Monday, January 7, 2013

Happy New Year! Some Updates..

Welcome back! I hope you all enjoyed blessed holidays with family and friends! Today, it’s back to school for me! I had such a refreshing two weeks off, that I’m ready to get back to work and routine!

Don’t you love the promise of a new year? It’s like facing a blank sheet of paper. The old year, with it’s disappointments and hardships is gone, and we can face the new year with hope for a better tomorrow. Actually, EVERY day with God is like that! His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23). No matter how we have failed Him one day, when we confess our sin, He is faithful to forgive and give us a fresh start (1 John 1:9). I don’t know about you, but I constantly need a fresh start! So my hope, looking ahead to this new year, is that this will be a year of growth with God - that as we meet Him every morning in 2013, we will find ourselves increasingly changed into His image!

Before we move ahead in Proverbs, I wanted to update you on some we have been praying for. Please continue to keep my former student, Jacob, in your prayers. He has been through six rounds of chemotherapy for the Hodgkin’s disease, so he needs continuous prayer that the treatment will fight back the cancer and that he will be strengthened in his spirit as well as in his body.

And please continue to pray for my sister, Jodi, as she remains vulnerable to every illness while she is fighting multiple myeloma. She, too, needs to be strengthened and encouraged. May this be a year of victory and rest from further battles for both Jodi and Jacob!

Over the break, I was able to meet with my friend, Karen, the one who had the kidney transplant, and with her daughter, Kristen, my former student, who donated her kidney to her mom. What a testimony they are! They are both doing so well - you would never know that they have only just recently been through such serious surgery! Thank you, LORD, for that you are not only willing, but you are ABLE to heal those for whom we pray!!

Finally, if you know me at all, you know I shamelessly promote my two daughters! Not because I think they are so special (although I certainly DO think that), but because I am excited about where the LORD leads them! Molly and her family have been working on their Project Blessing Bags, and have received enough donations to put together 150 bags to distribute to the homeless. We will be putting the bags together on January 20th. If you are interested in this project, please click here. Meanwhile, Emmy is in the midst of planning her Choose Joy event, a conference for those who have struggled with infertility and/or adoption. We all know young couples who have been affected by this! Please check out her link here and share it with friends who may be interested. Okay, tomorrow we begin in earnest to catch up with the Proverbs! We will be in chapter 6, a most practical chapter!  

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