{"id":10343,"date":"2014-12-29T11:31:30","date_gmt":"2014-12-29T18:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/?p=10343"},"modified":"2014-12-29T12:53:56","modified_gmt":"2014-12-29T19:53:56","slug":"words-to-match-the-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/2014\/12\/words-to-match-the-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Words to match the season"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Richard and I were awake early Christmas morning when the snow began to fall. It was a perfect Christmas setting. More things than snow affected my heart this year. There were moments of deep spiritual peace, happiness, some melancholy, satisfaction, and searching. Memories had full expression as I nestled in blankets near the Christmas tree. Here are some of the words that have found meaning for\u00a0me over this Christmas break.<\/p>\n

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Sages, leave your contemplations,
\nBrighter visions beam afar;
\nSeek the great desire of nations,
\nYe have seen His natal star;
\nCome and worship,
\nCome and worship,
\nWorship Christ, the newborn King!<\/p>\n

-James Montgomery, Angels From the Realms of Glory<\/p>\n

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With the end of the year comes a lot of introspection for me. I wonder if I am better than I was last year. I wonder if I have contributed enough of myself to others. I wonder if I CAN change my poor habits. It was during some of these thoughts that I really listened to the lyrics of the Christmas Hymn above. “Sages, leave your contemplations<\/strong>, Brighter visions beam afar; Seek the great desire of Nations<\/strong>…” I was being reminded to look beyond my plans and thinking\u00a0and look to the Savior. “Brighter visions beam afar…”\u00a0With him, all things, greater things than I can imagine, are possible.<\/p>\n

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…But [she] kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. -Luke 2:19<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Timothy was ordained a Deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood just before Christmas. There were 3 generations of family represented in the room. A week later, Paige received her Patriarchal Blessing. This time, past, present, and future generations mingled in the words of her blessing. Each of these sacred experiences I will keep in my heart for a long time.<\/p>\n

If we could look into each other\u2019s hearts and understand the unique challenges each of us faces, I think we would treat each other much more gently, with more love, patience, tolerance, and care. -Elder Marvin J Ashton, Ensign, May 1992.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I learned to love several more\u00a0people in 2014. This required throwing away some of my hasty judgments about their motivations and choices. I was humbled several times as I learned about challenges that they face, mostly in silence. I learned again that loving people is less about merit (mine and theirs) and more about vision. We love who people really are, not the things that hold them down.<\/p>\n

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And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! -Charles Dickins, A Christmas Carol.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I was a little stretched and had some grumpy Scrooge moments as we were inundated with things to buy and things to bake and places to be. I heard the words of Dickens about the reformed Ebeneezer Scrooge, “And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well.” Had we kept Christmas well?\u00a0I sat down and\u00a0wrote the things that we did that really mattered. This winnowing of memories helped me to see that we had.<\/p>\n

I have many\u00a0hopes and dreams for 2015. At the close of the 2014, I am so thankful for music, lyrics, literature, family, and scripture that helps me keep the season in proper perspective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard and I were awake early Christmas morning when the snow began to fall. It was a perfect Christmas setting. More things than snow affected my heart this year. There were moments of deep spiritual peace, happiness, some melancholy, satisfaction, and searching. Memories had full expression as I nestled in blankets near the Christmas tree. … Continue reading Words to match the season<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,13,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-extended-family","category-family-time","category-life-according-to-angela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10343"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10352,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10343\/revisions\/10352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}