Starting off the New Year with Geese, Snowmen, and No Worries!

 

Good Morning! Here it is, the first Monday morning of the New Year of 2021! The first Monday after the holidays, and I expect some people have to go back to work, or kids may have to go back to school. Thankfully I am no longer in that category of having to go to work or get kids off to school. I "did my time" in that regiment of life, and thankfully I am now enjoying retirement and no real scheduled responsibilities.  Although, like many others I have heard it said, I don't know how I ever had time to work now that I am retired...there is always something that has to be done! Doctor appointments, grocery shopping, housework, post-holiday clean up.  

But before we jump into all that work, let's just relax and have a cup of hot tea or a cup of cocoa on this chilly January morning, and start the week off right!

Today my only "appointment" is our Ladies' Bible Study this afternoon.  I look forward to meeting with this special group of women each week.  We have been studying the book of Joshua..."Winning the Worry Battle", a Bible Study by Barb Roose. 

It looks like our little mother at Pamela's Victorian Cottage is working on "winning the worry battle" with having so many little girls to look after.

Just in case you didn't notice, there is another new "little angel" added to the family, thanks to their kind Auntie from the city (a.k.a. my sister, who loves to give me these little dolls for Christmas each year). I expect this sweet little "Twinkling Star Angel" will add to the fun and excitement around Pamela's Victorian Cottage in the days and months to come.

We are working our way slowly through this Bible study book, because as is the case with most women's gatherings, we have lots of things to discuss and each week brings out more and more areas of need in the lives of our ladies...and we find ourselves spending more time encouraging one another in our walk of faith and life than in just plain old study. But God's Word is the foundation and backdrop for all of our conversation, and that is exactly how God intended it to be.   Here is one quote from the sidebar of our workbook from last week's lesson:

"If we remember God's generosity in those moments when we experience uncertainty,

then we can wait in faith for God to act."

And another one when we were studying in Joshua 7 about "fighting in fear", and it appears that even Joshua "melted in fear", or as we would call it, he had a "meltdown". But we saw that Joshua turned around his "meltdown" by turning toward God in his distress.  He expressed his truest emotions and brought his questions and concerns to God.  Our takeaway from that lesson was: 

"When stress and fear are mounting, I can avoid a meltdown by pouring out my heart to God."

This little lesson actually helped me during the stress of the holidays by remembering that God is always there for me, and He is my strength and my refuge, even when my distresses are caused by my own lack of appropriate planning and preparation. I also have made a commitment that I will not allow myself to get into that same kind of panic situation again next Christmas. May God help me to remember this and start planning way in advance.  

Speaking of having a "meltdown", if I don't move these snowmen away from in front of this fire, they may have a "meltdown" for sure! LOL!

I just realized that snowmen were playing an important part of our decorations this Christmas, and of course snowmen are fun to keep around even in January if it is cold enough!

Even in Florida you could work through your "worries" and anxieties a bit by having a snowball fight with the family:

Our family did do this, and it was fun until one landed in my hubby's cup of ice water and splashed it all over him...he actually thought we were outside in the snow it was so cold! LOL.

Yes, there were snowmen everywhere! Up at the cabin,

down on the pond,

and even up at the cabin in the hills above the train village...

Here's a little treat for you! I received a late "Christmas gift" (from myself) in the mail:

It takes a lot more breath than expected to make that thing work. LOL. Maybe that will be a good breathing exercise for me to work on each day.

I have seen this Bible verse floating around through our blogs and social media quite a bit lately. It is the theme verse for our Bible Study in Joshua:

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9 ESV

I believe (my One Word for 2021) this is also an excellent verse to carry with us into the New Year.  And the verse that precedes that one is also one that will help guide us so that we will learn more and more about trusting in the Lord and not giving in to worries and fears:

"Study this Book of Instruction continually.  Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it.  Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do." Joshua 1:8

Yes, study God's Word and BELIEVE what you read as you meditate on it day and night...and as you BELIEVE, you will want to OBEY...and only then will we prosper and succeed in all that we do and attempt to do!  If I were to make a New Year's resolution, it would be to do just that...

Well, since I can't really go outside and build a snowman or skate on the pond, I think I will take a lesson from these Canadian Geese who earlier landed on Still Waters Pond, and just glide gently into the new year with no worries or fears.  How about you?

It's a New Year...and I'm Going to....

Rest!

Yes, my friends, it is a New Year...and I am going to REST!  That is my "One Word" for 2017!  I "labored" over what my new "One Word" should be...and my mind grew weary with trying so hard.  Then this morning I opened my "Jesus Today" devotional book by Sarah Young, and this is what I read:

"Find Rest in Me alone, dear one; 

Your hope comes from Me. 

You have a restless mind. 

It skips and scampers about continually, rarely taking time to be still.

Listen, and you will hear Me saying,

"Come to Me."

I am the only resting place for your mind that will truly satisfy and strengthen you.

Take time-make time-to direct your thoughts to Me.

Whisper My Name and wait in My sacred Presence.  

You are on holy ground.

This provides refreshment not only for your mind

but also for your soul."

(Jesus Today, #108)

And this message confirmed to me what I was already thinking...it is time for me to 

find REST in Christ alone.  

"Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;

my hope comes from Him."

Psalm 62:5

In keeping with this idea, my mind was already spinning (not resting!) with ways in which I could accomplish this idea of resting.  Doesn't sound like I've quite learned anything about it yet, does it?  But hear me out, please.  

You see, my son sort of started it when he gave me this wonderful surprise gift for Christmas:

Here we are on Christmas morning, as my son Scott explained to me that he found this bench, in pieces in a dumpster, and he knew he had to bring it home and rebuild it for his mom!  And so, after he'd get home at night after work he was secretly laboring over this project outside when I was totally unaware. I was warned to stay away from the lean-to in the yard, but not told why.  And so on Christmas morning he revealed this beautiful park bench to me, which is still not quite completed, but good enough to show me...and I immediately started thinking about where I was going to put it so I could enjoy it the most!

I've had a dream of establishing a little "secret garden" in our back yard...even wrote about it once before I think...(Click HERE for that story...three years ago!)  but I never really got that project off the ground.  I was still working and going through other difficult things in our lives, and the secret garden kind of just faded into the weeds...(ferns mostly)

and even the spiders found a home there:

But now that I am retired...I feel God nudging me to set aside this special place where I can go and find REST for my soul...my own little "Secret Garden" where I can meet the Lord in the morning or the shade of the afternoon...whenever I feel the need or prompting of the Holy Spirit to steal away into a quiet place and meditate on Him...

I found this quote on Pinterest today...and it expresses my sentiments exactly....

and so one of the first things I have set in place is a gate that opens wide into my secret garden:

It is actually an old iron headboard that I found in the old shed on our property...so I painted it and we set it in place...permanently in the OPEN position, so that nothing will hinder me from entering this secret garden...and you are welcome too!  The beautiful glass flower ornament is a Christmas gift from my sweet hubby! He didn't know this would become the first thing to decorate this special place...he just saw it at the flea market and knew I would like it!

He was so right!!!! He knows me better than I realized!

And so now that I have embarked on this new project...it is supposed to help me find "REST"...but first I have work to do so that I CAN rest!  (Something wrong with this picture? Perhaps...but I can't rest until I know everything is in place...) so stay tuned for future developments....(Now you may understand why God wants me to learn how to REST).   

By the way, last year my "One Word" was GRACE...(Click HERE for that story)...and I must admit that God has shown me His loving grace in so many ways this past year...as well as I have had to  learn how to be filled with grace as I have helped to care for my mother in law as she progresses in her physical and mental needs each week...that is still a work in progress for me.  

So perhaps the time of REST will help me to fully understand just how great is God's Grace.  

Psalm 46:10 says:

"Be still, and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth."

This won't be the first time the Lord has tried to teach me to be still and meditate on Him.  I pray that this year I will do exactly what He is teaching me to do...and just

Rest!

Post Update: Linking up with Deb and friends over at Breathing in Grace to share our One Word for 2017!  Check it out and see how the Lord is leading others in this adventure to draw closer to God in 2017...

Thinking About New Beginnings

As we draw the year 2014 to a close and look forward to the start of a new year, many of us are thinking about "new beginnings".  Some may call them "resolutions"...being resolved to do something new, different, better with our lives in the new year.  That may involve giving up something to gain something better. Or it may mean that we have to take a step of faith and leap into the unknown to achieve the goals and plans we are dreaming of.

Whatever it takes, we know that in order to make something different or new happen, we have to take action of one kind or another.  Step out of our "comfort zone"..."get out of the boat"..."turn over a new leaf"...all types of catch phrases that denote deliberate activity to get from here to there.

I know that I want to see some new things happen in this upcoming year...positive things that will enhance my life in a meaningful way.  I have some "secret" desires (don't get excited)...just some things that I hope I will be able to accomplish...but it is going to take some major effort on my part and a lot of prayer to see it through.  I say "secret" because I don't want to speak it out loud just yet...I need to get my "ducks in a row" before I can take action and "go public".

It is also time to select my "One Word" for 2015....that One Word that will become the byword for my life for the year.  Last year the word was "strengthen."  I have decided that I want to be more careful what I ask for this year. That one was painful.  Not so much in the physical sense, which is where I probably need it still...but the strengthening came in doses of excruciating emotional and mental anguish...extreme feats of growth and development that I did not bargain for.  God never let me break down completely under the strain...but He sure had His hands full of a blubbering,weak, sad and weary child all too often. No, I don't want another word like that again. So I am giving it a lot of thought and prayer before I select a new "One Word".  (But...didn't God know what He was doing in directing my steps to that One Word?...Yeah, He did...)

I know I have quoted this verse before, even recently , but I keep coming back to it:

"Do not remember the former things,

Nor consider the things of old.

Behold, I will do a new thing,

Now it shall spring forth;

Shall you not know it?

I will even make a road in the wilderness

and rivers in the desert..."

Isaiah 43:18-19

Yes, I am looking forward to "a new thing"...that "road in the wilderness and river in the desert", as long as God goes with me. Of course He will.  He has never left me alone...not even during my time of "strengthening".  He was always there...and He always will be.

This could be the start of something wonderful! Won't you come along with me? Who knows what adventures lie in the road ahead?  Wherever it leads, God is already there waiting at the end of the road. So, we can't go wrong.  Let's go!!!

One Word for 2012

Can you find "HOPE" in the midst of this confusion?

HOPE

A challenge has been given by several of my blogging friends to choose one word for 2012 as a type of "New Year's Resolution"...(see http://www.recoveringchurchlady.com/ for example), and so that got me to thinking about what word I would (or should) select for 2012.  My first thought was "faith", in keeping with my previous post about "Giant Leaps of Faith" into the new year(see "Giant Leaps of Faith" )...but another word kept coming to the forefront in my mind...and that was "HOPE".  Obviously, Faith and Hope go together...along with their favored sister, "Love"...(see I Corinthians 13:13), but HOPE was the word that stood out to me all through the Christmas season...and I am still clinging to it. 

Look at the picture above, which is a rather blurred view of a magnification of our Christmas tree.  I would have taken a better photo for this occasion, but we took the tree down yesterday and put it away with all of its trimmings, including the "HOPE" ornament that was so pronounced to me all through the days of Christmas.  Can you find the word "HOPE" in the midst of the blurred confusion of bright lights, tangled tree branches, and the shiny ornaments on the tree?  That's kind of the way life is, you know...a blurred confusion of bright lights, tangled dreams, and shining distractions that tend to draw us away from our "HOPE"... but in Christ we have the  "HOPE" that will not disappoint..."Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us..."  (Read Romans 5:1-6)


"HOPE" is one of the most frequently used words in the Bible...if you have a concordance just look up the word "HOPE"  and see how many references there are...and every scripture gives "HOPE"...   Hope in God when I am afraid, Hope in His promises when I have lost my way, Hope in His mercy when I don't think I can stand any more disappointments or sorrows, Hope in His love and His tender compassion,  Hope in the joy that He expresses on my behalf, Hope in the future that He has planned for my life... "HOPE" in the eternal life that He has promised through faith in His Son Jesus Christ...

"Blessed is the man (woman) who trusts in the LORD, and whose "HOPE"  is in the Lord.  For he (she) shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit."  (Psalm 17:7-8)

"And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My HOPE is in YOU."  Psalm 39:7

So, I ask you, what is YOUR one word for 2012?  Do you need "HOPE"?  I will be very happy to share this word with you... "HOPE" IN GOD...HE WILL NOT DISAPPOINT YOU!