SUNDAY PRAISE -- WHERE DO I GO?

Sorry I have been missing for most of the week.  You know how it is when it gets busy.  I'll do my best to catch up either today or tomorrow.  In the meantime, here is another selection from "Songs From the Loft."  This one is from Ashley Cleveland and Gary Chapman and is another of my favorites.  Who am I kidding?  I adore every one of the songs on this album.  Today it's "Where Do I Go?"

 

THE WORD

It has been very, very cold here.  And snowy.  I'm glad to see the snow starting to leave.  It's supposed to warm up this week too so that is good.  I live in a 100 year old house.  It is drafty no matter what I do.  It is cold.  It is hard to keep the house warm when temperatures dip below freezing.  (Over freezing I have a fighting chance.)

It has always been that way in this house.  I remember my first winter living here back in 1980 I sat on the sofa knitting away.  Leggings and afghans just flew from my needles in an attempt to stay warm.  

Back in 1994 when I had my first surgery and couldn't do much, I decided to use up my scraps of yarn.  I sat there and crocheted five or six afghans.  Purple, blue, red and multicolored.  I even took red, green, white and Christmas sparkle yarn and made a Christmas afghan. I still use them and they are still warm.

But...  temperatures are rising this week and I am so glad.  On the other hand, the temperature afghan I'm making is very colorful and BLUE.

I'm sure many of you have seen people choose a word for the year.  I've always wondered how in the world someone could choose a word and make it theirs.  How could you possibly know what word to choose?  Then I saw that some of my blog friends were saying they were given the word by a quiz taken on facebook.  So I went looking.

After a long time (several days) I found it.  Don't ask me to find it again because I don't remember where it was.  But I took the quiz and it gave me a word for the year.  My word is.... (drumroll please)

What a great word to get.  Peace.  The world needs peace.  The world is going crazy.  But I need peace too.  I'm not always peaceful.  Peace sounds so wonderful to me.

I am more encouraged than ever to work towards making my home a calm and peaceful place.  Of getting junk out of the house.  Of creating someplace people would want to be.

I am encouraged to not let the cares of life take me over.  To not engage in useless and inconsequential arguments.  Some things are worth fighting for.  Others are not.  I need to just let the "other" things roll off of my back.  I am not there yet, but hope by this time next year I will be.

I am encouraged to take some time by myself and commune with God.  I do now, but there needs to be more.  Perhaps as the weather improves I can go outside for my devotional time.  I always seem to feel God more in nature.  I love sitting on the beach with my Bible as the sun rises over the ocean and just praising Him.  Well maybe my back yard can be the same kind of thing.

And, of course, Peace is a fruit of the Spirit.

Jesus said He would give us peace.

This is not just something I am asking for myself, but I am praying that each of you have peace this year too.  What a wonderful word for 2017.

 Kathy

Sunrise:  7:22 a.m.

Sunset:  4:56 p.m.

9 hours and 34 minutes of daylight

Mostly cloudy

Temperatures:  53*/45* 

SUNDAY PRAISE -- SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

Back in 1992 Joe and I had been friends for about a year.  We had begun attending the same church although not together.  One Sunday we happened to meet each other in the church's bookstore.  He saw me looking at an album and bought it for me.  (The first thing he ever bought me.)  It was so long ago that it was on tape because my car had a tape player in it.  I loved the album so much and played it so often that in a couple of years the tape was done for.  I was so happy to find it on youtube and want to share it with you.  I know the songs are a little dated, but they are still good.  This first one is "Seek First the Kingdom of Heaven" sung by Susan Ashton.