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Bring Back the Joy --- B B t J . O r g
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NEW BEGINNINGS AND NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS
Today is January 1st, a day of New Beginnings. How many of you made some New Year's Resolutions? Something many of us do each year. My guess is that the most popular resolution is "I'm going to lose weight." " I'm going to be a better wife or husband might be a good one." But exactly what does that mean? By what standard or whose standard is something better? I might think a good wife makes the bed every morning whereas my husband would be happy if I started doing the supper dishes at night instead of leaving them in the sink. (Oops, I just told one of our secrets.) While doing things that make our mate happy is a certainly a positive thing...we should be living by God's standard. And how do we do that? The natural thing is to reach for the Bible and memorize the "Thou shalt nots..." No, I don't believe that God is the type of God that wants us to be in bondage to a bunch of rules. Rather, God wants us to love him and others. It's that simple. We are to yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit and let Him be our guide in all things. More and more, I'm realizing that we need to learn the different ways God speaks to us through His Word, other people, dreams, visions, inner voices, etc.--and to follow that guidance. God isn't going to steer us wrong. And by yielding to his direction, we are going to naturally live a Christlike life instead of one of the flesh. Mark and I were talking this afternoon of one time when we believe the Holy Spirit was there to guide us. When we were planning my mother-in-law's funeral, we were trying to figure out what to put on the Memorial Folder and a hymn we could sing. Several suggestions were made; we felt bad that we didn't know what Nelly would have wanted. Suddenly the 23rd Psalm came to me; everyone agreed that would be perfect. Later, a close friend told us that when she heard the song (at the funeral), the memory came to her than Nelly told her about 30 years ago that she'd like the 23rd Psalm sung at her funeral when the time came. Janet was pleased. I was comforted that Nelly would have enjoyed the simple beauty of the service and music. As you can imagine, having a brush with death gives a person a new perspective. I've been doing a lot of thinking about priorities, God, etc. during these last few months since surgery. I've been wanting to share with you some of the things I've been learning lately. Therefore, I plan to write a weekly letter called "Virginia's Views." I name it this, not because I think my opinion is so important, but because View's starts with a V and I couldn't think of anything that sounded better. I share this in a separate epistle because I wish to share some heavy thoughts rather than discussion of my daily activities or health. At this point, I'm not sure exactly the form my ramblings will take. Guess it will be a learning experience for both writer and reader. Until next time!!!! God Bless You!!! -- from Virginia |
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