Can you believe the holidays are here already? Thanksgiving’s just over a week away! What are your plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year? What are some of your yearly traditions? Let me know tonight - 503-733-5000 or 1-800-533-kupl!

My family almost always has a big dinner for both Thanksgiving and Christmas Day at our house, when we have some family over. My mom has a huge china set and we break (NOT literally!) it all out and fill just about every little pot and jar and dish and plate with SOMETHING. My favorite parts of the dinner are the sweet pickles (I always get the little midget sweet pickles), the black olives, the Stovetop stuffing, and my grandma’s/mom’s famous “orange salad.” What about you?

After dinner, we all get together in the kitchen and help out with the clean-up and washing and drying the dishes, which is all part of the fun too! Then it’s back in the dining room for coffee, pie, and ice cream.

At my house, though, the day AFTER Thanksgiving is almost as big of a deal as the day itself - and it’s not because of the shopping!  :-) Starting the morning after Thanksgiving, and usually lasting thru most of the weekend, we decorate our entire house, from top to bottom, inside and outside, and even our barns and outbuildings, for CHRISTMAS! You’ve never seen boxes until you’ve seen our house on the day after Thanksgiving!! We’re all dead at the end of the weekend, but it’s worth it!

WOW - what an election year, huh? I keep finding myself not quite believing that it’s really over! What do you think about how things turned out? I’d love you to call me and let me know while I fill in for Leela 2-7 this week! If you listen to NW Nights, you might have guessed that I’m a McCain supporter, and to be totally honest this election night was a difficult one for me.

HOWEVER I believe God has complete control over our world, our country, and the lives of those who know Him, and He has given me an incredible peace the last couple days. I am a big fan of Beth Moore (she writes Bible studies and leads seminars and stuff for women), and no matter what your political views or your feelings about this election, I thought you might also find peace and hope in these exerpts from Beth’s blog (http://livingproofministries.blogspot.com/). My pastor’s wife in Corbett passed this along to me this week: 

A few things I’m so thankful for on this election day, regardless of the outcome:

*We live in a democracy where we have the right to a vote and a voice. We have the God-given responsibility to use both wisely and in the way that best reflects what God conveys through Scripture.

*God “works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will” and “according to the plan.” Ephesians 1:11

*Not only does God work out everything in conformity with His will, He has promised to work out everything for the GOOD of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

*God sets up kings and deposes them and gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. Daniel 2:21

*We, the beautifully diverse family of God, are never - not at any time - powerless. Nor are we ever victims of a system. Believing prayer takes us through doors we’ll never be invited to enter and into judges chambers we’ll never grace. Take a look back at Genesis 18 once again with astonishment over the dialogue between God and His servant and friend, Abraham. Rejoice that God is ever mindful of a faithful remnant. The Judge of the Earth will always do right.

*Even if persecution should await believers in Christ or harrowing circumstances hound us, God will use hardship to bring unity and purity to a people who need it desperately. The best of circumstances do not always produce the best in the Bride of Christ.

*The living God is firmly established upon His Throne and there at His holy feet we can always find grace and mercy in our time of need.

*No matter what happens today, we are GOD’S elect. He has elected us to show His heart and to walk in His ways in the culture that surrounds us. We are called to walk in the challenging balance of grace and truth.

May we be filled with Christ’s Spirit today and our mouths given to praise and to believing, receiving prayer. God IS faithful and He has us firmly in His hand. We will not fear. We will not doubt. We will not hate.

“Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in Him, for He shields him all day long, and the one the Lord loves rests between His shoulders.” Deuteronomy 33:12