Mid January

17 days into 2011.

How are you doing so far?

If we break that down into a week - It's like saying that it's almost 8:00 AM on Monday morning and I might ask you, how is your week going so far? (I used my calculator to figure that out)

Well, if you'd been up with a sick child all night, having made great plans for the new week on Sunday night - well - you'd be somewhat discouraged.  You'd want a restart - because maybe Monday wouldn't look like you'd planned.  You might be headed to the pediatrician or having to wash more clothes than you already needed to wash.  Maybe have to cancel plans unexpectedly due to the sick child.  And all of this would be with lack of sleep.

However, if you'd gotten to bed early and gotten a really good night's sleep and woke refreshed, with a pot of coffee ready to plug in - and perhaps already gotten up early and had great prayer time and bible reading - well - you'd be feeling pretty good about your week.  Great start.

I guess a lot of us could say we had an unusual start to the new year, for Alabama and for the South.  All this snow!  Didn't it clog the wheels just a bit?  That's not a complaint, it's just what it is.  We were snowed in, snowed out, slowed down.

And....there are blogs I read - things happen in lives that are so very very very unexpected and heartwrenching.

I have been writing about my projects.  I love them - but I think I'm going to have to turn one of the bedrooms upstairs into a sewing room - I'm not ready to stop - but it's taken over my house - I need my dining room back and a lot of my living room.  I have to clear the decks just for my grandchildren to walk through.  And I definitely have to check for pins and needles.  Wow, couldn't we spiritualize that sentence - or it could be a sermon topic for a "topical" preacher (one who isn't an expository teacher) - "Checking for Pins and Needles in Your Life".  And the sermon could be, "No matter what good things you have going on in your life, you need to clean up all along and check for pins and needles".  And then people could go home and think about it.  :-)  Sorry.  I've gotten silly now.

I think the point is - we plan - but don't we agree -  that there's always the unexpected + daily trash + daily living.  (Ann and Steve's garbage is backed way up because  the city trucks couldn't get into their neighborhood due to the snow and ice - or wouldn't try - again - another sermon topic - "Is your garbage backed up?"  Sorry, silly again)

So I think of Ephesians 5:15 - 21 

 "Be very careful, then, how you live - not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.  Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.  Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead be filled with the Spirit.  Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs?, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ."

There's the list for the New Year -

1.  Be very careful, then, how we live.  (the then is telling us to go back and read what  verses 1-14 say and also what chapters 1-4 say.)

2.  Make the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. and at the very least,  full of the unexpected - 

3.  Understand what the Lord's will is.  "Anyone would be a fool not to seek His will and His way"

4.  Be filled with the Holy Spirit.  Really be filled with the Holy Spirit - steadily - continuously - controlled by Him - yielded - broken - prostrate - filled with the Holy Spirit. 

5.  Have Praise and Adoration and the Word of God in our heart - so as to speak God's words to others - even in ordinary sentences - the Holy Spirit will encourage others through our ordinary words which actually are extraordinary when He is filling us.

6.  Always give thanks to God for Everything.  in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Because we're in Christ, if, indeed, we are in Christ, we can do this - simply because of His work on the cross - we can thank God for everything - the good, the bad, and the ugly.  

7.  Submit to one another.  Submit to one another.  myself, yielded, like the street signs - giving others the "right of way".  How? and Why?  Out of Reverence for Christ.  He yielded to us - He clothed us in His righteousness and Himself in our sin.  Uh, yeah, I think we can yield to others.

It's Monday!  Have a good one!


Wait!  I forgot!  I love this prayer which was posted on Sarah's blog and which she got out of her bulletin yesterday at church in New Orleans, LA!!!!  I love it.   I want it to be my heart - I think I might print it out and tape everywhere in my house - at least in front of my kitchen sink.


Tell me this isn't your prayer - No - tell me it is your prayer!


Heavenly Father, our sins are too heavy to carry
too real to hide,
and too deep to undo.
Forgive what our lips tremble to name and what our hearts can no longer bear.
We come to You now, beginning to name the ailments that plague us.
We can do this only because You promise to forgive our sins
through the death of Your dear Son.
Set us free from a past that we cannot change;
Open to us a future in which we will be changed;
and grant us grace to grow more and more in your likeness and image,
through Jesus Christ, the light of the world.