dual personalities

So here we are: it is the last Friday in 2023 and the last weekend. Do you have New Year’s Eve plans? The boy and his family will be back from Florida on Sunday. We plan to get together and have a dance party. Daughter #1 will be spinning 45s from the 1980s. We also are planning something new. Everyone will choose a favorite scene from a favorite movie to present. I will have a hard time choosing one, so being the hostess, I will pull rank and show several. I think that’s fair. Can you guess what they might be?

Also tonight the Cotton Bowl is on TV so we will be watching the Mizzou-Ohio State match-up. Since we actually kind of care, this does not bode well for Mizzou.

Well, although it seems like western civilization is falling to pieces around us, we can take solace in knowing this is not the first time this has happened. I prefer to focus on the many blessings which have poured down on me this year.

1. Baby Ida was born in January! She is on the verge of walking now…

2. Daughter #1 started a new corporate job and bought a house. Mr. Smith has learned to be a good guard dog.

3. We did a lot of driveway sittin’.

4. I made it through another session of Vacation Bible School.

5. I trekked to Maryland three times, Glens Falls, NY, and Nashville and lived to tell the tale.

6. I rescued various items of great old “brown” furniture at auction and the boy helped me move it all home.

7. I wrote four articles for the Kirkwood Historical Review.

8. I completed my 5x5x5 Bible reading program, plus Pilgrim’s Progress, and two women’s Bible studies: the book of Daniel and Even Better than Eden.

9. My new church community continued to strengthen and enrich me. Weekly worship is a delight and a feast. “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4) And old friends stood by me and supported me in all my endeavors.

10. And DN got a job at the University of Illinois! Woohoo!

I am thankful for God’s grace and mercy. As Randy Alcorn says, “Yes, let’s serve Jesus faithfully and seek to preserve Christian liberties, but let’s not whine about things being so dark. Instead, let’s shine the light as faithful children of God. Let’s trust Jesus to return when He is good and ready to do so, whether that is today, or a hundred years from now, or a thousand. Let’s live as people who are indeed going to meet Jesus soon, either by His return or our deaths. And let’s be ready to meet Him, and by His grace, hear those incredible words: ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant; enter into your Master’s joy.’”

…that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.

Philippians 2:15

Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Happy New Year!