Merry Christmas from the Daugherty Family

Hello! We hope that these Advent days are treating you well. Just last week, I commented to a friend that I had chosen not to send out a Christmas card and letter this year because nothing new was happening in our household (not to mention that the life of a PhD student and a college administrator can get pretty busy). And then, a big surprise came our way, so I thought that I would post a last minute holiday greeting.

So, I'll begin with our most exciting news: today, I accepted a job as the Director of the Center for Worship Arts at Trevecca. The center is brand new at Trevecca, and I will be in charge of creating both a major and minor as well as to provide continuing education and conference opportunities for worship pastors. The job will give me the opportunity to help to train and encourage the next generation of worship leaders. The job is a little overwhelming, but also very exciting. I will still keep my current job as the Director of Church Services, which will be about 60% of my job, and the other 40% will be dedicated to the Center for Worship Arts. I am loving my job at Trevecca, and look forward to the new challenges that lie ahead in the new year. I also started running this summer. I ran my first 5K in September, and dad and I ran another 5K on Thanksgiving Day. I'm still not sure that I want to be a runner, but I'm considering running the Country Music Half-Marathon in April.

Brad is keeping quite busy with his work at Vanderbilt. He has two semesters left of classes, and is very much looking forward to being done with his formal class work. He is enjoying his program, and knows that he is doing exactly what he was meant to do. This spring, he will be presenting a paper at the Wesleyan Theological Society meeting, and we're all looking forward to a trip to Anderson, IN in March. Brad will spend this coming summer doing some traveling with me (including a trip to Poland with a group of Trevecca students) and studying Greek to prepare for classes in the fall.

Ella continues to be the absolute joy of our life. She turned 3 in November, and certainly keeps us on our toes. She finally found a daycare home at the Vanderbilt Child and Family Center which is just a few blocks from Brad's school. She loves school and can't wait to go each day. She and several of her girlfriends call themselves the "Lava Girls." She is learning all of her letters and loves to sing and read books. Her favorite thing to do is play pretend in the kitchen and with dress up clothes. When she grows up she wants to "be a mommy or a daddy so that I can make breakfast and dinner and have a baby in my belly." She also has become quite the sports fan, loving the Red Sox and Colts, although she tells us that basketball is her favorite sport. She is very much looking forward to visiting our family in Illinois and Indiana this Christmas.

This year, we have been reminded again and again of the goodness of God. When we have least expected it, God has provided for our every need, and some even before we knew we had them. We are astonished at the paths that we continue to be led on, and look forward to what lies ahead in the year to come. We pray that the grace of God would be evident in your lives in the coming year.

The Things We Teach Our Children

I'm pretty sure that part of the point of parenting is to teach your children things about life, and how to navigate through it. But sometimes, even the good things that we teach us come back to get us.

For the past 5 months, Ella and I (sometimes Brad) have gone to East Nashville Cooperative Ministry on Sunday evenings to help with a meal for the homeless and working poor. Each week we help to set tables, serve food, and spend time eating and talking with our new friends. Ella loves Soulfeast, and know that on Sundays we go to church and Soulfeast. On Sunday night, a local youth group was helping out, and one of our very best friends invited us over for dinner. We made the decision to forgo Soulfeast this week, and come back next week. When Ella learned of this, she was not going for it. She said that she wanted to go to Soulfeast, they needed us. So, Brad went over to our friend's house alone while Ella and I went to Soulfeast to set things up and get the meal started. After we had done that she was "so excited" to go for dinner. I guess that she is our little humanitarian.

Then, this morning, I had given Ella her waffles and dried cranberries for breakfast, and came to the table with my own breakfast of toast with butter and a banana. Ella looked at my breakfast and said, "You have two pieces of toast?" I told her that I did and then she said, "God likes it when we share, Mommy," while greedily eyeing my piece of toast. I asked her if she would like a bite of my toast and she said, "Yes Mommy, God likes it when we share." And with a sly smile, she ate my toast!

She's obviously learning some of the things that we're trying to teach her, which is wonderful. Perhaps I should be thankful for the times when she reminds me of ways to act in our world.