Happy New Year!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season! Ours was quite eventful - but fun! I look forward to sharing more in the coming days. 

Can you believe we have entered a new year?! I find the old adage - "The older you get, the faster time flies!" to be so true! 

There is a poster with this poem and a painting of Nadine Stair in the ladies’ room at Square Books in Oxford, MS. I take time to read it each time I am there, which, at my age, is almost every time I am in the store! It reminds me to not take myself – and life – quite so seriously. I am reminded for my need to trust God more – especially with the small things of life!

IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER

I'd dare to make more mistakes next time.

I'd relax, I would limber up.

I would be sillier than I have been this trip.

I would take fewer things seriously.

I would take more chances.

I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers.

I would eat more ice cream and less beans.

I would perhaps have more actual troubles,

but I'd have fewer imaginary ones.

You see, I'm one of those people who live

sensibly and sanely hour after hour,

day after day.

Oh, I've had my moments,

And if I had it to do over again,

I'd have more of them.

In fact, I'd try to have nothing else.

Just moments, one after another,

instead of living so many years ahead of each day.

I've been one of those people who never goes anywhere

without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a raincoat

and a parachute.

If I had to do it again, I would travel lighter than I have.

If I had my life to live over,

I would start going barefoot earlier in the spring

and stay that way later in the fall.

I would go to more dances.

I would ride more merry-go-rounds.

I would pick more daisies.

                                    Nadine Stair,

                                    85 years old

I came across this quote this week and found it thought provoking:

God did not give us a "Rewind" button for our lives. He only gave us "Pause" and "Forward" buttons.

Isaiah 40:8 says – “The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever."

I know that there are times when I simply need to “pause” and allow God to speak to me and to minister to my needs through His word. In His time, He will move me “forward” and accomplish His will for my life. I wish I was quicker to recognize those times I need to pause, rather than trying to trudge forward in my own power.

As we close a chapter of our lives with the passing of 2010 and open a new one with the start of 2011, let us be reminded and encouraged that God has a plan for each new day, week, year, decade and lifetime.

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Let us rejoice in the hope of our salvation:

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

And, let us continue to grow in the wisdom, knowledge and grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and to tirelessly strive to be more like Him each day:

Philippians 3:13-14

No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven.

Happy New Year!