A New Beginning ~ 2024 Is Here!

As the sun was setting over Still Waters Pond last night, we said our fond farewells to 2023, and prayed for a happy and healthy new beginning for 2024.

We counted all the blessings that God had rained down upon us in 2023, and gave Him thanks for His love and mercy and grace...

There were many blessings, as well as some trials and tribulations and disappointments...

But one by one, God saw us through them and restored relationships that were damaged, healed bodies that were broken or hurting, and filled our homes and hearts with joy and laughter and peace...

He gave us encouragement and hope that, just as He was with us all through 2023 (and all the years before that), He would still be with us in the New Year (and all the years that follow!)...

For me personally, it was a journey of learning to listen (my "One Word" for 2023) for His voice in all the sounds and noises around me...and even in the silence. Perhaps particularly in the silence, for that is when I could hear Him even more clearly, whispering words of love and forgiveness and affirmation of "this is the way, walk in it..."

Isaiah 30:21

"Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,

“This is the way, walk in it,”

Whenever you turn to the right hand

Or whenever you turn to the left." 

And so, this morning, the first morning of 2024, I have promised that I would reveal my new "One Word" for this year.  It's been an interesting journey over the past couple of weeks or so.  I thought God was steering me in a certain direction toward one word or another that kept popping up in front of me, and so I was feeling pretty good that I had it figured out already.  And then I looked back at my list of previous years of "One Words"  Link to One Word choices for previous years,  and realized that the two words I was kind of focusing on had already been used in earlier years in a little different variation of those words!  What?  How could I have forgotten words I had already focused upon for a whole year? Duh!  Apparently God wanted me to go back and have a "review" lesson, particularly in one of those words.  I must not have gotten the full message. So over the past week or so I've been praying about this and kind of putting the words to the test...how often did either of these words (or any other word??) come up in my reading or somehow placed before me...well, all of a sudden it seemed like one word in particular was popping up everywhere...in other people's blogs, on Facebook, in devotional reading, on billboards...I mean it was like God was saying: "Listen to Me, Miss Pamela! This is the word I want you to hear loud and clear and learn more of Me in the process this year!"   

So while I've been sitting here writing and making my final commitment to this word, before I reveal it to you and the world, I stepped outside on the front porch to see what the first sunrise of 2024 looked like.  God had some sweet surprises ready for me...

First of all, it was a beautiful sunrise...better than I'd expected:

And then! Coming up over the skies from around behind me where Still Waters Pond is...look who came flying over! Yes, this is our own Sand Hill Crane Family, Mom and Dad and Pat and Val...making an appearance at just the most perfect moment for me to see them and take their picture! How cool is that?

They flew right over me as if to say, "Good Morning and Happy New Year! It's going to be a great year!"

There they go, off to wherever Sand Hill Cranes spend their day, eating, walking, doing their thing, and then the usually come back here for the night to roost on the Pond.

What a blessing!! What a gift!!

So what has that to do with my new One Word?  Well, I had just committed myself to the new One Word for 2024:  Strength.  And I looked up and saw those beautiful big, very strong birds flying over me, much like how the eagles soar in the sky...and it confirmed the message God had been giving me over the past few days:

And then this....You've seen the little pillow on the right before that was made for me this past year by my now no longer granddaughter-in-law to be Dawn since she and our grandson have broken their engagement...but I still pray for her and ask God to guide her and show her His divine love...but this pillow, "The Joy of the Lord is your strength", Nehemiah 8:10, is what has been speaking to me for weeks about what my word should be. At first I thought it was going to be "JOY", but I used Joyful a couple of years ago...and so then I realized the word must be "Strength", and then discovered I had used the word "Strengthen" 10 years ago...But then, I was in the Dollar General store a couple of days ago and saw this other sign on the left, Philippians 4:13..."I can do all this through HIM WHO gives me strength."   And I snatched up this little sign and bought it right then and said, "That's it! That's the Word! Strength!!"

And then I started seeing it everywhere:

Internet 

Internet

And then a dear friend at church gave me this new devotional book for Christmas:

And on the inside flap for January was this verse:

I know it says "strengthen", which is the word I already used in 2014, but still it means the same thing, doesn't it?  God is promising to give me strength and help and He will uphold me with His righteous right hand!  What better promise could there be for 2024?

And here is the verse for the devotional for today:

Okay, Lord, I am ready!  Yes, I see it! You've already begun to make that pathway through the wilderness of my mind, and Your Word and Your Strength are flowing like rivers in the dry wasteland of my heart.

It's time for a new start...a new beginning...a new year,

and renewed strength.

God knows I need it, both physically and spiritually.

So here we go!!

Happy New Year!!

Postscript:  Just a quick note about today's plans:  Our family get together that was moved from Saturday to today has been changed once again. My dear sister has come down with a sore throat bug and isn't up to traveling here and needs to stay home and rest...and so we will reschedule when we can figure out everyone's schedules to get together again. That's fine with me. I am sorry for my sister not feeling well, but to be honest, I'm pretty tired myself...and I definitely need God to renew my 'strength' from all the recent activities of the holidays. So today we will have a quiet New Year's celebration over at our son and DIL's house...she was already planning to cook a ham and I will go ahead and make a smaller batch of "hoppin' John",  and we'll put stuff together to make a nice dinner. Our son Scott came down yesterday and would have spent the night here if we were having the family get together, but decided to go back to his place and crash since he's been working a lot of long hours lately and needs to catch up on his rest too.  So all's well that ends well...and I pray my sister will feel better soon and that no one else in her family gets it!   Hope you all have a blessed and wonderful New Year's Day, wherever you are and whatever you do! Be safe!!

Three Gifts Today: "Hard Eucharisteo"...updated

Ephesians 5:20 says: "Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ..."

In reading the book  One Thousand Gifts  by Ann Voskamp, I have learned about the word "Eucharisteo".  To put it simply, it means "Grace, Thanksgiving, Joy, ".(page 33)  Primarily it is used to describe how Jesus "gave thanks"...in so many places in Scripture...check it out.  Think about everytime you see a reference to giving thanks in the New Testament, especially as it refers to Christ.  I can't go into the whole study here...you need to read the book!  Giving Thanks in all things...changes one's perspective on life itself. Not just in the good things, but in the difficult things as well.  Today's challenge is to list the hard "Eucharisteo" times of our lives.  The times that are painfully hard to give thanks.  The times that we'd rather escape from our troubles and trials and weep and beat our chests and cry out to God, "WHY?"  "Why me?"  "Why him?" "Why her?" "Why, Why, Why???" 

We've all had those times in our lives.  If you haven't yet, I am sorry to inform you, you will.  No one gets through this life without experiencing sorrow, loss, disappointment, fear, anguish, pain.  So how do we give thanks in ALL Things?  How do we get through the "hard Eucharisteo" moments of our lives?

There is no pat answer.  No easy formula.  No magic potion that takes away the agony and replaces it with ecstasy. 

"The Lord Jesus, on the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, 'Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.'
In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood.  This do, as often as you drink it,in remembrance of Me.'"  I Corinthians 11:23-25

Jesus "gave thanks" before He broke the bread and drank the cup with His disciples. He knew He was going to the cross to die for the sins of the world (you and me) in just a very short time.  But He still "gave thanks".  This was an example of a very "hard Eucharisteo". 

My three examples of "hard Eucharisteo": 

1.   My son Matthew diagnosed with cancer at the age of 37.
(Why Lord?  He's married, has a beautiful family, and a full life.)
UPDATE: This precious son fought a hard fight for four years, and finally entered heaven's gates 
on May 25, 2014, at the age of 41, leaving behind a wonderful wife and son, and his parents and brothers and many other loved ones who miss him dearly.

2.  My son Matthew diagnosed with a brain tumor at age 18.
(Why Lord?  He's about to graduate high school, and is planning to go
to Bible College to prepare for the ministry.)



3.  My Son Matthew, being hit by a car at age 18 months

while my husband was preparing for the ministry at Graduate School

(Why, Lord? We gave up all to follow You!)

Yes, giving thanks in ALL things is never easy.  There are many unanswerable questions.

But I can honestly tell you this: Even in all the hard times...the times of uncertainty and doubt...and there have been many, many more...I just picked one child tonight as an example...but I have three sons, each with their own stories that have caused me to have serious moments of "hard Eucharisteo"...times when I found it almost impossible to "give thanks."

But God, in His Mercy and Grace...has carried us through. He has worked His miracles in each of these stories briefly summarized above.  We did "give thanks", and He provided streams in the desert and roads in the wilderness... (Isaiah 43:19)

My friend, if you are experiencing a time of "hard Eucharisteo" in your life today, I can only say to you what I know from my own experience.  Give thanks in all things...trust God.  He will not leave you comfortless.  He may even choose to work a miracle on your behalf.  The miracle sometimes isn't what we expected or hoped for, (but sometimes it is!)  but it is what God wants to do inside of you in the process.  Trust Him. He will not let go of you.

Give Thanks.

"Eucharisteo."