First Friday of 2025!

And we begin this first Friday of 2025 with this beautiful picture from the John Sloane Country Seasons 2025 calendar for January:

"A New Day Dawning"

Oh, I love that picture! That little girl out in the snowy sunshine encapsulates my joy as I see God's beauty and handiwork each new day. (I'm just glad I don't have to go out in the snow to see it! LOL)

Instead I step out on my front porch in the warm sunshine, even though today it is 36 degrees!!!

This was actually yesterday morning. The sun isn't quite up yet this morning as I write this! and it's still too cold to think about going out there!

And this was on my little tea pot devotional calendar for yesterday morning...I got busy yesterday and never got around to writing, so I'm a bit behind!

Rejoice!  Even my cup of tea tells me to have JOY:

Gingerbread Joy tea...so of course Mr. Gingerbread Man had to come along...no that isn't a real cookie...it's a tree ornament, but that's the best I could do for Mr. Gingerbread Man today! LOL. He's rejoicing because I can't catch him and eat him! LOL. 

Remember this little story: 

"Run, run, run as fast as you can, You'll never catch me, I'm the gingerbread man. I ran from the baker and his wife too. You'll never catch me, not any of you."

The Gingerbread Man

In keeping with my new "One Word"  "WISDOM", for 2025, this popped up on Facebook yesterday from our local Christian radio station, 91.3 HOPEfm:

And here it is, the 3rd day of the New Year already...

Psalm 90 starts out this way:

"1 Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.

2 Before the mountains were brought forth,

Or ever You had formed the earth and the world,

Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God."

When I stop and think about this world, and all that is in it...and that before any of this that we know was ever even formed, God was already there...He created this world for us to dwell in, to grow and live and love and also to learn to love and worship Him, our Creator and Lord. As we grow and live and love, we should also be growing in our faith and wisdom. Our experiences in life, whether bad or good, help to shape and mold us into the people God intends for us to be.

The latter part of Psalm 90 concludes the thoughts of the Psalmist (in this case the Bible says it is a "Prayer of Moses, a Man of God") this way:

13 

"13 Return, O Lord!

How long?

And have compassion on Your servants.

14 Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy,

That we may rejoice and be glad all our days!

15 Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us,

The years in which we have seen evil.

16 Let Your work appear to Your servants,

And Your glory to their children.

17 And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,

And establish the work of our hands for us;

Yes, establish the work of our hands."

The New Year has not started out very well in our nation...the horrific crime that took place in New Orleans, and then also in other places, Las Vegas, New York, and around the world...our world is in chaos and groaning for Christ's return.  

Even Moses cried out for the Lord to return and have compassion on His servants, that "we may rejoice and be glad all our days!" He asked the Lord to "let Your work appear to Your servants, and Your glory to their children..."   Yes, we want to see God working in our midst and for God's glory to be revealed to our children and our grandchildren and beyond...we want them to know Christ and to see His glory in the world today. We want them to have hope and to know that God is with them no matter what is happening in the world. That is the message of Christmas...Jesus is "Emmanuel", which means, God With Us.  God became flesh and came to earth so that we could know Him and also know His love and salvation, and that gives us great hope in a world of darkness.  

John 1:14 NKJV

"14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

I like that last verse of Psalm 90 especially:  17 "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us; Yes, establish the work of our hands."

My prayer today is that God's beauty would rest upon me, and that whatever I am learning from Him would be established and applied to those around me...my friends, family, neighbors and those who are friends here in Blogland and beyond.  May these words shared from the heart of God rest upon each of us, and may the "beauty of the Lord our God be upon us" as we progress progress through this brand new year...a clean slate, and open book waiting to be filled with new experiences, new joys, and a heart filled with wisdom.  Amen.

Our new Thomas Kinkade calendar for 2025 starts us out with this beautiful snowy "Lamplight Manor" picture...

And that verse above is certainly true, God's Holy Spirit will teach us all things...and I welcome His presence and work in my heart and life in this new year...helping me to grow some good fruit:

That's all the calendars I have to show you for now. We are going to meet up with family today to have a belated Christmas, however my sister and her daughter are both sick with bad colds, so they won't be able to come after all.  We will be meeting with my hubby's brother and his family, and they are picking up gifts from my sister to bring to us, so I "expect" there will be another new Teapot calendar coming in that batch of gifts, as that is my sister's annual gift to me...unless something has changed...I will find out later today...maybe I shouldn't count my chickens before they are hatched! LOL. I am sorry they won't be able to join us, but I hope maybe sometime in the near future we will get together.  Colds and flu are running rampant this year, and I sure don't want to catch that...I'm like the "Gingerbread Man"...old cold and flu you can't catch me! (I pray!!!)

Okay, I have to go, or we will never make it on time to go pick up our kids and take them with us to the restaurant where we are meeting the rest of the family for lunch. More to come later...