Christmas Letter 2008

Merry Christmas Everyone!

So here I sit, trying to come up with a new introduction to the ever-familiar letter. 2008 has been a memorable year, for more than a few reasons. In both the mountains and the valleys, we have clearly seen God at work. We have been reminded more this year than any, that God is a good God – in both joy and sorrow. We’ll recap the year, beginning with the shortest of us…

Silas is a “man in action”. He eagerly steps in whenever someone needs a hand. His specialties include: closing doors, cleaning up spills, emptying the tupperware from the dishwasher and warning everyone of any impending danger. His first word was Daddy, but his first sentence was “Oh no!” When he’s not “on duty” he likes to play outside, wrestle with Daddy, dance with Maggie or thumb through a book. He dutifully responds with, “Wow!” when Maggie runs up to show him her pretty dresses. The big man will be two years old in February!

Maggie is the girly girl of the house. She took a “Mommy and Me” ballet course with Mama, Esther and Mishayla last year and loves dancing and singing around the house. As of late, we rarely see her in anything but a “pretty dress” that she begs to wear. When she’s not looking in the mirror, she’s trying to marry her “boy” Silas or collecting “beeeeutiful flowers” from the yard. We can definitely see gardening in her future. Maggie just turned four in November!

Molly has enjoyed (most of the time) running around after two little munchkins who exhaust her and keep her in stitches. The newness and beauty of her home hasn’t worn off and she really does like trying to keep it beautiful, despite the fact that it seems like she never stops cleaning. She loves having friends over, the small group twice a month at our house, journaling, doing mystery shopping, making photo books, keeping up with friends online, going through lots of books on the treadmill and talking about theology, philosophy and what God is doing in their lives with Todd and friends and family.

Todd spent most the summer working in the yard. Thanks to help from Dad, Mom and others, we were able to: build a deck, pour concrete, spread gravel, topsoil and play chips, and even get the lawn seeded. It was a whirlwind of a task and we’re glad it’s over. On to the garage! Todd is still active at the fire department, working on the union board and serving as Chaplain. Todd also enjoyed teaching on the Gospel of John for Sunday School, preaching at TBC, riding his bike into work during the summer, doing some cooking and vacationing with the family.

2008 was a year of great family vacations! In March, we spent a few days at the ocean, enjoying amazingly warm 70 degree days with the kids! In May, Todd and Molly spent a few days in Lake Chelan (with no kids), then returned in August with the whole crew. We especially loved spending about six hours a day either in the pool or the lake, picking blueberries and hiking up the ridges around the lake. We enjoyed camping this summer a few times with Pada and Grandma Linda, as well as with good friends. We had our annual trip with Grandma Melquist and Mishayla to visit the cousins in Pomeroy. Granny has moved there now and we are hoping to get there more often than once a year. Todd’s Step-Grandma Rosa came for a week-long visit in September and we enjoyed spending time with Rosa, Grandma Merry, Ade, Jill and the cousins.

In July we happily found out that we were expecting. However, God had other plans for our baby and after a difficult pregnancy, we miscarried our third-born, Nathan Beau at 15 weeks. Yet, even through the tragedy, we saw so much of God’s grace and beauty. He gave us an opportunity to hold our tiny son, which we were very grateful for. He truly makes all things beautiful in His time and we are grateful for the short time we had with Nathan Beau. You can view some of what God taught right here on our blog in September's archive.

We attended some great conferences this year including a home school conference, a writer’s conference and a church conference about giving. We are still writing but have no specific projects right now. We are excited about different ideas God has given us for ministry through these conferences and have enjoyed the teaching. Todd is still active at TBC, and we also enjoy downloading sermons from Mark Driscoll and Judah Smith.

We’ve been attending another small group led by our friends Mike and Kristy. Last year they wrote the book, “What Does God Really Want?” and we’re going through it together. God has used it to challenge our hearts and draw us closer to Him. He has shown us His power in a way we’ve never seen before.

He has been showing us the real power of forgiveness in our lives in a new way as well as the concept of receiving his love. As Christians, we often focus on how we can better ourselves, or on how we can do more for God. We focus on the “fruit” rather than on our relationship with our Father and receiving His love. We’ve loved learning how to simply receive from Him instead of working harder to produce fruit. The amazing thing is, as we receive His love, fruit is just a natural outflow of the love we have received. We had no idea of the power of this concept.

We’ve also realized this year, the power of forgiveness and blessing. God has drawn our attention to the fact that we often don’t make forgiveness a priority or even realize how much it affects our hearts. We’ve thought that forgiveness is a onetime event, but now we are making it a daily habit. This concept is true both in forgiving others and forgiving ourselves. Forgiveness reaches the heart when you add blessing to the forgiveness.

God has used a couple verses in our lives in a big way this year. God has put Jas 1:20 on Molly’s heart over and over. “For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” It’s a simple verse, but we’ve been realizing that our anger toward ourselves (or others), berating ourselves for not being good enough does not produce God’s righteousness in us. As Christians, we often think that if we try to experience conviction, tell ourselves how sinful we are etc, that we will somehow produce more righteousness in us (or in others). Doing this may produce a self-righteousness that glories in actions, but it never produces a heart change evidenced by the fruits of the Spirit. It does not move us toward God’s righteousness, but toward our own. (Rom 10:3 “For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God”.) In truth, God’s kindness toward us is what leads us to repentance (Rom 2:10). When we realize that Christ is in us, we see ourselves as God sees us – righteous because of what Christ has done – and we start acting that way!

God has used Rom 5:10 in Todd’s life. “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” The simple realization of what God has done for us in reconciling us while we were still sinning against Him is mind boggling. What a wonderful thing to think about this Christmas. This is the whole purpose for Jesus’ birth and the reason we celebrate.

We hope that you have seen God at work in 2008. As we look back over key events in our life, we see so many signs of God’s grace – in both the good times and bad. We wish the same for you as you begin 2009.

Lots of Love,
Todd, Molly, Maggie & Silas