I sat down
a few days ago to record my memories of 2015. My initial impulse was to write
down all the good stuff, the successes and the happy surprises. Then I started
writing down the bad stuff, and I felt a pang of guilt because I was, more or
less, complaining. Then I began to see all the ways the bad memories had shaped
me and my family, the way they had given birth to redemptive moments.
Remembering the good is important, but you can too easily paint a false
picture. Remembering the bad can turn into a litany of complaints. The trick is
to remember it all, and to remember the hard stuff in the right way, because
sometimes the bad is where the great is hiding. –Andrew Peterson
Loving
God, journey with me this year so that I may feel your presence, abide in your
forgiveness, grow in your strength, and dwell in your love. Give me an open
heart, an open mind, and open eyes so that I may sing your praise and follow
your path always and everywhere. –Larry James Peacock
We now have a chance to begin once more.
We know where we’re headed, this year of grace. We’ve walked it before and it’s
no matter how well we’ve travelled in the past. It’s time for a new beginning. Again and again let us pray
to the Lord- guide us in your truth and teach us, for you are our God and our hope is in you.
Four
things to learn in life: to think clearly without hurry or confusion; to love
everybody sincerely; to act in everything with the highest motives; to trust
God unhesitatingly. -Helen Keller
Life is a precious gift, but we realize this only when we
give it to others.
Every creature is the object of the Father’s tenderness, who
gives it its place in the world.
Do we say “Thank you” to God every day?
Pope Francis @Pontifex 26
Apr 2013
Dear
young people, do not bury your talents, the gifts that God has given you! Do not be afraid to dream of great
things!
Parents, can you “waste time” with your children? It is one of the most important things
that you can do each day.
Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly. –G.K. Chesterton
Our life is not a pointless wandering. We have a sure goal: the house of the
Father.
Though I
read this passage from Ruth Haley Barton about Advent back in December, it
applies here and now too: “When circumstances
do force us to wait, we can lean in and lift up our souls to the One whom we
trust to do good things in and through us. Rather than succumbing to the
inevitable frustration, we can allow ourselves to be changed by looking and
loving and praying in whatever circumstance is causing us to wait, finding the
presence of Christ there.
If we can wrap our heads around the
transformative possibilities contained within this impossible season, we might
discover that it is God who keeps us waiting for reasons only he knows.
And if we enter into this season with trust and with awe, we might even find
ourselves thanking God for the many gifts this waiting time has to offer.”
You keep us waiting. You, the God of all time want us to wait for the right time in which to discover who we are, where we must go, who will be with us, and what we must do.
So thank you…for the waiting time.
You keep us looking. You, the God of all peace, want us to look in the right and wrong places for signs of hope, for people who are hopeless, for visions of a better world that will appear among the disappointments of the world we know.
So thank you…for the looking time.
You keep us loving. You, the God whose name is love,
Want us to be like you—to love the loveless and the unlovely and the unlovable;
to love without jealousy or design or threat; and, most difficult of all, to love ourselves.
So thank you…for the loving time.
And in all this, You keep us. Through hard questions with no easy answers;
through failing where we had hoped to succeed and making an impact where we felt we were useless; through patience and the dreams and love of others;
and through Jesus Christ and his Spirit, you keep us.
So thank you…for the keeping time, and for now, and forever, Amen.
Iona Worship Book, 1998
