{"id":180,"date":"2012-12-01T17:44:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-01T17:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cherylrostek.com\/index.php\/2012\/12\/01\/advent-letter\/"},"modified":"2012-12-01T17:44:00","modified_gmt":"2012-12-01T17:44:00","slug":"advent-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherylrostek.com\/index.php\/2012\/12\/01\/advent-letter\/","title":{"rendered":"Advent Letter"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-indent: .5in;\"><span style=\"text-indent: 0.5in;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0.5in;\">This is my Advent Letter.<\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0.5in;\">&nbsp; <\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0.5in;\">Advent is a time of \u201cexpectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus\u201d (Wikipedia.com). In the past Advent has been of little importance to me; some years I have failed to even acknowledge it\u2019s occurrence and the most attention I have ever paid it is recognizing the advent candles if they have been specially lit during church service.<\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0.5in;\">&nbsp; <\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0.5in;\">Sure there have been times when I have tried to focus on the true meaning of Christmas as it approaches so as to not be bombarded by the barrage of commercialism and busyness and stress that our secular Christmas has birthed.<\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0.5in;\">&nbsp; <\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0.5in;\">However, usually I fail quite miserably in this effort. <\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0.5in;\">&nbsp;<\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0.5in;\">This year though the idea of Advent has been presented to me through a \u201cLife with God\u201d class I have been participating in at my church.<\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0.5in;\">&nbsp; <\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0.5in;\">The class\u2019s whole intent is to teach tools to help create spaces for God to speak and for us to listen.<\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0.5in;\">&nbsp; <\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0.5in;\">In this context Advent becomes so much more important to me as an opportunity for God to speak and for me to ask questions like \u2018How may receiving Christ in this season impact my life?\u2019 and \u2018What is God\u2019s invitation to me this season?\u2019 and \u2018How might I need Christ?\u2019 and \u2018How will I be different?\u2019.<\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0.5in;\">&nbsp; <\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0.5in;\">In my initial Advent reflection the many things I\u2019ve been learning over the last months came together into a coherent progression of teachings and \u201caha!\u201d moments of God speaking to me that I want to share.<\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0.5in;\">&nbsp; <\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0.5in;\">And so is born my Advent Letter.<\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0.5in;\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/div>\n<div>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<u>Joy to the World<o:p><\/o:p><\/u><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The angel proclaims to the shepherds in the field \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid.&nbsp; I\u2019m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David\u2019s town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master.\u201d Luke 2:10, Message.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Not too far into the year of 2012 a joyous event of my own occurred: the birth of my beautiful daughter.&nbsp; I cherish her and love her immeasurably.&nbsp; There are many moments that I soak in and treasure because they are so precious: her giggles, her smiles, her cuddles, the way her beautiful blue eyes look into my own, and how she\u2019s learning to move.&nbsp; But the past 8 months have not been full of exclusive joy.&nbsp; Oh no, loneliness has been a common theme surfacing regularly despite successful efforts to socialize.&nbsp; Frustration and incompetence have shown themselves as well.&nbsp; I never really expected it; but, it is readily apparent that even a precious child whom I deeply desired cannot create a sustained joy in me.&nbsp; There have indeed been numerous struggles and challenges in these past 8 months.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Beyond loneliness I have struggled with lacking validation.&nbsp; What a huge life change and what a huge shock to my \u2018center of worth\u2019 becoming a mom was.&nbsp; No longer did I feel so accomplished and self-sufficient and confident.&nbsp; Certainly, there have been many times where I felt like I was not <i>doing<\/i> much at all and in not doing what worth am I?&nbsp; Of course in my head I knew this was a lie.&nbsp; I knew that I held innate worth and furthermore, I was indeed keeping our daughter alive and thriving.&nbsp; However, there is that heart center, that emotional depot that can be hard to convince even when the mind has \u2018got it\u2019.&nbsp; So as a person who believes in the value of prayer and in the ability of God to hear me when I pray, I would pray about these challenging feelings.&nbsp; They continued to challenge me off and on.&nbsp; I would have periods of vacation and traveling and I would push aside these feelings and though I wasn\u2019t feeling more validated, I was feeling \u2018good\u2019 and \u2018happy\u2019 and \u2018busy\u2019 so it didn\u2019t bother me.&nbsp; This became a good way to cope.&nbsp; I could ask myself: \u201cAm I lonely?&nbsp; Am I feeling invalidated?\u201d&nbsp; And I could answer: \u201cOh don\u2019t worry Cheryl you will be going away again soon and then you won\u2019t have time to think about it.\u201d&nbsp; And inside I would think: \u201cThank goodness my husband has the ability to work on the go and we can get away so much!\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Then one day in October while my daughter was napping and I was again feeling lonely and invalidated I practiced some techniques I had learned in the class I was taking at church.&nbsp; Low and behold, God spoke. &nbsp;He said:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cRevel in this time Cheryl.&nbsp; Don\u2019t lament that you\u2019re not accomplishing this and that; revel in the opportunity of time that you\u2019ve been given.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>But isn\u2019t it just so hard at times to be fully alive in the present moment?&nbsp; To immerse oneself in the blessings that today has to offer instead of trying to escape through busyness or through emotionally projecting oneself into the future?&nbsp; Essentially what God was saying to me was enjoy this time.&nbsp; Savour the moments that you have been given to practice <i>being<\/i>, rather than doing.&nbsp; I fought against this notion.&nbsp; Of course I was trying to cherish moments with my daughter and of course I felt grateful to live in a country which expects you to take a full year off work to spend with your child.&nbsp; Of course this was all wonderful.&nbsp; But, I still struggled.&nbsp; I told myself that while I was a good mom and would continue to be a good mom, being a mom of a baby was not particularly my natural strength.&nbsp; I get such satisfaction from my work and enjoy it so much and am pretty good at it that it would be good when I return to work to restore some balance to my life.&nbsp; <\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>This <i>time<\/i> was a blessing, but also a struggle. I am an introvert and so I gain much renewal from solitude and time alone to think and read and reflect.&nbsp; Even so, this maternity leave had afforded me a different kind of time and a different quantity of this time than I was used to embracing.&nbsp; It just wasn\u2019t natural for me.&nbsp; I really didn\u2019t take well to this idea of learning more what it meant to <i>be<\/i>.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>You can see this clearly in the following life example. Nearly immediately after starting my year away from work outside the home I channeled my desire to achieve and perform into running.&nbsp; My body physically fought against my persistence to whip it back into shape.&nbsp; It was much slower of a process than I had anticipated and hoped for to get my cardiovascular fitness back to its pre-pregnancy condition.&nbsp; However, I pressed on and decided perhaps in all this it would be good to give myself a goal.&nbsp; I decided I would run the 30KM trail race around <st1:place><st1:placename>Cultus<\/st1:placename> <st1:placetype>Lake<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>which would take place 6 and \u00bd months after I had given birth to my daughter.&nbsp; \u201cThat\u2019s reasonable, right?\u201d I thought, \u201cThat will be an accomplishment I will be able to feel good about.\u201d&nbsp; Well, it ended up being a great event, but getting there was this love\/hate relationship with my training.&nbsp; While I enjoyed my weekend training runs with my running partner, I nearly loathed my mid-week runs.&nbsp; This was partially about regaining fitness and conditionally, and more about doing something BIG, since my daily life now felt so small.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>But God had something to tell about this too.&nbsp; As I was sitting in my \u201cLife with God\u201d class the week after completing my trail race He spoke again:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cKnow child, you are just as alive sitting here in these moments as you were completing your last running endeavor.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>And then the invitation:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cBe. Alive. <st1:place><st1:city>In.<\/st1:city> <st1:state>Me.<\/st1:state><\/st1:place>\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>And the affirmation:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cI love you child.\u201d &nbsp;<\/div>\n<div>&nbsp; <o:p><\/o:p><\/div>\n<div>Humph. There it was again.&nbsp; <i>Be<\/i>.&nbsp; Not do.&nbsp; Simply be.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I was beginning to slacken my resistance to this idea of practicing being.&nbsp; I still didn\u2019t really know how to <i>do<\/i> it and was trying to figure that out (yes I was a beginner student of this call to be, unable still to segregate \u2018be\u2019 from \u2018do\u2019).&nbsp; But I was familiar with the story of the sisters Mary and Martha in Luke 10, so I thought about it.&nbsp; Martha is the doer.&nbsp; She\u2019s the hostess with the mostest and is good at it.&nbsp; Her and her sister have Jesus in their home and she\u2019s bustling about making sure the floors are swept, the linens are clean, the meal is done just right and there is Mary just sitting there.&nbsp; Lazy Mary\u2019s just enjoying conversation with Jesus.&nbsp; Martha is right ticked.&nbsp; She wonders why Jesus doesn\u2019t say anything.&nbsp; Of course other men are often oblivious to when a woman could use some help because she overloaded with household duties; but this is <i>Jesus<\/i>, surely he knows how much work she\u2019s doing all by herself.&nbsp; Finally she can\u2019t bite her tongue anymore and says to Jesus, \u201cLord, doesn\u2019t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work?&nbsp; Tell her to come and help me.\u201d (vs 40, NLT) And Jesus replies, \u201cMy dear Martha, you are so upset over all these details! There is really only <i>one thing<\/i> worth being concerned about.&nbsp; Mary has discovered it \u2013 and I won\u2019t take it away from her.\u201d (vs. 42, NLT, emphasis mine)&nbsp; <\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I can\u2019t remember the first time I heard this story, but I do remember thinking that it just didn\u2019t quite make sense.&nbsp; Mary wasn\u2019t doing anything! Now here in the present I was beginning to see clearly how my current situation was lending itself well for me to develop my Mary-self and the benefit it could afford; but still I wanted to be Martha.&nbsp; And then God emphasized to me that it is not simply important to be present with Him, it is the <i>one thing<\/i> of vital importance above all. Mary has discovered this <i>one thing<\/i>, could I?&nbsp; God drove this point home when I read Psalm 27:4 \u201cThe <i>one thing<\/i> I ask of the LORD \u2013 the thing I seek most \u2013 is to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life.\u201d&nbsp; Here in this Psalm David is saying that the one most important thing that he longs for is presence with God.&nbsp; I was beginning to see that being in the presence of God is indeed the one thing essential to my spiritual health.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Despite this, again I began to find myself lonely and even dejected.&nbsp; I journalled one day, \u201cI find myself in spaces and places where I am longing to feel loved, where I am yearning to be special.\u201d Thankfully I wasn\u2019t truly depressed so I was able to determine that these feelings were not truth, I was indeed loved and special, but they were still there and penetrating me.&nbsp; So, to counter them I started a mission to be a really good wife. Since I was feeling kinda awful, I was feeling awful about my performance as a wife and decided that was the first place to start working to improve matters as it is my most important role.&nbsp; Looking at Proverbs 31 and the commonly touted accolade of what a godly wife should strive to be like, I felt so far from the mark.&nbsp; So I asked myself:&nbsp; \u201cwhat can I do to be a better wife?\u201d &nbsp;&nbsp;I didn\u2019t even realize that this word <i>do<\/i> was coming up again. So I compiled a resource list of a few things off the top of my head that I could refer to in order to work at being a better wife.&nbsp; These were all good things, including Proverbs 31 itself, and listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit.&nbsp;&nbsp; What I didn\u2019t realize was that <i>being<\/i> a good wife and godly wife wasn\u2019t about doing, it was about being: being present with God and then being present daily in the tasks of life.&nbsp; Of course life does require doing, however it is the being that precedes the doing that matters.&nbsp; So two days into my pursuit to be a better wife I ended up feeling lost.&nbsp; \u201cIt\u2019s been 10 years of marriage\u201d I thought, \u201cand I\u2019m still so awful at doing the things a super wife should\u201d.&nbsp; And in this frustration I started to feel hopeless.&nbsp; I cried out to God \u201cI feel like a lost little girl and I want to find You so I can be the woman you want me to be, so I can be a woman paralleling the Proberbs 31 woman.\u201d&nbsp; <\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>And God answered as I sat in our church service 2 days later: <\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cNow you\u2019ve finally got it my child.&nbsp; You feel like a lost little girl, because that\u2019s exactly who you are without Me.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The sermon was on Romans 3 hallmarked by verses 23-24 \u201cFor all have sinned; all fall short of God\u2019s glorious standard.&nbsp; Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty.&nbsp; He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins.\u201d The pastor reinforced the message of this scripture highlighting that no one is worthy, no one is good and it is only through knowing who we are without God that we can begin to see more fully who God really is.&nbsp; In feeling like a lost little girl, God was able to more fully show me that He is my Father who cherishes me so deeply as his precious child and that I desperately need Him.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The One thing.&nbsp; Being. &nbsp;Because I am so very lost otherwise.<\/div>\n<div>&nbsp; <\/div>\n<div>I began to see how there is this innate longing in women to be loved, to be special, to be cherished, to be beautiful to someone, to be someone\u2019s princess.&nbsp; I was no exception to this.&nbsp; I felt it strongly in those few days.&nbsp; And I realized that particularly as a woman I need to acknowledge that being a better wife will not enable my husband to completely, wholly fill the gap of that longing.&nbsp; Certainly I desire that my own husband and the significant men in other women\u2019s lives will be working to fill that desire; but, a human man\u2019s fallibility is guaranteed and not every woman has a significant man in her life.&nbsp; And so my subconscious ulterior motive to be a better wife in order to have a better husband became apparent. And further, I realized my need to guard against desiring another person to fully fill this inborn longing. I could do this by being present with my Father who <i>can<\/i> truly love me unconditionally and infallibly. &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>How grateful I am for the way God has used this time of maternity leave to speak to me.&nbsp; <\/div>\n<div>Or perhaps I should say how He has used it to allow me to listen to Him speak.&nbsp; These months have opened up spaces in my life which try as I might, I could not cover well with busyness and this has allowed rich teaching in my life.&nbsp; The blessing of my daughter has expounded twofold: her birth into our family and the life change that has ruffled \u2018the going through the motions of life\u2019 to create space to hear God.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;Now as we begin Advent I\u2019ve been challenged to continue practicing being.&nbsp; To listen, to take time to see the joy in Christmas and the joy that Christ in me can create.&nbsp; I\u2019m challenged to be changed by being present with God.&nbsp; Mark 1:7-8 tells me this is possible.&nbsp; John the Baptist says \u201c\u2026I\u2019m baptizing you here in the river turning your old life in for a kingdom life.&nbsp; His baptism \u2013 a baptism by the Holy Spirit- will change you from the inside out.\u201d (Message)<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>My daughter cannot give me true joy, nor can my husband, but Christ can.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>So this Advent I ask myself: \u201cJesus changed everything when he was born, will I now let him change me?\u201d <\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Will I allow myself to fully experience the Joy of being God\u2019s cherished child?<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>My Advent prayer is to be reminded that God loved me so much that He gave his son to be born into a cruel life, so He could show me how cherished I am.&nbsp; John 3:16-18 says:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"background-color: black;\">\u201cThis is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn\u2019t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person\u2019s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him. (Message)<\/span><span style=\"background-color: white;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I also pray that I will allow God to grow bigger and that I will grow smaller (John <st1:time hour=\"15\" minute=\"30\">3:30<\/st1:time>) so the light of Joy may radiate from me and so songs of Joy may spill from my lips.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>This Advent, it is my desire that you may contemplate how Christ\u2019s birth has changed the world and to experience the deep joy of Christmas that only Christ is able to bring.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Joy to the World the Lord is Come.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is my Advent Letter.&nbsp; Advent is a time of \u201cexpectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus\u201d (Wikipedia.com). In the past Advent has been of little importance to me; some [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Advent Letter - Cheryl Rostek<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cherylrostek.com\/index.php\/2012\/12\/01\/advent-letter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Advent Letter - Cheryl Rostek\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is my Advent Letter.&nbsp; Advent is a time of \u201cexpectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus\u201d (Wikipedia.com). 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