Carving a Masterpiece....

Okay... so maybe not... but we sure had fun trying! :) We are still on vacation, so we decided to go to a different church for service. We went to the church the kids and I go to for MOPS since it's close and we knew we would know some of the people there. We've been before and really enjoy the service. The bad (and good, I guess) thing was that the service was at 8:30!!! It was very hard to get up this morning... we had to wake the kids up even. The nice part was that we were home by 10:15, leaving us plenty of time to carve our pumpkins. Last year, it was nice enough to do it outside at the picnic table... today we had to be inside... just a little bit too chilly out. We tackled Isaac and Grace's first. I drew various shapes of eyes, noses, and mouths so they could choose what they wanted for their pumpkin. Cleaning out the "stuff" inside was pretty funny. Grace dove right in, even though she wasn't able to do it very well, she didn't mind it at all.

On the other hand, Isaac was bothered by the smell! We kept telling him that it wasn't a bad smell... that pumpkins smell good, but we just couldn't convince him! He didn't want any part of the "gutting". But both of them had fun helping us cut the faces into their pumpkins.

And they were both very proud of their finished products!!!

Francis tackled his next. We found a Thomas stencil online so he decided that's what he would do. It was a lot harder then he thought... but it turned out really well.

And since we had a Thomas pumpkin I thought it was only fair that my pumpkin be turned into a Princess one. My pumpkin was so big I thought it could really use two on it. Can you guess who they are??? :)

It was a big mess... a lot of work... but so much fun! :)

(Here is a little "story" we used as we carved our pumpkins today:

First, God picks you from the pumpkin patch and brings you in from the field. The Bible says He selects us out of the world. We are in the world, but no longer of the world.

He then washes all the "dirt" off the outside that we received from being around all the other pumpkins. All the outside influences of our former life must be cleaned up. Old things are passed away and all things are become new.

Then, He carefully removes all the "yucky stuff" called "sin" out from the inside. Look at this! Yuk! Sin will not have such internal power. He then changes us from the inside out by the Power of His Word.

That's why it is important to go the church and learn about God's Word. He carefully removes all those seeds of doubt, hate, greed, and fear. He replaces them with the seeds of faith, hope and love. After Jesus is invited inside, you begin to experience the changing power of God's love in your life.

Then He carves a new smiling face. Our countenance is changed by the power of His presence in our life. We then become so grateful. It can even show on our face!

Now we are going to light this candle inside. Look! This pumpkin now reflects the light from inside out. So too, when Jesus, who is called the Son of Light, lives inside of us, He shines through our life for all to see. We can let His light reflect through us to reveal His presence. "Let your light so shine before men that they may be able to see your good works and glorify your Father, who is in heaven."

So you see, we Christians are really like this pumpkin! We will never be the same with Jesus inside of us. We can say like this jack-o-lantern, "Thy presence, my light!")