January 9, 2018

Greetings My Friend,

My status update read "I am tired of the freezing weather! I am trying to have an attitude of gratitude." Anyone who knows me knows I am not fond of winter after living in Michigan for 50 years I was ready to move to a bit of a warmer climate which is at the bottom of the state of Virginia. The weather is 5-10 degrees warmer, winter's average temperature is 40 degrees and the snow melts within a few days. We get winter and at times we go down to the teens and lower, it passes quickly generally, for a week or just over we dealt with daytime temps in the teens and lower we have had much of a Michigan winter. My joke to veteran Virginians has been "I left Michigan to get away from this." I am attempting very hard to find a list of things to be grateful for because when I do I am able to be grateful for my life even in nasty winter cold and snowy weather. During this cold spell I find myself extremely grateful for the warmth of our home, lots of warm blankets to snuggle under, I have a warm flannel nightgown that Boogie gave me and I wear it as often as I am able to. Next I found a from scratch recipe for a cake made of apple pie filling, afterwards I ate it in a bowl with milk I was about as content as I could be. It took me awhile to move my grumpy attitude, I am grateful I was able to move it though. When I allow myself to hang out in my own pity party I find that life seems unbearable, when I can move toward being thankful, I find I am able to tolerate whatever life throws at me. Sometimes when I have a harder time getting out of my pity party I move to the cross, I look at His life, death and I look hard at His death, I see all the blood, the pain He went through then I move onto Jesus' last words, "My God, my God why have You forsaken me!" For what seems to me a few seconds in eternity Jesus cries out in such pain, all through the horror of dying Jesus hardly makes a sound but when God turns His back on Jesus, He cries in anguish, this makes me think long and hard about what eternity in hell will be like, I again make the choice to follow Jesus. I recall that Jesus talks a whole lot more about hell than He talks about heaven in the Bible, if He talks more about hell then I believe that hell is that awful so I want to do all that I am able to spread the Good News to everyone I can. Next I remember that Jesus did not come to save the saved but to save the lost so I want to be open to giving the Gospel to those who are on the fringe of society just as Jesus did when He walked on earth. It is easy to give the Good News to the people who are like me, so I choose to love those I relate to and those I have no clue how to relate to. I am grateful that Jesus loved all of us enough to die for us all. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet