Do you sometimes get a little nervous around ” Southern Living” homes -the ones that are so perfectly decorated at Christmas that they look and feel more like a museum than a home? Quiet, sedate Christmas carols play softly in the background and you start checking the time on your mobile phone-hoping to get through with the tour before you accidentally break something?
Think about it… on the first Christmas Day didn’t the heavenly angels sing … loudly…in wonderment and joy? This is the day the Creator of all the cosmos entered history and changed it forever! As Quinn Caldwell comments… ” This calls for tinsel, construction paper tree chains, gobs of glue and tons of glitter, blinking stars and colored lights with water bubbling in them.
Christmas is not a day for restraint. Caldwell reminds us ” When God decided to decorate for Christmas, God hung an enormous star in the heavens, not a string of demure white lights. No doubt the neighbors were appalled, but it sure did draw a crowd.”
So until tomorrow… Celebrate the God Who didn’t hold back anything! Be unrestrained! Put on some music ( preferably loudly) and decorate for a party while praising God’s name!
I was born a Tarheel but ended up a Sandlapper. My grandparents
were cotton farmers in Laurens, South Carolina and it was in my
grandmother’s house that my love of storytelling began beside an old
Franklin stove. When I graduated from Laurens High School, I attended
Erskine College (Due West of what?) and would later get my Masters
Degree in Education/Social Studies from Charleston Southern. I am
presently an adjunct professor/clinical supervisor at CSU and have also
taught at the College of Charleston.
For 28 years I taught Social Studies through storytelling. My philosophy
matched Rudyard Kipling’s quote: “If history were taught in the form of
stories, it would never be forgotten.” Today I still spread this message
through workshops and presentations throughout the state. The secret
of success in teaching social studies is always in the story.
I want to keep learning and being surprised by life…it is the greatest
teacher. Like Kermit said, “When you’re green you grow, when you’re
ripe you rot.”
Amen…Joy to the World…❤
Party down!!!!! 🙂