So many of you have posted your new words, or colors for 2014. I didn't have either a word or a color.
It started my brain rolling...
So, here it is, my word-color for 2014:
plaid...
Plaid tends to sound like a big mix of any old colors or words. It even sounds like someone indecisive or going with whatever the day seems to bring.
However...
I'm thinking a little off the chart with this word... Not indecisive or without a plan. Instead, I want to incorporate ALL of the words and ALL of the colors I have chosen or thought of in past years.
I think I've had lots of words and colors in my life, some of them God given, some of them probably Sonja created.
I used a verse from The Message awhile back in a blog. It fits today perfectly.
"My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you've been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You're deeply rooted in him. You're well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you've been taught. School's out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving."
(Col.2:6,7 MSG)
It reminds me of a speech I gave one year in high school. Every student in our school was required to give a 'declamation'. The title of mine was "Unpack your suitcase and live".
There are lots of colors and words in my suitcase, many of them learned through real trials and hard things, others have come more easily and are also easier to live out. But there's a whole passel of them, and altogether they look a lot like...
plaid...
I'm ready to empty that suitcase, and let the plaid flow wherever God leads.
One of my dad's favorite preaching topics was...
"Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?"...
At the beginning of this new year, it's on my mind and heart, for my life. I have an increasing desire to know what HE wants for me, in ways I haven't yet discovered, ways that will fulfill me as HIS person, not my own.
I don't want to be:
...too content with less to really dig deeper for more
...too self consumed to listen for His voice in the noise of my life
...too busy, doing and being and running... to miss the excellence of His best
I know He has more for me.
I don't want to run around in my own self made circles trying to figure out what that is...
Charles Stanley said this morning... "While we wait, we are not doing NOTHING... we keep taking one step at a time doing what we already know, AS we wait for God's answer..."
So my prayer for this year is...
"Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do."
The first day of 2014, and off we go!
You already know that my copper coal scuttle on the island holds something different depending on the season or my mood...
These green balls are fresh and new, just like this year ahead. What will these days hold?
I am so optimistic and sensing both new adventures and no doubt new challenges. Is that what you are feeling?
The one certainty, as always... "Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday (2013) today, (January 1, 2014) and forever."
Whatever this year holds, He is enough, for all of it.
So here we go... welcome 2014!
This is a peek into what is going on in our home these days, probably much like your own. Most of all, it's a collage... and my first attempt took longer than I needed to be spending. :)
Enjoy these days of December... they are the best of the year! The music of Christmas is playing all through the house...
I heard that old song on the car radio this week.
Do you know some people who are young at heart... no matter how old they are?
My mom and dad were young at heart. Dad had just played 9 holes of golf and had the tickets on his desk to fly to Norway the next week to preach, when God called Him home, at age 91. He always thought he would live to be at least 100.
My mother was young at heart always, when she was young and when she was old. Life always held new possibilities and she made everything so much fun. Her face lit up when she thought of the next adventure for all of us.
My mother in law was another one. When she was in her 80's, she took a picture of a 20 something tall skinny blond model with long flowing hair to her stylist and said she wanted her hairdo as close to that as possible (with her barely 5 foot height and very short completely gray hair!) And... she wasn't kidding.
I want to be that kind of person... the kind who views all of life with a cheerful and 'young' heart.
Life can deal us some serious blows, and satan would love our joy to be robbed by it. I want the kind of heart that says 'I have everything I need, I will get through this, I choose to trust God and I choose joy."
I think those choices keep us 'young at heart', no matter what our age...
To each one of you and your families...
I'll see you sometime in December.
Is it just me, or does everyone who grew up during the Billy Graham crusades want to cry when "Just as I am" begins to play and people start to get up out of their seats and move to the front of the stadium?
This is a re-post, but it was on my mind after watching Billy Graham the other night on TV... so many years, and so many memories later, and now he is close to the very heaven he has preached about his whole life... his life and ministry are woven into my own life, and probably yours...
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I've mentioned a lot of big names on these blogs, and I'm not typically a 'name dropper'. However, I realize that for me... the circle of my parents friends during my growing up years, was full of those names.
They were our 'normal'... the people I grew up with, they influenced my life and my thinking... I think it's as an adult that I have come to appreciate and respect the names and faces of my childhood. As I have learned more about what it means to walk with God, I so deeply appreciate the lives that were my example, then... and now...
From my very youngest childhood days, Billy Graham was part of our family's life. (This is dad with Billy) We used to travel to Winona Lake, Indiana during the summer, where years earlier, my dad was part of the ministry when he and Billy Graham were young men, and they all teamed together during those Youth for Christ summer conferences.
It was during one of these conferences, when Billy asked these men to pray for him specifically as God seemed to be leading him into a ministry of evangelism. He wanted to be certain it was God's will. My dad was one of those he asked to pray with him, and later, called on him to fly to Los Angeles during his first crusade... God was beginning to do some great and exciting things through Billy's ministry.
My dad's ministry was prayer and revival, always his top 2... my mom used to say golf was #3 and she was #4 :)...
All through the years, Billy and dad were in close touch. Dad was part of many of his crusades, leading the prayer teams that preceded a crusade. Even though dad had his own ministry, there was always a heart connection between he and his friend... Billy. Dad loved Billy Graham.
Our families were very similar as we grew up. The 'dads' were evangelists, and traveled all over the world, while the 'moms' stayed home and raised all of us. It's no wonder I love the writings of Ruth Graham...
This was one of the letters Billy sent to my dad through the years. It's especially meaningful to me, as he said... "the thing that I love about you Armin, is that you have remained absolutely true to the gospel"... and that is exactly the way I feel about my dad. His passion for God never dimmed, and his focus and obedience stayed strong and steady through his whole life. He ran his race well...
It challenges us, as his children... it's what my prayer for my own life has shaped into. But it has taken me a whole lot longer! Sometimes when I learn something new about the Lord, or obey when it's difficult, or trust Him when it's not what I feel like doing... I can picture a smile on Jesus' face, and right over his shoulder... my mom and dad are smiling too!
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I know that when Billy Graham goes to heaven, after he has met Jesus face to face... my dad will be among those in the front of the crowd to welcome him.
I'm aiming for a glitter free Christmas!
I know it's only November 1, but I'm thinking ahead.
I was in Hobby Lobby this week, (50% off of everything Christmas) with a stem of red ornaments in my hand. I turned around and stuck it back in the bin. It glittered like crazy, and of course, so did my hand when I got rid of it.
Every year, I am still vacuuming tiny shiny bits of glitter clear into August, that tiny shiny stuff hides, and then appears again later...
I love the sheen and shine of glitter, but it is such a mess. If there is anything glittery within 10 feet of me, it finds me. I can't tell you how many times I've looked into a mirror doing my makeup and there it is... a red or green dot of glitter on my face, stuck there like glue.
You know I always look for a lesson in things, here's my 2 cents about glitter.
All that glitters is definitely not gold...
Lots of things that are shiny and catch our eye may be better off left where we found them, before they 'attach' themselves to us... :)
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