He chose a barn as His entry point.
He chooses our dirty places, our stinking places,

the places that shame us,

as His point of entry into our lives.

My New Year's may still smell of the barn. Which is exactly why it has Hope.

"Behold, I make all things new" (Rev. 21:5)

Excerpts from post by Ann Voskamp @Holy Experience at Friday, December 26, 2008

Squishy hearts

A few years back the kids and I were having a little discussion surrounding the parable of the sower and about what it means to let your heart get hard. Matt. 13:18.
We decided we all wanted to have the soft, pliable heart that Jesus was referring to that would produce the most fruit for His kingdom. "As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty." Matt 13:23
A soft heart, like soft, fertile soil that is ready and thirsty for the seeds of Truth, is what we wanted. We took some red playdoe, molded it into shapes resembling squishy hearts and put them in plastic sandwich bags as a reminder of what God was asking us to do with our own hearts. Guard them and keep them soft for His purposes.
As we discussed how to keep our hearts soft; through forgiving one another, doing kind things for eachother, having compassion when someone is sick or hurting, etc., our little singer, Allison Joy, came up with a song- "Jesus, give me a squishy heart for Christmas".

December 25th

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Jesus came to save us, that is something to merry about!

"In this is Love, not that we loved God, but he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins"

1 John 4:10

http://www.vermontchristmastrees.com/images/christmas_tree.jpg

A monday night adventure

[Grace and I made cookies]

image copyright of LauraClawsonPhotography2008

art work by Bethany Clawson

Congratulations to our cousin Merica and her best friend, Drew! They are getting married today, December 19, 2008

May God bless them as they begin their life journey together.

A mid-winter Saturday

Begin with breakfast

Relax a little

make a funny face or two

Practice,









practice,

practice











Peace on Earth and Mercy Mild

-Laura Clawson

All images copyright of LauraClawsonPhotography 2008

"Peace I leave with you...

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."

John 14:27

Happy the child of God....

While looking through some old stuff we found some school work of Mom's when she was at Assumption in grade school. Observing this slightly abstract art we discovered a few things:

1. Maybe its worth saving those old art projects afterall

2. Truth then is still truth now :

"Happy is the Child of God who gets along

with other and cares for those who are sad and lonely"

3. Us kids totally got our artist abilities from our Dad's side. (sorry Mom)

Gracie (3) with the astounding work of art

Maybe I could take a lesson from this page of crude crayon drawing.

What would it look like if I really cared for those who are sad and lonely?

Go and love.

-Grace and Peace

Laura

Welcome!

Wow. This is fun.

After a decade of desiring to complete a family newsletter, it's finally here.

We would like to begin by wishing all of our readers a beautiful

Merry Christmas!

We pray God blesses each of you with a

Happy New Year

filled with all that is good and that each day He draws you closer to Himself.

As this year draws to a close we have so much to be thankful for.

God has been faithful everyday to give our family

health in body,

joy in spirit,

peace in knowing Him,

love and understanding for Him and eachother

and it's all because of His grace.

That's amazing.

Beginnings

Here it is!

The story of a family's journey!