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In His Presence – Terri Kelly

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Senior Editor

. . . They saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Matthew 2:11 NIV

Too weak to care for her puppy, my mother shipped her pug to me as a Christmas-in-July present. I peered into the pink crate at a black-faced beast, crossed my arms, and wondered how to manage an untrained puppy.

“Don’t give me that look,” I said to the pup. “I’m not your mommy.” Then I began to enforce an hourly regimen of “go-potty-on-the-grass,” while the pug chased bugs, chewed on my housecoat, and wore me out. For weeks, the eight-pounder trained me. The dog preferred to roll in the dew-kissed grass at 5:00 a.m., and then leave “presents” in her crate. What have you sent me, Mother?

Mom listened to my daily descriptions of the pup. “Liddy isn’t feminine at all, Mom, and pink is not her color. She’d rather roll in dirt and eat bugs. I bought the best dog food for Liddy. I had her spayed. Free-range playing and pottying are on the way—we finally ordered a fence.”

Visions of freedom danced in my head as I snuggled Liddy and kissed her fuzzy forehead. “Can you keep a secret, doggy? I’ve always wanted a pug.”

Visions of freedom for my mom danced in the Lord’s head. The same week a crew installed the chain-link fence, I traveled five-hundred miles to peer into my mother’s casket and kiss her cold forehead.

Like the wise men who brought frankincense and myrrh to baby Jesus, my mom presented me with her finest treasure. This year for Christmas, I can only dream of mom because she’s home for Christmas—really home. In His presence.

Are you missing a loved one? We can embrace the most precious and personal gift God gave, eternal life. As part of God’s extended family, we can celebrate Christmas knowing we will be united with Jesus and our family members.

Between now and the grand reunion with my mother, I cuddle Liddy. “Ah, look at your adorable face. Come sit on mommy’s lap.” I don’t bother to wipe the dog hair off my housecoat, but squeeze Liddy close.

Thanks for the present, mom.

Terri Kelly is the Editor of DevoKids.com and a staff writer for ChristianDevotions.us. She is a featured faculty member at conferences, teaching the art of writing devotions for children and how to start a children’s ministry website.

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Get Up – Terri Kelly

Posted on December 19, 2010 by Senior Editor

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. Matthew 1:24 NIV

During his lifetime he deserted steady jobs and compromised financial security. He experienced three moves, a pregnant fiance, and a missing child. All because he married her.

Tucked into a few hundred words of the Bible, what can we learn about the character of the man honored to be Jesus’ father?

Considerate
Once Joseph learned Mary was pregnant and assumed her purity compromised, he’d planned to call off the marriage. Yet we read that he sought a private solution to save Mary’s reputation.

Responsible
He traveled to Bethlehem to register his family for the census, never offering excuses or asking for favors for his pregnant wife, and humbly accepted the manger offered.

Obedient
Angels visited three times telling Joseph to “get up.” He responded. He married Mary, escaped to Egypt to protect his son, and later moved back to Galilee to raise his family.

Loving
Even after Mary bore the title of wife, he had “no union with her” until after Jesus’ birth. He could have cried foul and demanded his wife’s physical attentions, but Joseph loved Mary enough to wait until the proper time for intimacy. Joseph’s character exemplifies patience. Love is patient.

Joseph swallowed pride, protected his family, and raised a son that wasn’t his biologically. The words reveal a man of action, a man who put his family first, a man who listened to God’s direction. Not a single whine or rant is quoted in the four chapters that tell us about Joseph. Yet not one of the circumstance did Joseph plan.

Have you experienced the unexpected in your life? While we’re ripe with the passion of Christmas, let’s get up and ask God to gift us with more love, more empathy, and the motivation to obey like Joseph.

May God shower his blessings on the fathers and step-fathers who get up and do what a man’s got to do. Merry Christmas!

Most especially you, Allan.

Terri Kelly is the Editor of DevoKids.com. She serves as a staff writer for ChristianDevotions.us. She is a featured faculty member at conferences, teaching the art of writing devotions for children and how to start a children’s ministry website. Read Terri’s devotions

In the Middle – Terri Kelly

Posted on July 7, 2010 by Senior Editor

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Isaiah 53:3 NIV

Sitting smack dab on the equator of mania, she suffered all her life. Despised for her beauty during her younger years, she managed to marry after living through the pendulum of an alcoholic father—who loved his children passionately when sober and passionately loved on his children when he was not.

Gun shy, after nearly every argument with her husband, she retreated to the road and lonely hotels. Unable to discern the difference between normal marital differences or abuse - fight meant flight.

Divorced years later, she worked doubles to pay bills, earn spending money, and finally collapsed from work injuries and emotional pain. Life continued to heap on atrocities. The older she got, the leaner the friendship pool, until in the middle of her sufferings, she couldn’t summons help. Friendships vaporized. She had mined for sympathy one too many times and they too, turned their backs.

Hardened to her suffering by the time she was elderly, the family lectured her if she cried: “Be strong.” Too frail to work, too proud to beg, and too needy for the family, days slipped away sleeping, taking meds, withering.

We wonder where is God in this mess of financial disaster, physical ruin, and handicapped emotions.

We’ve watched friends and family suffer. We’ve been in the middle, aching for them, praying and begging for relief from their grief. We fear there isn’t any reprieve.

The Bible texts are simple and straightforward truths that say, expect suffering—you’ll be despised and rejected. Jesus promised to bless the persecuted. He guaranteed nothing can separate us from him. He’s coming to rescue us.

So when the rejection and the suffering befuddles us, will we trust Him or reject Him? Will we be a friend who vaporizes or rises up and obeys God? Will we be the family member offering strong advice or offering relief?

Won’t you sit at the feet of Jesus? At His feet, in the middle of it all, the answers aren’t obvious but compassion is abundant.

Terri Kelly is a wife and the mother of two. She writes tips for teachers, mothers, and women at her blog: www.davincisclassroom.wordpress.com. She is the Editor of www.devokids.com and a staff writer for www.christiandevotions.us.

Away from the Manger – Terri Kelly

Posted on December 21, 2009 by Senior Editor

“While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her first born, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2:6-7

The pastor read from Luke, “So Joseph also went up …to Bethlehem…to register with Mary, who …was expecting a child.” My mind jumped ahead, “because there was no room in the inn.” He read Matthew, “… Herod called the Magi … When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem.”

The innkeeper and Herod are infuriating characters. How could anyone turn Mary and Joseph away or harden their heart to Jesus?

As the children’s choir sang Away in a Manger, I scribbled my to-do list on the church bulletin: card to Dawn, buy eggnog, get cinnamon sticks. My mind wandered away to Christmases past. One year I sent cards to friends I’d not contacted in decades and mailed every card but one. I scratched my head, remembering the year I’d cooked my way through December, presenting the perfect Christmas dinner. The table, which could have rivaled any all-you-can-eat bar, bulged with barely enough room for family.

The choir lulled me back to the present as they sang, “Away in a manger, no crib for a bed.” The memory of the year my mom spent Christmas alone and wound up hospitalized a few weeks later, snuck into my head. I wiped my eyes “Be near me Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay . . .”

The pastor suggested we set up a nativity in our home to remind us of our Savior’s birth. I ought to buy a Nativity scene, I thought, but it doesn’t match the Santa scenery.

Later I pulled the card from my desk, the one I’d not sent, wrote a quick note, and double-checked the address on the alumni website. I gasped at the computer screen.

Dawn Brackett. Deceased.

Fingering the card, I dabbed my eyes as I treasured the memory of our friendship and hummed Away in a Manger. “Bless all thy dear children in thy tender care.”

For so many Christmases, away from His manger, no room in my schedule, no room for my family, I hardened my heart to a dear friend and turned away my mother playing the part of a busy, distracted innkeeper and hard-hearted Herod, I forgot the nativity—the birth of our Savior.

Have you spent the season away from his manger? Is there room in your heart this Christmas for Christ? Are you throwing your heart into the season and forgetting his manger, his flock?

Please Lord, “take us to heaven to live with thee there.”

Merry Christmas,
A Reformed Innkeeper

Terri Kelly is a wife, the mother of two gifts from God, and a teacher with a Master of Arts. Terri write tips for teachers, mothers, and women at her blog: http://www.davincisclassroom.wordpress.com/ She is the editor of Christian Devotions’ http://www.devokids.com/ and she travels sharing her skills at writers conferences. She believes she’s encountered enough mama dramas to write for decades and is currently working on a children’s book. Terri is a featured writer in Spirit & HEART: A Devotional Journey

Publisher: Lighthouse Publishing
ISBN:978-0-9822065-1-5
$9.95

The Mind’s Eye – Terri Kelly

Posted on November 18, 2009 by Senior Editor

“The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment: For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:15-16

I love the scene in the Paul Newman movie, The Color of Money, when he shoots out of a swimming pool. In the next scene Newman is wearing glasses. Those of us with four eyes knew what the pool scene meant: Newman realizes the water on his eyes magnified and improved his vision.

Like Newman, I spent time in the Optometrist’s chair saying, “No, I can’t see the six foot black E on the wall.” I discovered my vision problems in 4th grade. I came home crying, “I can’t see the chalk board.”

Seeing the class work on the board was imperative. That year, dark-rimmed, coca-cola lenses became a fashion accessory for most fourth graders. (So popular, my classmate wore her brother’s glasses to school.)

Not until my forties, stumbling and searching, did I seek God and ask for improved vision—spiritual vision. I didn’t realize how blind I’d been. Comedian Bill Cosby says, “Every closed eye is not sleeping, and every open eye is not seeing.”

Now, I identify with the Bible stories of the blind begging for sight. Our eyes take in scenes, but our mind interprets. With my improved spiritual vision, I recognize the sin and love the person anyway. How do I perceive beggars, drunks, or the needy? Am I inclined to be forgiving, patient or helpful? Not always—I don’t wear my spiritual glasses often enough.

How’s your vision? Do you need an extra pair of eyes? Pray for spiritual vision. God will provide a view through His eyes. When we see life through Him, we develop a mind like Christ. God has given us tasks to do and we can’t do our work if we can’t see.

Seek Him through your spiritual eyes. Seek and you will find.

Terri Kelly is a wife, the mother of two gifts from God, and a teacher with a Master of Arts. Terri write tips for teachers, mothers, and women at her blog: www.davincisclassroom.wordpress.com. Terri is the editor of Christian Devotions’ children site, http://www.devokids.com/ and is a featured writer in Spirit & HEART: A Devotional Journey. She believes she’s encountered enough mama dramas to write for decades and is currently working on a children’s book.

Publisher: Lighthouse Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-9822065-1-5

Wedding Day – Terri Kelly

Posted on February 9, 2009 by Senior Editor

“I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” Isaiah 61:10

“You have to see these wedding pictures.” My sister crowed after recently attending a friend’s wedding.

Weddings are a big deal, aren’t they? The music, the flowers, the dress–not to mention the bride and the groom– all need to meet certain specifications and expectations.
The words have to be right, the promises have to be kept, and the wedding beautiful and edible. Pressure.

The preparations for food, for clothes, for guests are downright tedious and eat away at your pocketbook. Thank goodness I’m not in the middle of wedding plans for my children yet. Thank-you, Lord. Oh and while I’m praising you, will you please prepare their future mates? Thank-you, again, Lord.

I wonder. What is the best part of a wedding ceremony? Without doubt, other than wedding cake, the best part of a ceremony is the moment the groom sees his bride. No, the best part is the wedding kiss. No—that’s always too long. The best part is the exchange of wedding vows—yes.

“To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, ’till death do us part.”

If you’ve neglected the daily ceremony of dressing as God’s betrothed, start over and walk down the aisle of faith, allowing Him to lead each day. Where are you in your relationship to Christ— just engaged, honeymoon period, seven-year-itch, silver or golden years, or uncommitted? Jesus wants to be your lifelong partner. Clothe yourself in His salvation.

Prepare for your vow: Something old: read the Old Testament Something new: read the New Testament Something borrowed: wisdom from Godly mentors Something blue: A reminder of your vow—a blue bookmark, a blue Bible cover. Be creative.

As you unite your life with Christ, for better or for worse, beware of the uninvited guest who gobbles up the cake and contract. His specialty, the devil’s-food-contract, should not be served or eaten on any occasion.

Cherish the love that is given you. Delight in the Lord and His blessing of the perfect mate.

Terri Kelly is blessed with a daughter and son and calls North Carolina home, with her husband, Allan. Allan and Terri work in their extra time on their business, http://www.davincisplayground.org/, which is currently undergoing a transformation. Terri Kelly is a wife, the mother of two gifts from God, and a teacher with a Master of Arts, Terri write tips for teachers, mothers, and women at her blog: www.davincisclassroom.wordpress.com She believes she’s encountered enough mama dramas to write for decades and is currently working on a children’s book.

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