It was an exhausting, but fun day.  I thought I would share some photographs of my family on this busy day.

Jake looks sharp riding Ladd, our good ol' faithful horse. It will be his last year in the Pony Express.

Lane, the Drillmaster, is deciding who carries which flag for the parade around the Go-Texan events at the fairgrounds.

Kyla is in the background riding up to her handoff. Emily is waiting patiently for her leg. Notice the police escorts. We are always thankful for them.

Kyla riding between Bedias and Iola on a spirited mare.

Jake (on the right) riding as a team with his friend and fellow Posse member, Tyler. They are riding down Hwy 105.

Bipsy and Bobsy. Andrew and Isaac are hanging out at the truck. It has been an especially long day for them. They cannot wait until they are full-fledged members, too.

Kyla, the 2012 Vice President, is reading a proclamation in Iola, Texas.

Kyla is just finishing her first mile leg on Cheyenne, our paint mare. The morning was quite chilly.

Standing in parade formation.

Also, I made an error in my recipe for my bread on Friday.  I noticed it on Saturday and fixed it, but wanted to point it out if you printed it out on Friday.  Instead of four eggs, you need to use eight eggs.  It is a typo with consequences.  I want you to reproduce the good loaves of bread that I made so please make sure that you have the right amount of eggs in the recipe.

A while ago, I published an essay written by my son, Clayton.  The purpose of posting it was to encourage him.  “Encourage the writer, don’t critique the writing,” is a mantra that I repeat to myself silently as I educate my children.  In other words, I pay attention to the content and thoughts and not the grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.  There is a reason that even great authors have editors.  Clayton is a gifted writer with a vivid imagination and an incredible vocabulary.  And, I am not just saying it because I am his mama.

In another attempt to encourage him, I want to post his first draft of the beginning section of a short story he is currently writing.  I hope that you enjoy it and will leave him positive feedback.  Keep in mind that Clayton is fifteen years old.

The Fall of Lucifer
by Clayton Holliday

There they were, standing on the edge of the Gate. Gazing at the sunset at the end of yet another day, the angels of God stood on the brink of the realm of man. The sunlight made their armor shine and its last warm rays hit the angels in the face like a gentle breeze. As the last shimmer of light faded and darkness crept in, artificial light started to spring up in its wake. One of the angels, Gabriel, spared a quick glance at the humans. Strange creatures these humans are. Always fighting each other for “world domination,” but ironically they have not and never will succeed. Driven by their greed, selfishness, and pride, all seeds of Lucifer, they muster on to no avail. Their ignorance will lead to their doom.

Lucifer was once high in the ranks of angels, covered with precious stones, and with the seal of perfection but his pride made him boastful. Drunk with vanity, he challenged the power of God. Like the humans today, he wanted more power, as did several others, and they soon mutinied. The angels of God, and those who followed Lucifer, fought in a great battle in the Heavens. Lucifer’s army were soon forced to surrender and brought before the Almighty to account for their actions. The courtroom had not, and hasn’t since been used for the judgment of immortals. The roof was domed, with great pillars at its base. In the center was a silver chair with intricate designs, surrounded by rows and rows of seats that seemed to sparkle in the light of God. There Lucifer sat and his hatred grew stronger.

The room seemed empty, but soon, the seats were being filled with glowing angels. The sound of chains and the moans of the unfaithful filled the air. They were stripped of their jewels and walked in shame to their seats beside their “leader”. As soon as all were seated, an overpowering flash and the sound of ten thousand storms erupted from thin air over the judicial throne. And there sat God, towering over the rest. At the sight of Him, every angel, including Lucifer, rose from their seat, dropped to one knee, and bowed. In a voice like a waterfall, He spoke to Lucifer, “You, my unfaithful servant, have caused me great strife by acting against me in such a manner as this. Your pride has cost you and your followers dearly. You and your followers are hereby banished from this realm!”

As soon as the Almighty finished speaking, a giant crack split the ground beneath Lucifer and his angels, or the devil and the Fallen as they were known thence forth. They started to sink and soon, were falling into Hades and to Earth. As Lucifer fell through the layers of the atmosphere, he saw that he was drifting toward the Garden of Eden. And so the seed of evil was planted in God’s garden. Lucifer woke and found himself alone in the perfect garden, full of forever-ripened fruits and vegetables. He sat up and took in his surroundings, which was a feast for the eyes. He found himself famished and took an apple from a nearby tree. Lucifer expected a mouthful of sweet fruit, but found that it had become rotten in his palm. Even in the Garden of Eden, he was still punished.

Lucifer continued to wander through the garden, searching for the slightest morsel to eat, but there was none that didn’t rot at his touch. He was feed only by his pride, anger, and greed.  Stripped of his splendor, the only nourishment that sustained him was his drive to avenge that which he had lost. He planned and plotted to get even. As he wandered aimlessly, the only sound that accompanied him was the sound of his own footsteps. As the day went by, birds and fish sprang forth into being. The silence broke as the sound of birds playing, filled in the air. While they swooped and glided between the trees, Lucifer watched in amazement. When they saw him, they stopped and grew quiet. He continued to walk until he found a stream, filled with fish darting back and forth. As they saw him, they too grew still. And so silence crept in again.

As a second day passed, beasts walked upon the earth. Lucifer grew jealous as he watched them devour fruits and berries, as well as grass and the leaves of the trees. Infuriated, he began to think of ways to use them against God himself. As he thought, Lucifer heard an unfamiliar sound. It grew louder as it came closer. Curious, Lucifer jumped into the nearest tree and watched from an overhanging branch. The sound’s origin walked upright on two legs. It was hairless and strong. As it talked, the animals seemed to listen. “This must be Man,” he thought to himself, for he was made in God’s image.

There are so many different kinds of Bibles and daily reading plans available.  I am not going to endorse one over another.  You need to find one that fits your lifestyle, your needs, and most importantly one that is doable.  I don’t see the point in having unattainable goals in any aspect of life.

When people want to live more self-sufficiently, I caution them from jumping in too deep.  If you really want to live this lifestyle in the long-run, you have to take baby steps.  Accomplishing one small goal like planting a garden or raising your own eggs is an important first step.  Once you are doing that well, then you slowly expand your goals.  One day you will look around at your thriving garden, your freezer full of home-raised meat, your clothes drying on a line, and feel a wonderful sense of accomplishment.  You are more likely to drown if you jump into the deep end without practicing the basic fundamentals of swimming.

In the same way, you can be overly enthusiastic in your desire to get in shape or further your understanding of God’s Word.  By having unattainable goals, you are left discouraged and disappointed with yourself.  At my age and fitness level coupled with my intense dislike for running, it would be ridiculous to sign up for a marathon.  I would not be able to finish the race.

Our church emphasizes personal quiet time, and seeks to train even the youngest to feast on God’s Word.  Through daily reading and scripture memory, you cannot help but find yourself meditating on God’s Word day and night.  I have been amazed at how easily even my three-year old memorizes Bible verses.  His mind is a sponge.

Last year, my family read through the New Testament using a chronological Bible.  It was a rewarding experience.  Some of my children could not sit through the entire suggested reading section per day.  It was too long for their attention span.  So I broke it down into even smaller bits.  Slow and steady wins the race, and we eventually finished.

This year we are tackling the Old Testament.  The kids are all a year older and are now able to sit for the entire section of reading.  We are moving much faster through the Bible compared to last year, but we will not finish this year.  Am I upset? Absolutely not.  So what if we do not follow the prescribed plan.  Is that the point?

If you have never read the entire Bible, it is a worthy goal.  I highly recommend it.  Just don’t get so hung up on whether or not you finish in a year.  If that is your focus, when you miss one day, the reading piles up.  Seeing all the pages that you have to read to catch up, you are much more likely to give up.  Before you know it, you aren’t even trying to read the Bible.  You think, “I’ll wait until next year.  Then I will really do it.”

My oldest son was telling me the other day how every time you learn something an indentation is made in your brain.  The more you learn about that same subject the deeper the indentation.  So taking his information as true, my hope is that Christians will commit to deepening their Bible brain indentations in 2012.  Hopefully that is a goal to which you can commit.

As we continued to open presents, we realized that all of the toys were intended to be played with outdoors.  And here on Christmas Day, it was rainy and cold, not exactly weather conducive to play.  Since both boys had a bad case of pinkeye and were battling a snotty nose, I was reluctant to allow them to play outside.  Before I could decide what to do, my husband suggested that they ride their bikes in the house.

We have an open layout of our living area.  I guess you would call it a great room.  Traffic moves easily from the kitchen to living room to dining room.  I just did not foresee an actual road, but the boys saw it immediately.  Andrew, who was just learning to pedal and steer, rode very cautiously and slowly around the circular “road.”  Isaac, on the other hand, was skillfully navigating the course even “off-roading” around our dining table.  Isaac was leaving behind him a trail of black smudges on my tile floor as he literally fish-tailed on the turns.

They say that once you learn how to ride a bike that you never forget.  I still remember teaching Clayton, Kyla, and Jake how to ride without training wheels.  Some kids catch on almost immediately.  Some need much more practice and encouragement.  I was planning on teaching the younger two boys also when they showed interest in learning.

To my surprise, Isaac came running into the kitchen.  “Mom, come outside.  I’ve got something to show you.”

The training wheels were laying on the driveway.  Kyla was holding the back of the bicycle seat.  She ran a few steps and let go.  Isaac rode down the driveway and back without falling.  He even applied the brakes correctly.  I was impressed.  I was impressed that he was such a natural at riding a bike.  But I was mainly impressed with the way that Kyla took it upon herself to teach her brother.

I stood on the driveway watching as she encouraged him with sweet words.  I witnessed her patient instruction to teach him to start a ride without help.  I watched as his smile beamed up to her face with silent expressions of love and gratitude.  What an absolute joy to behold!

Isaac did not learn to ride a bike without training wheels on Christmas Day, but I still consider it one of my best Christmas gifts.  Children are a blessing from God.  When you get to witness their love and grace to one another, it is a blessing to the power of x.  What x equals is up to you, but it is exceedingly abundant.  I hope that each of you gets to experience this and that you will treasure it like Mary, who “treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Luke 2:19).

Thanksgiving is one day out of the year that we come together as a country.  We gather with our family and friends and essentially count our blessings.  We give thanks to the One above from whom all blessings flow.  It is a beautiful day regardless of the weather.

As my family prepares for our Day of Thanks, we are doing a unit study on the Pilgrims.  This week we had a very interesting discussion.  Using Bruce Feiler’s book, America’s Prophet: Moses and the American Story, as a stepping stone, I raised the question, “Did the Pilgrims identify with the Israelites?”  we compared the Pilgrims to the Israelites of the Old Testament.

This is our list of comparisons, which I thought was good for the ages of my children.

Israelites:

They escaped slavery from Egypt and crossed the Red Sea.  They literally followed God as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  They received the 10 Commandments and agreed to follow them.  They were in the wilderness and traveled to the Promised Land.  On the way, people died by natural causes or as a result to his/her sin or rebellion.  They were eventually successful and entered the Promised Land, but were told to drive out and conquer all the native tribes.

Pilgrims:

They were searching for anywhere they could worship God in their own way.  They fled England for religious persecution reasons and later chose to leave The Netherlands.  They were looking for freedom.  To obtain it, they crossed the Atlantic Ocean.  In a sense, they were seeking their own Promised Land.  They did not follow God literally; however, they certainly felt they were following God’s call.  Before disembarking the Mayflower, they drew up and signed the Mayflower Compact.  They land in a virtual wilderness as winter was setting in.  But through hard work, they built a settlement.  Along the way, many died from starvation, disease, and/or exposure.  They were eventually successful in creating their own Promised Land.

It is not a perfect comparison; however, there are definite similarities between the two groups.  Although the Pilgrims were not perfect in all of their actions with the native population, they did receive help from Squanto and celebrated Thanksgiving with about 90 Native Americans.  They did not come to conquer the region.

Another difference is that the Israelites complained and often showed a lack of faith in God.  Many times, the Israelites would fantasize about the food they had in Egypt as if it was worth being slaves.  I cannot speak to how the Pilgrims felt, but their actions speak louder.   A striking contrast is that not one Pilgrim returned to England when the Mayflower left.  Despite the hardships and uncertain future, the Pilgrims held freedom more dear than all the luxuries in Europe.

Does Thanksgiving have any Jewish roots?  According to Robin Sampson in her book, A Family Guide to Biblical Holidays, it seems so.  The Feast of Tabernacles is a joyous holiday with both historical and agricultural significance.  God’s people were to keep this holiday “in thankfulness to God for all the increase of the year.”  For seven days, families lived in tents or a temporary dwelling called a sukkah.  It was to remind them that their ancestors once lived for forty years in tents and were eventually allowed to the Promised Land.

Many Americans, upon seeing a decorated sukkah for the first time, remark how much the sukkah (and the holiday generally) reminds them of Thanksgiving.  The American pilgrims…were deeply religious people.  As they were trying to find a way to express their thanks for their survival and for the harvest, it is quite possible that they looked to the Bible (Leviticus 23:39) for an appropriate way of celebrating and based their holiday in part on the Feast of Tabernacles (pg. 346).

When our Founding Fathers were faced with building our country from scratch, they had many decisions to make.  One was to design the Great Seal of the United States.  Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams proposed the back of the seal to depict a scene with Moses and the Israelites.   This is a sign that our Founding Fathers, too, saw the similarities I mentioned above.

Our Thanksgiving menus might look a little different if Benjamin Franklin had his way in picking our national bird.  He proposed that our national bird be the turkey.  He wrote to his daughter, “For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America…He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.”  Click here to read the entire letter.

My family found all of this fascinating.  I hope you did, too.  If anything, I hope that this article made you think.  I am taking off all next week.  I want to wish each one of you a very “Happy Thanksgiving!”  Enjoy the food, the fellowship, and family.

If you think the first Thanksgiving celebration occurred in 1621 with the Pilgrims, then you need to read last year’s article, “A Brief History of Thanksgiving.”  Hopefully you will learn an interesting fact from reading it.

Since our family has been focused on Early American History this year, I wanted to share with you a portion of the Thanksgiving Proclamation written by our Founding Fathers at the Continental Congress in 1777.  It begins as follows:

Forasmuch as it is the indispensable duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to him for benefits received, and to implore such farther blessings as they stand in need of; and it having pleased him in his abundant mercy not only to continue to us the innumerable bounties of his common providence, but also smile upon us in the prosecution of a just and necessary war, for the defense and establishment of our unalienable rights and liberties; particularly in that he hath been pleased in so great a measure to prosper the means used for the support of our troops and to crown our arms with most signal success.

To read the proclamation in its entirety, WallBuilders has the document to view.  It really is beautifully written.  The main event which inspired this proclamation was the defeat of the British at the Battle of Saratoga.  However, the Americans end this proclamation by praying for prosperity and virtue for the country.  They also ask for “the greatest of all blessings, independence and peace.”

You can be thankful for God’s provision in our life or thankful that your son has returned safely home from Afghanistan or thankful for a variety of things.  Regardless of what you are thankful for this year, take the time to reflect on your many blessings.  As a family discuss how God has blessed you each individually.

My husband’s family have a great tradition.  They call it a Blessing Tree.  His aunt purchased cut-out paper in shapes like ornaments or trees and passed one to each family member.  You are to take some time to reflect on the past year and then write down your blessings.  You hang your paper ornaments on a small, artificial tree.  When you take down your Christmas decorations at the end of the year, save the blessings in a file box.  Then every year, family members can read through the past years.  It really makes you see how God has worked in your life.  People tend to forget, which is why it is so nice to have a National Holiday like Thanksgiving.