Your Daily Smile

Webster’s Dictionary says that frazzled means “worn, weak, and frayed.”  The word comes up a lot during this time of year.  We have more activities to plan and attend, Christmas presents to buy, church functions, kids’ activities as well as the day to day routines.  Sometimes we get to where we feel like we have lost all the energy that we have because we are running from place to place.  That is when we need to think about our attitude towards the things that we are doing and perhaps adjust our priorities for our family’s well-being.

It is like a quilt that my grandmother made.  When you look at this quilt, it is made up of many pieces of material from scraps of material that she found from leftover sewing projects.  They are just little pieces sewn together to make beautiful squares in a colorful quilt.  If we overextend ourselves, our little patches of time could be like material tossed onto a scrap heap.   Instead, we could patch together those little pieces of time to form a lovely masterpiece of memories, bringing warmth and happiness to those we love.

Jesus walked the earth with constant demands on His time and attention, yet I can’t imagine Him to be frazzled.  We need that peace, too for ourselves and for our families.  Sit quietly today for just a few minutes and clear your mind.  Then clear a thing or two off your schedule.  God, you and your family are more important than your calendar of events.

Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth!

Worship the Lord with gladness.

Come before him, singing with joy.

Acknowledge that the Lord is God!

He made us, and we are his.

We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving;

go into his courts with praise.

Give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the Lord is good.

His unfailing love continues forever,

and his faithfulness continues to each generation.

What are you thankful for?  Have you ever stopped to make a list of everything that you are thankful for?  If you did, it might take alot of time.  When you stop to think about all the blessings in your life, it can be pleasantly overwhelming.  I would encourage you to focus on a different blessing during each of these days in November.  Although the month is half over, you can easily think of some things that bless you.  Then as Thanksgiving Day approaches, you will be full of those wonderful thoughts and blessings.

The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18:  “Always be joyful. Never stop praying.  Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”

While we were in Gatlinburg, we visited something called the Gatlinburg Arts and Crafts Community.  It is a group of crafters on an 8 mile loop where you can tour lots of shops, galleries, cafes and more.  One of my favorite places on that loop is called Alewine Pottery.  It is a place where you can watch them make it from the potter’s wheel to the shelf.  You can also buy pottery already completed.

The image of pottery in the Bible has really touched me and especially after watching them make it.  In Isaiah 64:8 it says, “Yet, O Lord, you are our Father.  We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.”

A potter literally throws the clay onto the wheel to begin to mold it into a masterpiece.  Just like that, God wants to mold and shape us.  The question is:  Are we honoring God by allowing Him to mold us?  Being moldable means to be flexible and be allowed to be shaped by something or someone.  Are we so rigid in our ways that we don’t allow God to throw us into a situation to be molded by the Potter’s Hands? 

In the next few days, I am going to post some more on this subject.  Pray that God would allow yourself to be the clay in the potter’s hand so that you can honor Him by being molded into the person He would have you to be. 

We saw a bear — actually two! We saw them both in Cades Cove which is a 11 mile one way loop in the mountain valley.  It is a great place to see wildlife as well as historical buildings from settlers long ago.  This bear was just walking out in the field and climbed a tree.  We saw people looking and I jumped out of the car with the camera while Mike waited to pull off.  Then the bear walked into the woods and many people hiked into the woods to get video and pictures.  We got both!  I even had Hannah come up to see it better even though Grandma wanted to stay a little further back.  Unfortunately this awesome experience had a little bit of a downer as I got stung on the back of the leg by a bee and a few minutes later, Hannah got stung on the tip of the nose.  She started crying and I immediately ushered her out of the woods to grandma’s side so that we wouldn’t startle the bear who was no more than 15 feet away.  It just kept eating and walking around on the ground.  It was so beautiful.  Later on the drive, we saw another bear and this one was a little one.  We also saw turkeys and deer.  I have some great pictures and a little video that I took with my camera.  I will have to upload the video from our camcorder later.  Check out the photos page!

We took the tram up to Ober Gatlinburg which is only a mile from our chalet but part of the experience is taking the tram.  Everyone loved riding on the tram and there was so much to do when we got up there.  We visited a black bear habitat and saw about 6 bears in an artificial habitat.  We also saw a little wildlife exhibit where we saw skunks up close and personal.  They were a little cute.  Then we went on some rides like bumper cars and a pirate ship that reminded me of Six Flags Buccaneer.  Hannah loved that ride and we rode it over and over.  We also went on a water slide where you weren’t supposed to get wet but of course we did.  Then we went on the chair lift that took us to the peak.  That is so beautiful and so very high!  Hannah loved it!  She said the chair lift was her favorite thing.  Pictures should be posted on the photo page.

No time to post about our day on Friday but I will post two tonight so that I can catch up. We had another great day at Ober Gatlinburg. The weather is perfect! It is around 84, sunny and clear. Today is Saturday and that means shopping! We will tour the arts and crafts community which is a long loop of stores. We got some great pictures yesterday and I will be posting those tonight.

Today was a great day!  We went on the Roaring Fork Motor Trail which is one of my favorites.  It is approximately a 5 mile driving one-way trail with lots of places to pull off and take pictures.  There are also old log cabins belonging to early settlers that you can go into.  Along the way there are a couple pull-offs to get out and hike a trail to a waterfall.  Mike and I did that 13 years ago and that is where we saw a bear.  I got some great pictures, some of which I posted on the photo page.

After coming back up to the cabin for lunch, we headed back down to a place called “Wonderworks.”  You can see more about it at www.wonderworkstn.com  It was a really fun place!  It looks like an upside down house and it is like a giant science museum only with lots more interactive stations and rides.  We got on an earthquake simulator and a hurricane simulator standing in 60 mph winds.  Hannah climbed halfway up a tall rock wall.  I was impressed!  She has some strong arms and legs!  We also saw a dinner show at the “Hoot N Holler” — don’t laugh, we are in Tennessee!  It was really funny and we had some great food.  After the show we went to finish looking at the exhibits that we didn’t do.  One thing was a computer that asked you lots of questions relating any where from health to education to family history to how stressed and happy you are.  It then calculated your virtual age based on the answers that you gave.  My virtual age is 17 and it says I will live to age 95 so I must be pretty relaxed.  At the end, 7 of us played laser tag.  It was just our group in the game and it was so fun!  I never played before and didn’t do so well but I also had two 5 year olds waiting to get me and chase me.  Mike won because he hid out and tagged people.  He was too good!  It was a great night and after a little relaxing time in the hot tub, we are calling it a night.  OH!  By the way, we saw a bear!  Check out the photos page!

Today we went to Dollywood — home of the amusement park by Dolly Parton.  It was a fun day and the kids got to ride alot of rides.  I thought that it would be extremely busy based on the number of people entering the park at the same time we did but the lines weren’t more than a 15 minute wait.  The park closed at 7 pm so we came back up the mountain and enjoyed a nice relaxing evening in our chalet.  I added a couple more pictures to the Gatlinburg photos.  Tomorrow we may go on a chair lift to the peak.  I am still not to sure if I will take Hannah or not.  At least we might see a bear tomorrow, even if it is in a caged habitat.  Hopefully we will still see one in the wild.

Check out our photos from Gatlinburg. Some may be added each day to the first section labeled “Gatlinburg.” The photo link is at the top of the page.