to save you. He is a God of hope, and it is a hope that will not disappoint.

God’s plan for your salvation is three-dimensional: You’re saved from something; you’re saved for something; and you’re saved by something.

Turn me towards the sun and water me periodically...

That's the status on my facebook page today. I am done, or feeling like I am done anyway. Let me tell you why.

I got some answers from the doctors last week (FINALLY!) after 3 long months of being sick and not feeling like myself. Turns out I have an intestinal mal-absorbtion problem. In short that means all the nutrients in the food I eat don't get absorbed into my system but all the fat goes straight through to my stomach and intestines, and wall-ah, stomach problems. Lovely. So to counter-act all the this the doc prescribed some Colestid, which is supposed to help bind all the fats together and not make my stomach so gross anymore. Yay! Also I have to start taking a multi-vitamin; the children's chewables so that I can absorb it easier, as well as Vitamins A and D to help with any of the nutrients I may be lacking and also for fatigue. At this same appointment, as I suspected and pretty much already knew, I was diagnosed as having depression. To counter-act those symptoms I have been put on Prozac, with the option to switch to a different anti-depressant if this one gives me any bad side effects. So yay! I am able to help myself and it really is NOT all in my head! (only some of it :-) My mom said, she thinks it's great that we have those kinds of medicines, so that we are able to help ourselves, and that she thinks God obviously allowed people to make them for a reason, so we can feel better and better about ourselves, so there is no reason I should feel "ashamed" for getting help with the Prozac. Moms always put things into perspective don't they? :-)

I cannot tell you how long it seems that I have waited for all of this to come to fruition, many people have been thinking of and praying for me (and Jake) in all this, and there are no words that I can use to thank all of you enough! However, we still need those prayers, and covet them more than you all know or probably even realize! I have still been having some symptoms despite the medication, and I have been feeling really sick these last few days.

Today I had another doctors appointment and he wants me to have a CT scan on my abdomen, to rule out anything really bad; ie: lesions, cancer, etc. that could be effecting my liver and pancreatic enzyme levels. He doesn't think that that's what it is, but wants to rule it out because my blood tests have been showing really high levels in many areas, but especially those. That appointment is next week Thursday 12/11/08 at 8:30am and I have to drink this fun "contrast" stuff beforehand, so prayers for my nerves and also for me to be able to keep that stuff down, cause I hear it's not the most pleasant thing I could ever drink :-) After the CT I will follow up with the specialist in GI (Gastrointerology) again, and go from there.

So you can imagine, after all that why I am done. I feel really alone in all this sometimes, and I have to check myself back into reality and remind myself that I am not alone, and it could always be worse than what it is. I don't want to feel sorry for myself, and I should not be, because I have been so blessed in my life. Sometimes it's still hard though, and I know that it's not just me going through these hard times, it is God, me, Jake, my family and friends, they're all in this with me too! It's amazing to think and to know that I have that much support no matter where I am and what I am going through in my life.

To end, I have been hearing this great song from Tenth Avenue North all over the radio since my friend Sarah introduced me to them a few weeks ago, and I cannot help but to think that this song is from God as a message to me. Not only to me, but to all those who need to know that no matter what He is by your side, through it all.

Heaven called, he answered...

Today as I woke up I had no idea of the news I was about to find as I logged on to my facebook account. Jake and I just found out that one of my and Jake's friends, Todd, lost his dad Ron to a battle with cancer last night 11/28/08 around 9 pm. This was a fast and furious battle from what we understand, as he was diagnosed a little over a month ago. This is a sad day for the De Jong family and we lift up his wife Ranelle, and his children Todd and his wife April, Tyler and his wife Crystal, and Sandra, her husband Chris Borchers and their kids, and all their extended family. I know this time is not easy for them, and I don't even pretend to know what they're going through right now. I do know however that they know and are comforted by the fact that he has gone to heaven to be with Jesus, and that they too will see Ron again one day when they are called home to heaven for eternity.

Ron was a great man, and we have many fond memories of him, especially Figure 8 racing and all the fun we had at those times. We will always remember those moments with him, and cannot wait for the day when we too will join him in singing with the choirs of angels in heaven.
God called a great man home today, he must've needed a very special angel to join him.
We love you Ron, we'll miss you, always.

I have a lot of songs that come to mind right now that I'd like to post on here, but I will only post one. It has really helped me through some difficult times recently, and I hope it will be able to help this family during this time, and it will be a blessing to them.

This is a video of the lead singer talking about the song "Streets of Gold" that you can play on my music player to the right of this message. There are also some other songs after that and mixed in that are very comforting as well.

God Bless.

Giving Thanks in all Circumstances

In honor of the celebration of Thanksgiving, I thought it would be fitting that Jake and I compiled lists of the things we are especially thankful for this year. I figured that even despite all the negative things we are all seeing in the news these days and all the happenings around the world, there is still always something to be thankful for, and today just happens to provide us a day to be able to focus on these things and give thanks in ALL circumstances.
These are in no particular order, and no particular amount. And before you ask, no, I did NOT write these for Jake, as for #1, I am not that vain :-)

Jake is thankful for:

1. Nikki, having a loving wife
2. Freedom
3. Family and Friends
4. Health
5. Living in Iowa

Nikki is thankful for:

1. Jake, a loving and understanding husband, such a blessing in my life.
2. Friends and Family who are always there and constantly uplifting us in prayer.
3. God, His rich blessings and grace in our lives.
4. Freedom. Being able to live in a free country (and Iowa) :-) And being able to give Thanks.
5. Life and life lessons. Being able to live and learn even now as I am struggling with my health.
6. Music. So uplifting and moving, helps get me through whatever it is I am facing in any given day.
7. The many gifts that God has given me through Art and Photography, Nature and Song.

So we pray in this day, weather you are alone or spending time with friends and family, that you too are giving thanks. Being able to give thanks no matter what your going through, it's all part of God's Faithfulness in and to all our lives.

I leave you with a video to the song For the Beauty of the Earth, sung here by Barlowgirl. This song is one of my favorite and most cherished songs about the Thanksgiving season and I know it's "old school" but I never get sick of hearing it. "Lord of all to Thee we raise, this our hymn of grateful praise!"




Also, I found a video of the things that little kids are thankful for, very cute!




Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving from the Boden Household :-)

Love is Here...

I have really been struggling these past 2 months. Jake has also been struggling right along with me. What are we dealing with?

I have been very sick the past 2 months. I won't go into great detail, but I have been having Gastrointestinal and Stomach issues, and a multitude of tests are being and have been run to figure out what is wrong with me, and to no avail. It started with pain in my side and the doctors thought it was my Gall Bladder, proceed to gallbladder ultrasound, and then a scan to see how my gallbladder was functioning, and they still found nothing.

Still having symptoms, I continued to go see my doctor and they continued to draw more and more blood and run more and more tests to rule out various things. Still, nothing. This has been going on and on, over and over for a little over 2 months now, and still there are no answers to be had. As a result of all of this I have missed a lot of work, and while the place I work has been
very good in dealing with all this, and helping me through this, I know I cannot miss much more.

First of all Jake and I need that money and rely on it to help pay our bills, without it we could fall really behind. I have used all my PTO (paid time off) missing work and therefore am no longer getting paid out those hours that I miss anymore, so that is one thing.

Secondly Jake is having to deal with all this right along with me and I know that it is very frustrating to not know, and having me be sick all the time, but he has been so good about everything and very understanding; yet another reason why I married this man.

Thirdly, me. I have been dealing with a lot of stress lately and I believe that is adding to all the symptoms that I continue to have, as well as depression. This depression is not a new thing for me, in fact I have been dealing with this as far back as when I was in High School, and probably even before but I never realized it until then. My depression has gotten worse, and has become so bad that I have a harder and harder time getting out of bed in the morning, I cry at almost everything, and most of the time for no reason whatsoever. I often find catch myself taking this all out on Jake and my mood-swings have been all over the place lately. I am tired all the time and it seems as if I can never get enough sleep, so I am always fatigued. I also believe part of this depression is because I am homesick and miss my family, as I have never been away from them for this long a period of time.

Anyway, my point being after talking to my doctor she believes that that I am truly depressed, and that this might be causing the Gastro and Stomach problems that I've been having, or at least adding to the problem. I have to meet with her further to discuss all of this next week, so hopefully all that I have been going through will be able to be resolved, and soon!

Jake and I are both frustrated at this point and I am beginning to feel hopeless about the situation at hand, sometimes I wonder why me? Why am I going through this?

Then I am reminded of this : "the Lord gives no trial to the faithful that will not in the end prove to be a blessing." Just some encouraging words from a friend. How great it is to think that through all of this, despite the not knowing and the uncertainty of these trials I am going through, that God is blessing me, and continues to bless me, even in this.

This is why I tell you this, not for you to feel sorry for me, because there is no need for that, but to tell you that even in this I am feeling God's love, and I know that no matter what you are going through in your life, Gods love and grace is there for you too! How amazing!

I finish by saying just how thankful and grateful I am for all that I have been given in my life despite my current "sufferings." I thank God every day that I have Jake here to help me get through every day and know that no matter what he will always be here for me. I thank God for supportive friends and family that are constantly uplifting me and Jake in your prayers, and constantly continue to do so.

So I leave you all with this. One of my "Sisters" introduced me to this group Tenth Avenue North, and I found this song to be healing and helpful to me, especially in my struggles today.
It is entitled " Love is Here." So for your listening and viewing pleasure.....

The story of us, in a nutshell, I hope

For those of you who don't know us, and for those
who do, this might be new to you so here goes.

Jake and I got together in high school, he was 18, I was 17,( and no I will not give away my age, you'll just have to figure it out from reading the rest of this); but we met in 1999, in what can only be considered the most CLASSY way to meet, and that would be Cruising the "Loop" as they call it in a good old NW Iowa town called Sioux Center. Basically we'd hang out (even in the cold) from about 7-11pm at night driving around and just hanging out. Sounds like fun, right?!



So, anyway all his friends (from the opposing High school I might add), were dating all my friends. One night they were all going out for Pizza to the "Ranch" and then bowling, and they were all like "do you wanna come? cause we can get our guys to take him along!" Of course I said yes, I am not crazy! I wasn't really looking for anybody, cause I had been burnt in the past, but I figured it couldn't hurt to try right? So there we were a slice of pizza between us....and like 14 other people:-) Haha! Anyway we hung out all night talking and eating pizza and bowling and the end of the night came to be. I was sitting down taking my lovely and stylish bowling shoes off and Jake struts over in his cowboy boots and sits down next to me. Here is what he said verbatim. "So, do you wanna make it official, do you wanna be my girlfriend?" and me so eagerly said "OK!" and that was that. Then we drove off into the night in separate vehicles. What a way to start. The rest as they say, is history.



8 years later, yes you saw that correctly, I decided to make Jake a meal that I had found on the internet called "Engagement Chicken" and decided it couldn't hurt to try, I mean it had to work after all this time, right? So the plan was for me to cook Jake a meal at his house while he was gone to work and wasn't supposed to be back for at least a few hours. Well, didn't exactly work out as planned. He came home super early and caught me in the act of preparing supper for him almost saw the recipe I had laying on the table for the "Engagement Chicken" and I freaked!
I promptly made him go downstairs and get cleaned up and just relax, and I would let him know when supper was ready. So I finish cooking, we eat and we're hanging out just talking and relaxing. We have some dessert, and I am not feeling well, at all. Not good. My head is pounding, by body hurts and I have the chills, fantastic. So much for a romantic evening, right? So anyway, Jake runs downstairs and says he'll be right back. At this point I feel like I'm gonna pass out, so I don't think I even heard anything he said. He comes back up stairs and sits down on the couch and there is this cap sitting next to him, um okay? We sit there, (and I think he had other plans on how to do this but he's never admitted to it) and he get's down on the floor and I stand up cause I thought he was going somewhere, I don't know why, and he says something like "Nikki I love you and we've been together a long time and I just want to know if you'll make it official and be my wife, will you marry me." (again probably not verbatim since I was probably hallucinating from being sick at this point). All I could say was "are you serious?!" like 10 times, and then I finally said "Yes" and we laughed and cried and hugged for a long time, and all the sudden my sickness seemed to disappear, probably from adreneline. The day after this happened I found out I had the flu and was sick for the whole week afterwords, so I couldn't even enjoy being engaged for the 1st week!



We got engaged on October 7th 2006, and planned our wedding for almost exactly a year later on October 6th 2007. We got married at 4:00 on an 85 degree and windy day surrounded by about 250 of our families and friends.



It was the best day ever, and we waited almost 9 years to get to the day, but it was so worth all the tears, fights, laughter, and all the events we'd gone through to get to this point. We both knew on that day, that we were marrying our best friend, and there are not many things that surpass that knowledge, except of course the Knowledge of God and the fact that He was the one who had brought us through all those years, together. He's the one that has set our path, and now we are in this thing together, dancing through life, no matter what life brings we have God on our side and we can't wait to see what happens next!

We Will Dance...

Hey,
This blog is starting as a result of Jake and I being away from our families and as a way to stay in contact with all of you and let you know what we're up to and what's going on in our lives here. It's a chance to connect with you on a different level and for you to see us going through our everyday lives together. Also this is a chance for me to sort of journal about what's been going on, and hopefully start to let people know our hopes and dreams for the future and to "showcase" those thoughts on here as well.

The title of the blog comes from a song by Steven Curtis Chapman, which talks about dancing through life with the person you love and living day by day, going through it all together no matter what until the last day of your lives' together. Hopefully once I get this whole blogging thing down I can post a link to the song or put a music player up on this blog of all our favorite songs, as well as the things that inspire us.
Hope you enjoy reading this and getting to know us just a little bit better.