My Prayer For The New Year

As we are only steps away from the New Year, I wanted to take just a moment to share my prayer for you, for all of us really, for the coming year.  

It seems it is sometimes easier for us to love the ungodly than it is for us to love our own brothers and sisters in Christ.  And so, I pray that God will give us all a heart full of love, and grace, and great mercy for one another.  

I pray that our love for the lost will grow stronger with each passing day.  I pray that we will begin to see through the eyes of Christ, listen with our hearts, and speak with words tendered by love. 

I pray that husbands will begin to love their wives as Christ loves the church.  I pray that they will take the role of Priest in their home seriously.  I pray that the hearts of fathers will be turned toward their children and that they will teach their sons, by their own example, what it means to be “a man after God’s own heart”.

I pray that wives will begin to walk beside their husbands instead of in front of them, allowing their husbands to fulfill the role that God has given them as the head of the household.  I pray that mothers will become more nurturing and that their daughters will learn from them what it is to be a godly wife and mother.

I pray that children will learn to respect the authority God has placed over them in the home, in their schools, and in their community.  I pray that they will enjoy just being children while they can.  I pray that they will develop a hunger and a thirst for God that is insatiable. 

I pray that the church will become what God intended it to be.

I pray that leaders will bow their knee before God now so that our country might be saved.

One of my favorite scriptures is found in Isaiah 43:15-19, “I am the Lord, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator and King…Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past.  It is nothing compared to what I am going to do.  For I am about to do a brand-new thing.  See, I have already begun!  Do you not see it?  I will make a pathway through the wilderness.  I will create rivers for them in the dry wasteland.”

I know I have shared this with you before and I’m sure I will be sharing it again because I believe God wants to do “new things” in us every day.  This scripture has been on my heart all week, I guess because I have friends who have been wandering around in the wilderness for most of the year.  I want you to see that your Heavenly Father has already begun to make a pathway for you and to create rivers and springs of fresh water to quench your thirst.  Nothing God has done for you in the past can compare to what He is about to do.  Hold on to this promise.

May God bless you and your family in the coming New Year and may you grow closer to Him than ever before.

Amen.

Merry Christmas!

It's a beautiful December morning here in the Big Thicket!  The sky is clear, the sun is shining brightly through the trees, and it's 32 degrees outside - perfect!


As we approach Christmas, I find the days getting shorter and my list getting longer.  I wanted to take just a minute to remind us all to remember that this should be a season of great joy.  The very essence of the spirit of Christmas is one of peace, patience, kindness, joy, love, giving, and great hope.  Please don't get so caught up in all the buying and planning and partying that you forget the reason we celebrate this season.  The Christ child brought with Him the hope of glory; let this be foremost in your mind as you spend time with family and friends.  


Make this Christmas special.  Use the story of Christmas to witness to the store clerks, bank tellers, waitresses, fellow shoppers, everyone you might come in contact with as you plan for that special day of celebration.   Purchase gifts that are meaningful to the recipient; perhaps something that reminds them of a special time or event in their lives.  I just read (on Pinterest) about a family that performs random acts of kindness for the first 24 days of December.  This is something Moi and I are considering for next Christmas.


Make memories; reinforce traditions.  Every year, my husband reads the story of Christmas before we open gifts.  Every Christmas I add a new bell with the date written on it to each stocking.  We try to watch one Christmas movie every day; our very favorite is "Christmas in Canaan".  


Start a new tradition.


In short, enjoy your Christmas holiday! 


From my family to yours, may your Christmas be filled with love and laughter, peace and comfort, and may you rest in the truth of this Christmas:   "For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life."      
John 3:16


Be blessed!