Jan 2, 2010

Greetings My Friend,

I wrote 2010 and it seems so…..weird. Anyway, it is January 2 and my thoughts take me to New Year’s resolutions. As I have entered into my faith walk with Jesus, I find that making a New Year’s resolution something I tend to do throughout the year as I sense God prompting me to make changes in my life.

As I waded through my emotions after my divorce, I found an outlook that helped me. I began to see new beginnings all over the place. There was Sunday, the first day of the week. There was morning of each day. There was a new day, a new week, a new month, a new minute, a new year. As I wrote in my journal I found that each new page was an opportunity to start fresh again.

I was 42, divorced and felt old in many ways. Each decade tends to make me think I am old, getting beyond being able to learn something new, to be able to do new things. My divorce drove home the point that we can begin a new each and every day. I may not be able to do what I did as a teenager, a twenty something, a thirty something, a forty something…..I am finding that I still have many opportunities to learn and to grow. That gives me so much hope.

Our Sunday School Teacher in Michigan often asked us, “Is your walk closer to the Lord than at the beginning of the year?” This has become the gage I use in my life. At this point in the year….I tend to reflect on this. For the past many years, I have found that I have indeed grown. I also begin to see or to remember when God has been very close. Remembering has been another wonderful lesson. In the past I remembered the painful hurts. Now though, I try to remember when God drew close to me. As I learn to look back, to remember, I find myself growing. I find myself being able to “let go, Let God.”

What has God done for me in the past year? In November of 2008 after the elections we found ourselves very discouraged in our home state. Michigan had voted to experiment on the unborn that were to be aborted. We started talking about moving. It just flowed out of our conversations. At one point we felt that we were to REALLY move. We began with prayer. We continued to prepare the house to be put up for sale. As we were preparing, the house in Haysi came up for rent. My sister lived in that area and we had loved visiting it. We prayed again and felt that we were to take it, each step of the move process we felt God’s hand and guidance on us.

After I retired in 2008 I struggled with many health issues. As I look back, I struggled with pain. I had headaches to the point of vomiting and my neck had arthritis which led to major pain as well. The pain would make me want to sleep a lot. God taught me to eat every 4 hours for my hypoglycemia and aspirin helped me through the pain of arthritis. As I began to implement these habits I found my energy level returning. As I lay in bed day after day discouraged, my cat Alex would come in and snuggle me. His warm purring body was a huge comfort. A lot of the healing really took root in Haysi, where I could relax and think.

The front porch, here in Haysi was a huge comfort to me all summer. As I sat out there day after day….I felt God’s hand, God’s love upon me. Humming birds feeding off of the feeders were awesome. One hummingbird was a talker. It was fun to hear his chatter as he flew in for a drink. Sometimes they flew close to us, like they were trying to get eye ball to eye ball with us. Sometimes we saw deer coming down for a drink at the river.

I sense another change is coming. I don’t know what, where, when, I just feel that I will be moving in a new direction. I am prayerful as to what changes are to be made. I believe that if I quiet my spirit, then I can “hear” God. One of my favorite passages says, “Be still and know that I am God.” Since I struggle with being still enough to hear….I ask God to help me. I love retirement because I am able to make more time for Bible Study and prayer. As I sit on the couch reading, learning, I am able to discern, to grow and then to go out and do. That is my goal in retirement – “go out and do.” I don’t want to use these last years of my life in a vegetative state. I want to be productive, useful for God.

Happy New Year. What is your goal for this year? Is it time to begin your walk with the Lord? All you have to do is confess your sins – God will take you right where you are at and then ask Jesus to be the Lord and Savior in your life.

May God bless you and keep you, make His face to shine upon you.

Love

Janet