December 27 2014

December 27 2014 Greetings My Friend Now that Christmas has passed I start thinking about this past year and my walk with Jesus. Instead of doing a New Year’s resolution I ask myself “Am I closer to Jesus than I was at the start of the year?” Asking this question at the end of each year gives me time to reflect on the year and my walk with Jesus which seems to help me focus on the New Year and where I’d like my walk to go. Since I truly invited Jesus into my life later in life I have a tendency to not want to go down a whole lot of rabbit trails if possible. I want to stay focused on this blessing, this 2nd chance at living life to the fullest. Most recently I have worked through the pain of not having family around during the holidays. I am pleased that this year I worked through it earlier in the season and feel content with it. Jesus has taught me again that He truly is all I need and life can still have a “smile” on it when those I long to see are not around. I’ve had bronchitis in the last few weeks also and with this bout I have learned to go with it. I understand that I will need to accept the down time and I can move on as it comes to an end. In the stillness of being ill I am leaning on God. I find I am even growing in my faith during the down time. This year I have found myself very comfortable with our home not being picture perfect after 4 years of renovating. I am extremely happy that Junior is taking his time to do a good job and to think out how we want to use the home. I am also enjoying bringing order to our home as well. The refrigerator and linen closet have been brought together in an organized way. The area where I sit has order to it as well. Junior has been watching me write and craft so he made me an end table with a set of shelves for me to bring order to my comfy chair area. With my shaky hand I have started making a quilt sewing it by hand. I have stalled out due the new puppies interrupting my sewing time but I will work out a way to work on the quilt and keep the puppies at bay. They are getting older which means they are outside more too. In all of this organizing I am finding God’s direction also. The more I have day to day life in order the more I am able to accomplish things. I learned at first to “work when I can and sit when I can’t” which slowly built up to longer work times and shorter sit times. I have even learned to walk on the elliptical and I am losing some of the excess weight I have been carrying around. I have gotten discouraged with building my stamina up only to get sick and start from scratch again until God showed me that I was bouncing back quicker and somewhat easier. Today I understand this process and I am learning to go with the flow. I am learning to see God is in all the little moments of life and see how He is working those little things into the fabric of day to day life. I continue to pray for my marriage, find myself grateful for so many of life’s little mundane things and a peace has grown deeply into my being that is awesome beyond words. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet