Retreat Place

After a long busy day there is nothing I love more than to escape to my room. My room is a place full of my character where I can relax. For years every other room in my house got decorating attention but my room. Finally I decide it was time to update. It was such a great gift to myself to have created a space that I love to retreat into. Let Recreativity make your own personal retreat space full of your individual character.

Monkey Business

Spring is coming! Which means spring cleaning, throwing things out, and brightening things up. It is time to take on all those projects you have put off. Are you needing a change? Let Recreativity redo a room for you? A great place to start is in the kids rooms. Use toys that your kids already have to inspire a whole new look in their bedrooms.

Jonah and the Whale

This morning my kids actually slept in which gave me a few minutes of quiet time. As I sat down and opened my Bible I flipped randomly to Jonah. How many times have I heard this story or told it to my kids? Thousands? Of-course their favorite rendition of the story is told by Bob & Larry and the rest of the Veggie Tales crew.

As I read the story I was struck at the realization of how Jonah just flat out said 'No' to a direct order from God. In the second verse of the book God says, "Up, on your feet and on your way to the big city of Nineveh! Preach to them. They're in a bad way and I can't ignore it any longer." Jonah's response is to get up and go the opposite direction of Nineveh. He flat out disobeyed. God was so worried about his people and Jonah said he didn't care.

How many times in my own life is God telling me something and I flat out do the opposite? Am I doing it intentionally? I make really good excuses --"Next time God...or I am too busy, too tired, too stressed, too....." And just like Jonah, God finds me and I am in a belly of trouble. Maybe I am not stranded in the belly of a big fish but my resistance/disobedience to God lands me stuck, stranded, all alone, worried about the future, and questioning my God. Isn't it my own fault for saying 'No' in the beginning that gets me into my belly mess?

The truth is God had a plan for Jonah and he has a plan for my life. He knew exactly where Jonah was the entire time he was in the belly of the big fish. Jonah decided to pray. What a great idea? Why does it take me so long to just decide to pray? The Bible says God heard and spoke to the fish and it threw Jonah up on the seashore. Jonah got himself in the mess but God got him out and like a good parent he answered his prayer. I say good parent, because sometime I think God isn't good.....but God had the fish deliver him to shore and dry land. He could have reminded Jonah of how stupid he was and have the fish cough him out in the middle of the ocean making him swim to land. I make bad decisions and sometimes have hard consequences for my decisions, but God doesn't get pleasure out of making my bad decisions worse. God is about redeeming and loving!

Jonah decides to obey and go deliver the message to Nineveh for God. The people are so distraught by the message that they changed their ways and God decides to save them all because of their heart change. What a great day!...but instead Jonah is mad and sulks. I laughed out loud at the way God gently speaks to Jonah and reminds him of the bigger picture and his love for all mankind..even the animals of Nineveh.

Thank you God for having patience with me, as your child to teach me new things every day about your character....and how to improve mine!

Christmas Time

Christmas Time begins at our house in October. Plans for decorations start forming and I begin preparing my husband for the BIG set up. It takes a few days to talk him into getting everything out of the attic. That is why I start in October for a early November set up.

Once everything is out the decorating begins. Each room gets a kiss of Christmas. You might think it is all about the decorating. It is true that I love to decorate and do it extremely early ~ but it is what it represents that means so much to me. I love the idea of recreating my house every fall into this magical Christmas wonderland. My home is a totally different place for 2 months of the year.

The Christmas ritual really represents what Christ does in our lives throughout the year. He is recreating us into his likeness. Some times it takes a while but it is in the hard work that the beauty takes form. One day we will all be magical!

Do not forget Recreativity when you want to add a little creative magic to your 2011 Christmas! Let us help you decorate.