Climb Every Mountain

Tonight we had time to watch "The Sound of Music," which is a "mountain" movie, of course.  Daddy felt like it would be good to watch this one as we move forward towards our "Elevate" series, and sure enough, there was a decent three-point message that came from it.  It doesn't follow the movie precisely, as I'm not sure kids are so familiar with it anymore.  But it has song titles in the points, and follows Caleb a bit:

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1. Climb Every ______________. You have to live the life you were born to live. Caleb had confidence. He believed in the promises of God, even when many around him did not! The Lord came through before, and there was no reason to stop believing now. If Caleb were with you now, he’d tell you to trust God, and climb every mountain!
“Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said.” Joshua 14:12 NKJV
A. MOUNTAIN B. STREAM C. RAINBOW

2. When the Lord closes a door, somewhere He opens a ____________.  When things don’t go as you expect, sometimes you have to tell your plans, “so long, farewell, and auf wiedersehen!” But then what do you do? How do you solve a problem like that? Always keep in mind there are other climbing routes to the top! If one way is blocked, that just means God has something good in store for you!
“We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him. He appointed them to be saved in keeping with His purpose.” Romans 8:28 NIRV
A. PRESENT B. WINDOW C. STORE

3. Your help comes from the ___________. Every mountain top is within reach, if you just keep climbing. Having confidence is one thing, and overcoming setbacks is another. But we must always remember where our help comes from. Only with His help, we can move mountains!
“I look up to the mountains. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord. He is the Maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:1-2 NIRV
A. MOUNTAINS B. LORD C. BEGINNING 

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This afternoon, Madison had her first Saturday ballet production practice of the year, the first of quite a few.  She'll be learning the moves for the song "In Summer," especially during this week when there are about four more practices and then another on Saturday again.  It's going to be a long week for ballet, but she's having a great time.  She loves her friends and enjoys dancing.

But it does appear to be drawing to a close.  Without forcing her in one direction or another, the general feeling from her is that she'd like to try something new, which of course may be with karate, and our friends Bart and Christine.  As we draw closer, we'll see how that turns out.

Today was "Fat Saturday" for all of us at the church, somewhat of a joke in that we eat candy and steak while we can.  Daddy was trying a few of his Christmas candies and chocolates, sharing a sweet goodbye with them.  The fast begins tomorrow, but it's always nice with Mommy's extensive experience with cooking.  She has a lot of great things planned, including that wonderful butternut squash soup.

Madison and Daddy played some LEGO Dimensions today, getting through another level of Middle Earth, which excited Madison.  She loves all of this Lord of the Rings material.  Perhaps that will be a book we read to her some time.  That, and Narnia.  We have to visit Narnia again.

We were watching "Star Wars Rebels," season three tonight, just getting started.  Actually, we back-tracked to season two's finale to jolt our memory of where we were in the series.  Caught up now, we were ready to go back to a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.  With a bunch of popcorn too!

It is cold outside.  We're taking down Christmas decorations too, as it is a lengthy process to put them up and take them down.  The neighborhood still has plenty of houses decorated too - it's just plain cold outside, and I suppose we're all waiting for a window of opportunity with the weather.  Currently, it's a biting cold that makes you appreciate warmer weather so much.  We're all dressed in layers, with pajamas underneath, or three shirts and a jacket.  The "tick about to pop" joke from "A Christmas Story" is in full effect, although we don't tromp around in snow suits.  Not yet.  No snow yet, although there's the mention of some possible ice upcoming we'll see about that.  Ice isn't fun.  It looks pretty, but is definitely no fun.