My Prayer for 2014 Summed Up in Four Words

I am praying with more fervor than ever before.  I want to be directly in the middle of His will.  Exactly where He wants me to be and when He wants me there.  I want to spend more time in silence and do more listening to Him speak to me. I want to rest in His love.

I pray for his direction in my relationships with my family and I praise Him for the relationships He  restored as 2013 came to an end.  The more I learn about God, the more I want to know.

I am praying that God will help me in 2014 to simplify my life and find more peace by letting Him prioritize my days. 

Looking forward to 2014 with great anticipation.

Opportunity and New Year's Day

There's something about beginning a new year with endless possibilities and opportunities.  The new year provides us another chance to write a new chapter in our life story and to learn from the previous year's successes and failures.  Whether you make New Year's Resolutions or not you probably have some mental notes you've made during the previous year to do something differently--- to learn a new skill or maybe to eliminate a habit or two.  The end of the year brings closure and a new beginning.  A logical place to start again.

Interestingly that is what God gives us every day, not just the beginning of a new year.  He gives us second chances and do overs at any point in our life that we ask Him.  He forgives our sins on any day of the year.  He cheers us on when we are trying to achieve new goals and break old habits.  He leans close to us when we go to Him in prayer....any minute of any day of the year!  God isn't waiting on us to "get it all right" before we give our hearts to Him.  If that were true there would be no point in even trying because we cannot get anything right without Jesus.

I love the beginning of a new year because it is exciting to think about what God has planned for me in the coming year.  Rather than worry about what might happen in 2014 that could turn my life upside, I know that wherever I am to go, God has gone before me.  There is absolutely no place I can go that He isn't already there.

I choose to look at 2014 as a glass completely full and brimming over with challenges, blessings and surprises.  Only God knows the outcomes and the victories.  I wish for you and your family a year filled with love and contentment.  Opportunities to help others as well and someone there to help you when you need a shoulder to cry on or an ear to listen to your good news.  If you have not already made Christ your savior I pray that is the first thing you do for 2014.  It's the best decision you can ever make for 2014 and eternity to follow.

Happy New Year Lynda.  I know your time in heaven has been but a blink of your eye.  You are loved and missed.

I Know That Was You Lord!

I love this picture!  I feel just like this little guy so many times a day.  God is interested in every aspect of our lives....big and small.  There are so many times that things happen in my life that I know without a doubt it was God.  On so many occasions I have looked and looked for something I put in a safe place where I'd know where it was....only later to be clueless.  I've said to God many times, "you know if I'm going to find it, you're going to have to show me where to look" and then I'd move on to something else.  More times than not I would be led to look in a place I hadn't thought of or when doing something totally unrelated I'd find the object I was looking for.  There was no doubt that God was working and it is often in these seemingly insignificant prayer requests that I stood so amazed and so thankful that my heavenly Father was a caring and loving Daddy who was interested in the small details of my day.

Many people chalk things up to coincidence and miss the many ways God works in their lives.  It always irritates me when I hear someone ask for prayers for an illness and later hear that the condition is no longer present.  Many times the explanation is that the doctors say they made a mistake in the original diagnosis or some other explanation of why the person's condition has improved.

God is busy performing miracles all around us....He is answering prayers.  He is providing for us before we even ask. 

I have seen it so many times during Lynda's life.  These acts of God are like being hugged by God.  You've got to recognize God working to be able to appreciate His total absorption in our lives.  Start 2014 off looking for God's love notes as He works in your life.  It will warm your heart to realize that God cares so much.

We Thank You 6000 Times...

From our family to yours we wish for you a wonderful new year with lots of love and opportunities to express your love for others.  Thank you for supporting us during 2013 with Lynda's blog.  We praise God for what He already has planned for 2014!

Grateful Eyes...

Regardless of how many ways life may have disappointed me in these sixty-one years on this earth, there is no way that anything can take away my joy in being a child of God.  The daughter of the King....joint-heirs with Christ.  Because of this gift of grace and the promise of eternal life in heaven how can I be anything but grateful?

When I stand at Lynda's grave and know without a doubt that she is not there but rather alive in heaven....this mother's heart is overflowing with love and gratitude for Jesus who made eternal life possible for her.  I will always miss her until I see her again but the sadness was quickly replaced with gratitude that she is now perfect in every way and in the presence of the Trinity forever.

Life is a series of choices.  What happens to us is often outside of our control but how we look at life and decide to react as a result of it is very much within our power to control.  In spite of the hardships and tragedies that occur as part of living on this earth we as Christians know this earth is not our home.

Just like the saying about the glass being half full or half empty, it's all in the eye of the beholder.  Even in the loss of my sweet Lynda and the days that I find it hard to put one foot in front of the other...I choose to look at the world with gratitude.  If I were to count my blessings, I would never be able to name them all.

God is good all of the time.

Lynda's Orange Peanuts

For as long as I can remember, I've bought Lynda orange peanut candy for Christmas.  Other times of the year too but definitely a stocking stuffer.  There were so many things she couldn't eat because of her lactose intolerance but these little candies were mostly sugar and she loved that!

I went to Wal-Mart to buy some of the orange slice candies for mother to use in her fruitcake and I knew before I went that the orange slices always hung next to the orange peanut candy.  I planned to just grab the candy for mother and be out the door.  When I saw the peanut candy hanging there memories flooded my mind and my heart.  Good memories of us sitting at the table and me breaking the candies in half so she didn't get choked since she ate with gusto and it didn't always include chewing.  She would say "Unh"when I wasn't making them available as quickly as she thought I should.  It was just fun to see her enjoy her Christmas candy even if it in no way resembled anything on the Christmas candy aisles.

I felt the tears ready to well up in my eyes when I thought to myself...Lynda doesn't need orange peanut candies this year.  She's in heaven where she can have anything she desires because she has no food intolerances and I'm guessing God has quite a candy store in heaven.  There are things that will always remind me of Lynda.  Some make me smile and some bring a few tears.  The best part is that no matter what I think about that she enjoyed here on earth...I think of heaven and know that she is with the creator of the universe and lacks for nothing.

I am so blessed to know that Lynda's life didn't end at the grave, that heaven is a real place and that we serve a living God.

Merry Christmas, Lynda....

 We went by to leave Lynda's little snowman angel that has been in her room at NMRC for many, many Christmas holidays.  He's going to sit here reminding everyone that Lynda is with the angels today!  Yes, I still cried when I left him sitting beside her headstone but those tears were for me.  There is no place I'd rather she were today than in heaven.  Merry Christmas Lynda.  Nana loves you.  Tell all of our family and friends that we'll be there soon.  Hug Jesus for me.