May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us. Psalm 67:1 (ESV)
Welcome to Friday!
Happy New Year! O yeah, with great excitement, eager anticipation, and high hopes I am entering this New Year with joy, faith, and a powerful, happy, blessed, and stubborn belief that the God of all creation, the Eternal and Everlasting, is doing great things for us this year. Welcome to Friday!
How are you doing? How was your Christmas holiday weekend? How was your week that followed the joyous and blessed holy day of Christmas? How did things go for you this past week? What were you up to and what were you able to get done? Did you have fun with family and friends during the week? Were you able to get ready for the end of the year? What did you do to ring in the New Year? Did you watch the ball drop, watch your eyelids, watch in prayer, or some other family tradition?
As you look back on the last week of 2015, what was your favorite part? What was your greatest spiritual blessing, and what was your biggest accomplishment? Where did you experience an answer to prayer? What did you learn about yourself and about God this year?
This has been a great week, a fitting end to an absolutely blessed year. I spent most of the week on vacation. I had to work on Wednesday, but otherwise I have been at home lounging, enjoying Trish and the girls, eating (too much), sleeping later, and watching movies. My one day at work was quick and enjoyable. I was able to catch up on emails, complete a few year end tasks, close up the books on the team projects, and get off on time.
At home Ava and Emma have seemingly enjoyed our time together. I've played Connect Four, Candyland, and hide and seek. They were a blast. Ava won most of our games of Candyland. Like her father, she doesn't mind sharing with you that you did not win. Trish and I got to do some after Christmas shopping, took a few coffee dates, had some quiet time and a nice dinner together this week. Cassarra, Paige and Sydney enjoyed some extra time in Georgetown. Gabbi, Ava and Emma enjoyed their post Christmas time back in Columbia. Gabbi and Emma had appointments with the dentist after Christmas, so their stay wasn't as long. We tried to make their week fun by taking them with us shopping and also with a few treats here and there.
I am so excited for this coming year. We rang in the New Year with our own celebration at home. We had some finger foods and snacks. The girls watched the ball drop, but I missed it. I was awake, but... long story. I worship God and give thanks for so many wonderful things in 2015. My favorite moment of 2015 was spending time with Trish at the Weekend to Remember marriage conference in Hilton Head. It was a powerful renewal weekend. I had my beautiful, gorgeous and awesome wife all to myself. We explored scripture, learned about marriage and grace, experienced forgiveness, enjoyed conversation, watched sunrises and sunsets over the water, and slept late with no kids waking us up. It was... great! I can't wait to do it again this year. I enjoyed the lessons on marriage, scripture, forgiveness, covenant commitment to fidelity, hope, and legacy. But, even more than these I enjoyed the time with the "one my heart loves."
I'm not certain what I would consider to be my greatest accomplishment. At work it was finishing my first year as an interim manager of the new team, surviving numerous changes, and completing a difficult certification. At home I'm not certain what I'd say either. The biggest accomplishment might be completing a Bible study plan for myself, with Trish and one with the girls and then realizing that there is so much more I should be doing with my family. I'd also count as a major accomplishment getting Ava to school and out of the car on her first day of this school year, and her last day of this year before Christmas break.
Like you, I have countless places that God has done something amazing and answered prayers. One of the greatest spiritual blessings was seeing "War Room" and watching it motivate Cassarra to pray. Seeing Trish's Thanksgiving tradition spur Cassarra to create a collage of turkeys and leaves decorated with words of gratitude. Another place of great blessing was having the opportunity to serve as a part of an Emmaus of the Midlands team. There I watched God's answer to frequent prayers for softened hearts and open minds. He turned burly, emotionally private men, into a caring, teary eyed group receptive to grace and the love of Christ. Sometimes, I am amazed at the end of the year when I look back and think of all of the prayers and answers. We had countless spiritual blessings and answered prayers. A few answers that stand out in my mind are:
- A prayer that a friend and his wife would stick it out and fight for their marriage, and right now they are doing the hard, but promising work of staying together and working it out.
- A new car. Okay, so Trish was really the lead prayer warrior and researcher on this one, but it was an answer that I witnessed.
- An AC unit. We had the second AC unit go out on us in as many summers. This time, we prayed for the right company and technician. In the process I met a man who believed in God, gave us a discount on the unit and installation, and shared his faith, prison ministry and prayer ministry with me. Not to mention he later did some work for our company office.
- Back to school shopping. At the end of the summer we needed a way to pay for car repairs, home repairs, medical stuff, life in a family of eight and back to school clothes. Trish must have jump started the prayers, because when I joined her the battle was nearly done. I received a financial blessing two weeks before the kids needed clothes for school
I learned that worry creates more problems and solves none, and to trust God more. I should say, I learned and I am still learning to "not worry about anything, but in everything with prayer."
I am so thankful for:
- joy
- hope
- love
- friendship
- parents
- siblings
- in-laws
- nieces and nephews
- co-workers
- vacation from work
- a job
- a home filled with peace and love
- fun and laughter
- dates this week
- dinners at the table
- babysitters and date nights
- devotional time, even those that go horribly wrong
- daddy/daughter time
- spending time with my parents
- talking with my daddy and hearing some of his life story
- looking through old photo albums
- getting a book from my nephew about one of his heroes
- seeing my siblings at Christmas
- visiting with family over the holidays
- Christmas cards
- Christmas sights, sounds, prayers, and study
- Christmas joy and presents
- watching the girls open their gifts
- Ava and Emma's laughter
- Sydney's smile when she opened one of her gifts
- playing with a remote control drone
- setting up my model Mustang collection in the office
- working out at the Y this week - trying to offset some of the holiday treats
- great holiday treats
- holiday candies and homemade cakes
- turkey, ham, stuffing and trimmings at Christmas dinner
- safe travel to and from Georgetown
- the girls having time with their cousins and family in Georgetown
- a sunny day this week
- seeing friends over the holidays
- coffee
- peppermint
- peppermint milkshakes
Welcome to Friday!
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