{"id":1024,"date":"2013-12-19T17:17:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-19T17:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/katrina.effexhost.com\/index.php\/2013\/12\/19\/12-pearls-of-christmas-day-6\/"},"modified":"2025-01-09T18:49:59","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T18:49:59","slug":"12-pearls-of-christmas-day-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/2013\/12\/19\/12-pearls-of-christmas-day-6\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Pearls of Christmas: Day 6"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"12pearlsofxmas\"<\/a><\/div>\n

Welcome to the <\/strong>12 Pearls of Christmas blog series<\/strong>!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Merry Christmas from Pearl Girls\u2122<\/a>! We hope you enjoy these Christmas \u201cPearls of Wisdom\u201d from the authors who were so kind to donate their time and talents! If you miss a few posts, you\u2019ll be able go back through and read them on this blog throughout the next few days.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re giving away a pearl necklace in celebration of the holidays, as well as some items from the contributors! <\/strong>Enter now below. The winner will be announced on January 2, 2014, at the Pearl Girls blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you are unfamiliar with Pearl Girls\u2122, please visit www.pearlgirls.info<\/a> and see what we\u2019re all about. In short, we exist to support the work of charities that help women and children in the US and around the globe. Consider purchasing a copy of Mother of Pearl<\/a>,<\/em> Pearl Girls: Encountering Grit, Experiencing Grace<\/em><\/a>, or one of the Pearl Girls products<\/a> (all GREAT gifts!) to help support Pearl Girls.<\/p>\n

***<\/div>\n

Perfectionism<\/strong>
\nby Steven Estes<\/strong><\/h2>\n
(Excerpt from A Better December***)\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n

When my wife was little, her family was Amish.<\/strong> Barn raisings, buggies, high-stepping horses, shoofly pies\u2014the whole postcard. Later, they left that life and became mainstream farmers. The suspenders and bonnets were gone, but they remained hard-working, no-nonsense, sweep-the-porch folks. As good-natured a family as homemade jam and bread.<\/p>\n

I grew up taking in the city. Mom and I would hop the streetcar into downtown Baltimore. Lights, crowds, noise, action\u2014the busier, the better. Birthdays were a big thing, Christmas, bigger yet. Whoop it up. Break some eggs, make an omelet.<\/p>\n

My wife and I met in college. I first saw Verna from across the cafeteria. Popular as a lemonade stand in summer. Prettier than an evening meadow blinking with fireflies. I was hooked. Proposed on the beach. We walked the aisle, started life together.<\/p>\n

Verna kept everything worthwhile from her childhood and folded the rest into a drawer. Worked circles around any woman you\u2019d know. Line dried the wash, taught the kids, pinched the pennies. Joined me in whatever hoopla I wanted, but\u2014in her mother\u2019s meat-and-potatoes tradition\u2014NEVER got exotic in the kitchen . . .<\/p>\n

. . . until one December.<\/b><\/p>\n

Wishing to please\u2014wanting some memories for the kids\u2014she found a recipe book. Brimming with color photos. Promises of the perfect Christmas. The kind, no doubt, her husband recalled from urban days of yore.<\/p>\n

Sugar plums in her head, practical impulses stuffed away in an apron pocket, she purchased the ingredients to yuletide bliss. A concoction to bless the family forever.<\/p>\n

The evening has arrived. The fortunate are assembled about the table. There is to be a holiday surprise:<\/p>\n

\u201cFestive Yule Log.\u201d<\/p>\n

Candles aglow, faces upturned. The platter of glory is borne to the table. Mother seated. Nod given.<\/p>\n

Trembling forks sink into the first sampling mouthful. Eyes closed for concentration. The pregnant pause. . . . A searching for words. The furtive glances. The first stifled chortle. Then,<\/p>\n

Oh, the hooting and howling.
\nThe slappings on the table.
\nThe witticisms.
\nThe criticisms.<\/p>\n

Centered on the table, the Yule Log sulks\u2014rolled in a fine gravel posing as crushed nuts. A taste akin to cream cheese blended with toothpaste\u2014perhaps Crest, no, Colgate. As if saut\u00e9ed in soy sauce, glued into shape by an application of Crisco. The look of a food item suspected of disease, held in quarantine at Customs.<\/p>\n

Verna smiles weakly. Rises. Whisks the mistake into exile. All the while carols from the record player begin straying off-key . . . and Misters Currier& Ives are ushered to the backyard, blindfolded, and shot.<\/p>\n

Solomon foresaw that many designs for Christmas Eve would go awry. Why else would he write:<\/p>\n

\u201cDo not boast about tomorrow,
\nfor you do not know
\nwhat a day may bring forth\u201d?
\nProverbs 27:1<\/p>\n

Or . . .<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can make many plans,
\nbut the Lord\u2019s purpose
\nwill prevail\u201d?
\nProverbs 19:21 NLT<\/p>\n

God has bigger plans for you than the perfect dinner. That\u2019s why he lets things go wrong. He\u2019s saving your appetite for the perfect eternity. He notices you smitten with this short life,<\/p>\n

feeling it slip through your fingers,
\ntrying to shake a snow-globe Christmas
\nout of every December.<\/p>\n

The true holiday magic is reserved for heaven. Every delight down here is a mere taste and teaser<\/b>.<\/i><\/p>\n

Knowing that, doesn\u2019t it ease the pressure just a bit as you flip through recipes on the 24th\u2014biting your lip . . . pondering a go at that Festive Yule Log?<\/p>\n

(By the way, Verna recovered nicely.)<\/i><\/p>\n

\"12pearls-estes\"<\/a><\/div>\n
**This excerpt is reproduced from A Better December Copyright \u00a9 2013 by Steven Estes. Used by permission of New Growth Press and may not be downloaded, reproduced, and\/or distributed without prior written permission of New Growth Press.<\/i><\/h5>\n
***<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>Steven Estes is a pastor who has known \u201cbetter Decembers with my family than either Currier or Ives,\u201d but also understands a gray Christmas. A Better December<\/a><\/b><\/i> draws on Estes\u2019 twenty-three years of counseling church members through the holiday season as well his other writings on the topic of human suffering. He teaches a preaching class at Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia) where he completed his M.Div and Th.M. degrees. Estes is a conference speaker and on the board of the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation (CCEF). Estes is the author of Called to Die<\/i> (the story of slain missionary Chet Bitterman), and co- author (with friend Joni Eareckson Tada) of When God Weeps<\/i> and A Step Further. He and his wife, Verna, have eight children. \ufffcLearn more about Estes and his books at www.steveestes.net<\/a>.
\na Rafflecopter giveaway<\/a><\/p>\n

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Welcome to the 12 Pearls of Christmas blog series! Merry Christmas from Pearl Girls\u2122! We hope you enjoy these Christmas \u201cPearls of Wisdom\u201d from the authors who were so kind…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2015,2019],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcement","category-giveaway"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2362,"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024\/revisions\/2362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifewithkatie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}