COPYRIGHT:

© Renee’ Belle Isle Green and Mom2MomFlorida, 2010. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Renee’ Belle Isle Green and Mom2MomFlorida with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

by

Urban Legends Are Created Every Day


Every Christmas new theories come out about the birth of Christ. Bits and pieces are picked apart to understand and theories abound. Before long a simple story is convoluted and the miracle becomes common place in the world’s view. When did people quit taking God at His Word?

Revelations 22:18-19 ~ “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 19 And if any man shall take” from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

Matthew 22:29 ~ “But Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, since you do not understand the Scriptures nor the power “

So when the angel said these things they knew exactly what the angel was saying, simple and clear cut in their language and understanding. They were told the baby was a spotless lamb for sacrifice, the Savior. The sacrifice was the spotless Lamb of God on the cross. Simple words from God.

Luke 2:8-12 ~ “8In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock at night. 9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood near them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. 10 And so  the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 

When mankind cannot understand, even though God made it simple, they try to explain away. The current one that is creating a new urban legend is the Star of Bethlehem. He created the universe, He can create a birth star and then take it away after two years. We do not need to still be looking for it. It has been overthought until the simple truths are lost. God placed a star in the East over a stable in Bethlehem. Wisemen saw the star far away. Wise men, God never said kings and never said three. Scripture never says three gifts but, treasures and just mentions three of them. Mankind has created a wonderful added-to story instead of simply sticking to what God has written.

Now, we have the star of Bethlehem described as planets coming together on December 21st. First, we know it was springtime. Second, God said star, not alignment of planets. Most importantly, it appeared to the wisemen in the East who came from afar. We know from Scriptures they followed the star TWO YEARS. Planets do not align for two years. After Herod questioned the wisemen he had all the Jewish boys two years of age killed. Jesus was a two year old and not living in a stable at this point but a house. The wisemen were never at the stable. Joseph fled to Egypt with Mary and Jesus to protect them.

Matthew 2:1-2 east came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” 

Matthew 2: 9-12 ~And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankicense and myrrh. 12 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

The wisemen had followed the star for two years, a star. Not planets in alignment. Scripture tells of the birth of Jesus plain and simple. A miracle with deep meaning and foreshadowing of the Cross Jesus would die on in 33 years. People have added to and taken away and diluted the miracle of His birth. What if we just took God at His Word? A one time star that led wisemen from afar to a house where a toddler played for two years and then the star was gone. No explanation. Simple. The wisemen accepted the child as a king, a savior. Plain and simple. A miracle.

RBGreenDesigns.Com 2020

by

Where’s Your Baggage?


My husband traveled all over the USA, Canada, Europe, Asia. I could not count the many trips to the airport to pick him up. I arranged to meet him in baggage claim many times. As I waited I watched people as they claimed baggage. It was quite entertaining.  Baggage claim; if the luggage could talk, oh the stories they could tell.

There are SO many bags: baggage claim

  All shapes
  All sizes
  All weights
Some are:
    Worn
    Ugly
    Damaged
    Lost

Through the years I made mental notes and realized many people’s lives are like baggage claim. All they gathered and carried on their journey just kept getting heavier and heavier.

A few years ago,  when our son-in-law returned overseas, one of the bags he was carrying was lost.   According to the airlines, it  never left the airport here.  Weeks went by and still no one found the bag.  The theory is, the tag got torn off on the belt going down from the ticketing area to the sorting area for planes.  It would have been thoughtful for the airport employee at the end of the belt to mark that bag with date, time and belt. That have helped locate it, might not.  It is still missing.

So, when our daughter and granddaughters followed weeks later with their baggage, I decided to treat their bags like I do packages here in the states.  I typed up a LARGE piece of paper stating:  “LUGGAGE DESTINATION” name and address, and laid it on top before closing each bag.  We do not know if that worked because none got lost.   Maybe it helped keep them together. The lost bag ended up in a pile somewhere. Long forgotten.

Unlike our traveling baggage, we often carry our life’s baggage around daily. Piling it on day after day until weighted down we cannot function at all.    All the regrets, the what ifs, and only ifs, they load us down.  It would be nice if our baggage tags were just torn off and baggage was lost. That just does not happen in real life.  It seems to be indelibly marked with our name.  Sometimes we set the baggage down but, hold on to the tickets and go back and pick it up later.   We never learn.  The only tag on our baggage, inside and out, should read:  “Destination Jesus”.

Give HIM your tickets and let HIM carry your baggage.

Psalm 55:22 ( NASB) “Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.”

Matthew 11:28 (NLT) “Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

What are you still carrying? You were never meant to bear your burdens. “Give Them All To Jesus”.

Renee’ Green Copyright 2013

RBGreenDesigns.com 2020

© 2020 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

by

Misery LOVES company!


MiseryYou start the day and you wish you did not have to get out of bed. You know it is going to be more of the same.

Everyday is the same. 2020 virus quarantine will long be seared in your mind. The kids or spouse have gotten on your last nerve. Or, maybe the loneliness of solitude is overwhelming.

You actually miss the days you once dreaded and/or some of the problems have multiplied. Was it just a few months back?

  • You had to go to school with, work with or see someone you knew would ruin your day all over again
  • You feared your job was going in the company’s downsizing
  • You did not have enough money to pay the bills
  • You had papers to write or a pile of unending work; impossible quotas to meet
  • You had a love one with terminal or chronic illness you could not see enough
  • Or, maybe you were the one that was sick and had so many appointments to schedule
  • You were losing your home or had already lost it
  • You hated your job or you lost it

So much misery you dwelled on, making you miserable to be around. Then suddenly the whole world imploded, turned inside out. Upside down. Now you know real misery, right?

Remember the song you heard as a child, “everybody hates me, nobody loves me, guess I’ll go eat worms …”? Misery LOVES company, well usually anyway. Sometimes you just want to be left alone. No one has been down the road you are going down. Woe is you. (Remember the old HeeHaw song about right now? “Gloom despair, and agony on me whoooaa.”)

Are you laughing at yourself yet? Laughter is good. Sometimes we laugh just because we do not want to cry. Go ahead, wallow in your misery. Make every one miserable with you. Whine on the phone, social media, in emails. Life is just not fair to you. It is supposed to be fair because you deserve fair. Life should not be hard for you. You are a Christian after all. How Christ like is it to have to suffer? Made you think? I hope so.

Do you know Who feels all these feelings before you do? The Bible tells us that NOTHING touches us but that it first goes through His hands; Jesus’ hands. Everything that hurts you, that touches you, He feels it first. Everything that happens to you HAPPENS to Christ first.

Did you catch that? HAPPENS, right then and there as He filters it through His nail pierced hands. We think of His suffering on the cross, dying for our sins way back then. We do not think of Him hurting now. When we are hurting we forget He is hurting right along with us. Right now; in the here and now. Jesus wept when Lazarus died. He grieved with Martha and Mary. He feels with you as well. All your circumstances pass through His hands long before they touch you.

 Jeremiah 29:11 ESV “For I know the plans I have for you, declares  the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

You are not alone, ever. He knows, He cares. Tell Him how you feel, and feel how He feels with you. You have a Savior that will always be there to carry your load. Concern over your circumstances is okay, but worrying over them is not.

REMEMBER:

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV  “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful,

and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also

provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

The Holy Spirit is the way of escape, the Power. This means that He will not allow you to go through more than will cause you to lose your faith. It does not mean He will not allow more than you can handle. He handles. He is right there to carry you through.

Keep remembering, your circumstances were filtered through His fingers first. He felt them before you. Filtered, removing anything that would not be good for you.

I Thessalonians 5:18 NASB
“in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus“

If His light is shining through you, you cannot be miserable. Smile and mean it.

Renee’ Green Copyright 2010 (updated 5/2020)

RBGreenDesigns.com 2020

Childproof Snow Globe Craft
by

Childproof Snow Globe Craft


Cookie making was my thing until I had girls. When I was diagnosed with Lupus and unable to cook at times, it became a dad thing. Even when home from college “cooking cookies with dad” was something our girls loved and it has become a family tradition. Fast forward and now it is cookies with grandpa, all 7 of them. Hats and aprons, step stool and clean hands, they line up. I was replaced.

Not really. Sometimes God moves you to other talents and you are replaced. The main thing is to let go and let God. He will always use you in others lives. With children and grandchildren it is important to stay in their lives, living a life that reflects Christ. You are the memories that will help them through times in years to come. Make sure your actions and words are worth remembering.

Psalm 71:18

So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.

Finished Project

In 2018 I decided to add “crafting with grandmom.” My too oldest made a Nativity wreath and my youngest grandson a seashell ornament Thanksgiving Day. And so it began, “Thanksgiving Craft with grandmom”. Since there are 7 I try to find things at the $1. Now, in 2021, the store’s items are $1.25. Still affordable crafts can be made.

With 7 all together Thanksgiving 2019, ages 1 – 13, I decided the oldest six could do the same craft if I made it safe (baby’s mom will make her’s). If your kids or grands are old enough, no need to prep out the cutting the metal lids and hot gluing the tea lights.

Plastic Mason Jar Lighted Snow Globe

All the supplies came from a $1 store. A change in times and $1,25.

  • Plastic mason jar
  • Miniature figurines
  • Tea lights (test them)
  • Glitter stickers
  • Faux Snow flakes
  • Christmas ribbon
  • Cotton balls
  • Tacky glue/craft glue/glue gun
  • Craft scissors
  • Tweezers

Prepping Lids:  Depending on the age group, prep lids for child safety.

  • Remove liner of cap. Set aside.
  • Trace tea light on top of lid and cut out circle using craft scissors. Glue tea light (glue gun) underneath so on/off button is near edge (this will make it accessible. Be careful of sharp edges. This is why you are childproof-prepping.) The hot glue will cover any raw metal edge between tea light and metal lid.
  • Cut a small rectangle on liner so on/off button is not covered. Glue liner on top of lid. (Only on/off button will shoe in finished project.) Now your lid is safe to handle by the smallest hands. Ready for snow and figurine.
  • Remove lid liner
  • Trace tea light on top of lid in center.

Decorating Jar:

  • Place stickers inside jar. You can make a scene to one side, place snowflake stickers around… creativity of child.
  • Using glue gun or craft glue, make a dime size circle inside center bottom of jar. Place figurine (use tweezers if needed) immediately. When glue is dry, add 1-2 tablespoons of faux snow.
  • Screw on lid. Facing figurine in jar towards crafter, glue 2nd figurine on top.
  • Loosen a cotton ball and glue on liner around the figurine and on/off switch. Be careful to not glue on/off switch where it can not slide.
  • Glue appropriate length ribbon around rim. You can make a tiny bow to glue over seam or simple attach a glitter sticker.

If the tea light battery expires, you can unscrew lid, pop off old one and glue in another one.

Crafts by RBGreenDesigns.Com

by

Missing Pieces


As only a child would think he voiced, “Let’s go find the rest of it!” Simple logic. He knew it was all there…. somewhere, and he wanted to go looking. If only we had the faith of a child.

Matthew 18:2-4 New (NASB) 2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, 3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

God’s Word has the whole picture, all the answers. Unfortunately, as we grow up in The Lord, we tend to forget where to look for the answers. We forget our lessons learned and fail to return to study and search more. We have read so many devotions and been to so many Bible studies; heard so many preachers that we act as though we have heard it all.

We never see all of the rainbow. That is because of what is on the horizon, it blocks the whole view. We never know all about God either. Our view is blocked by our horizon, our life on earth. Sin has corrupted the view of God on earth. Our earthly minds are too small to grasp all His truths and plans. Even if He showed us all of His plan, we could not grasp it, much less even remember all the details. So we must trust His plan and have faith. We hear it all the time but we cannot even grasp that concept.

God made us, so He knows us. He provided His Word for us to know Him and the Holy Spirit to help us. We decide we have heard it all before and read it all. We close ourselves all up and are in a spiritual room with no doors or windows. We take our last spiritual breath and try to hold it. Then we become spiritually dead. There is always more if we return to the Source. Open His door, His Word and breathe again. You cannot breathe it all in so quit trying. One breath at a time is all you need.

Knowledge of God comes bit by bit. The wisest man I ever knew was 97 years old when he died. David Fant read God’s word every day. As an engineer he would stand in front of his engine at every depot and read God’s Word to the passengers as they went by him. He was known as the engineer-evangelist, God’s “Ambassador On Rails”. He had a brass plate on the front of his engine shaped like a Bible with “The Word Is Truth” inscribed. We in the church called him “Dad Fant“. He is responsible for finding the land and helping establish Tocooa Falls Bible College. I never new a finer Biblical scholar or Godly man. He never stopped seeking to know God more. No matter how much he understood or knew there was always more for him to learn. He knew that there was always more to know about God and he would never be finished.

We grow physically older and mature. We are never as old as the last breath we breathe. Our spiritual life is no different. We will only know Him more each day we breathe in His Word. Each breath should make us younger and more childlike in our faith. We may forget Scriptures we have memorized as we age and our minds fail, but, we trust Him. We know we can stand on His Word and truths, His promises. They will never fail. His Word never returns void. Once we have read and heard His Word it never fails us.

Isaiah 55:11 “So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.“

May we all return to humble, childlike faith and keep searching for Him breath by breath.

RBGreenDesigns.Com 2019