Bad

So, some friends shared this with me and I laughed. Piper is a good sport! So I thought I would share it here too! Hehee!

I plan to update with the rest of the pictures from Michigan soon. I'm a bit behind this week.

A Plan for the New Year

The new year approaching has been on my mind. Some new things will take place in the new year - like for one, I start taking classes again and will be preparing for the nursing program. And there are a few things on my heart that I would like to accomplish or to be a part of. I really want to start visiting with the elderly and shut-ins again. I think I've needed to take an emotional hiatus from that ministry the past few months to heal from losing Mrs. Jessie. My heart is eager to begin again and receive the blessings that that ministry brings.

Now, I've always been one to over-schedule myself and fail to make proper time to nourish myself in the Lord while serving and doing for others. I love serving others, and increasing my own joy by seeing the joy of others increase, but it does not do me any good if I am not also spending time with God in His word and seeking to be filled with joy in Christ alone.

Ever so faithful, the Lord has provided me a resource to help guide me in the New Year. I came across A NEW YEAR'S PLEA: PLAN! by John Piper. In this article, Piper sets forth scripture and the importance of why we need to plan both in our prayer time, Bible study, ministry, and even in our work and personal/family life.

"Nothing but the simplest impulses gets accomplished without some forethought which we call a plan.

All of us know this and practice it in relation to the basic physical necessities of life. We take steps to see that we have enough to eat and clothes to keep us warm. But do we take our spiritual needs that seriously? Do we apply the same earnestness in planning to maximize our ministry as we do in planning to make a living?"

I'm so glad the Lord has chosen this time to teach me this - to admonish my heart to be more of a planner when it comes to my time, ministry, family, work, school and most importantly in my relationship with Him.

I'm eager to see what this New Year will bring and what the Lord will teach me. And even though, I rarely adjust well to change, I welcome it because I know that is how I grow and move to new places.

Proverbs 16:3, "Commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established."

Hopeful Post-Christmas Melancholy (Post from Desiring God blog)

I came across this while reading Piper's blog and felt compelled to share it on my blog as well. I pray it blesses you as it blessed me.

Hopeful Post-Christmas Melancholy

December 27, 2008 | By: Jon Bloom
Category: Commentary

(Reposted from last year)

Each year Christmas night finds members of my family feeling some melancholy. After weeks of anticipation, the Christmas celebrations have flashed by us and are suddenly gone. And we’re left standing, watching the Christmas taillights and music fade into the night.

But it’s possible that this moment of melancholy may be the best teaching moment of the whole season. Because as long as the beautiful gifts remain unopened around the tree and the events are still ahead of us, they can appear to be the hope we are waiting for. But when the tree is empty and events are past, we realize we are longing for a lasting hope.

So last night, as Pam and I tucked our kids into bed, we talked about a few things with them:

• Gifts and events can’t fill the soul. God gives us such things to enjoy. They are expressions of his generosity as well as ours, but gifts and celebrations themselves are not designed to satisfy. They're designed to point us to the Giver. Gifts are like sunbeams. We are not meant to love sunbeams but the Sun.
• Putting our hope in gifts will leave us empty. Many people live their lives looking for the right sunbeam to make them happy. But if we depend on anything in the world to satisfy our soul’s deepest desire, it will eventually leave us with that post-Christmas soul-ache. We will ask, “Is that all?” because we know deep down that’s not all there is. We are designed to treasure a Person, not his things.
• It is more blessed to give than receive. What kind of happiness this Christmas felt richer, getting the presents that you wanted or making someone else happy with something that you gave to them? Receiving is a blessing, but Jesus is right—giving is a greater blessing. A greedy soul lives in a small, lonely world. A generous soul lives in a wide world of love.

It’s just like God to let the glitter and flash of the celebrations (even in his honor) to pass and then to come to us in the quiet, even melancholic void they leave. Because often that’s when we are most likely to understand the hope he intends for us to have at Christmas.

I pray you have a wonderful New Year!