My refections as 2017 began

Sunday morning January 8, 2017.  Reflecting on the new year and the sermon our pastor Dennis Newkirk delivered last night.  We started a series titled “Roots”, and we will be walking through the book of Mark verse by verse.  I love the way he explained that this was the first gospel written and that gospel means “Good News” and went on to say it actually is “Great News”!  Indeed it is and I look forward to the story like sitting in the library as a child … waiting for Story Time.  

As we reflect on the New Year he asked us 6 questions to consider:

1. What one thing could I do to increase my enjoyment of God? … Private Worship, Public Worship, Prayer, Praise?  All ideas but each of us looking to see how we can come into a walking, talking, listening relationship.

2. What is the most humanly impossible thing you could ask God to do this year?  As a faith building exercise we should ask what man considers impossible.  I am asking him to heal my ear, in faith believing that by this time next year my hearing will be restored.  I also lift up my new business asking Him to touch MANY lives.  He has given me hope that even at this age I might see the full potential of the gifts and life He has given me.  

3. What can you do to increase the quality of your family? - Tune my heart to God making Him the center of all that happens in our home and in my speech.

4. What Spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress on this year.  For me it is discipline of using my time wisely.  

5. What is the biggest time waster in your life.  For me it is the internet, making poor choices with games or Facebook.  The internet will be very valuable to my business, but I must discipline myself to monitor myself and limit time I spend “Playing”.

6. What is the most helpful thing I can do for my church?  For me it is building relationships, being a hostess to church member.  Praying for our church as we go through the transition in staff.  

Such good things for me to fix my heart on.  Lord I ask that I live for You as I have never done before.  Take my steps, make them yours; take my life and give me joy in giving away my time and energy.  You alone Father know what you designed to happen in my life, My desire this year is to let me and others get a view of that.  I have my own preconceived ideas of how that might look, but help me to re-evaluate that daily to make sure that I am on the path You have chosen for me and not on a Glenda self serving “Lark”.  Too many times I have failed to communicate with you or flatly closed my mind and taken my own path.  WHAT A MISTAKE!  Oh the consequences I have suffered as a result.  Thanking you today for Your Redemption, and Grace!  “The GOOD NEW .. THE GREAT NEWS!

HOPE

My word for the year 2017 is hope.  I face this year with more confidence in God than I ever thought possible.  The truths that I have been taught all my life I am getting a grasp on.  One morning as I had my quiet time …. I got it!  I am God’s daughter,  and fully acceptable because I have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ.  I was writing in my prayer journal when I looked down at my hand holding the pen; my thought was “Will you look at that!”  “The hand of a King’s daughter”. I thought of President Trumps daughter, Ivanka … how beautiful she is; how her father adores her; how conscious she is of how her behavior reflects on her Dad.  WOW … Since I am the daughter of a King how much more important is it for me to be conscious of how my actions and reactions reflect on my Father.  Above all things remembering how adored I am by my “King Father”.  And I love him so much, “it takes my breath away”.  Usually it manifest itself in tears as I feel His arms embrace me through the highs and lows of life.

Who is this Lady?

I claim to be a Texan although I have lived most of my life in Oklahoma.  Born in Fort Worth, Texas; before the technology age, we had no colored TV until I was in high school, and the color was far from HD, and my sister and I were the remote.  No microwaves, no dishwashers, no air conditioning, certainly no computers.  I remember reading in Weekly Reader about microwaves and thinking "NO WAY"!

Anyway it was the 50's and I was one of the Baby Boomers.  My Dad had served in the Air Force and when he returned back to the states he married my Mom and started a construction business and before long I was born followed by my sister, Donna, 13 months later.  One of my Dad's first projects was a little two bedroom house on Amy St. in Fort Worth.  That is the first early memories I have, life in the little house on Amy Street.  I remember watching my Mom using a tredle sewing machine making dresses for my sister and I.  I remember watching clothes go round and round in our front loading washing machine, I think that is all they had in the 50's.  I remember Mother hanging clothes on the line to dry and shaking them out good before bringing them in the house because scorpions loved to catch a ride in.  She also checked the beds when she turned down the sheets at night because an occasional one would make it inside and hide in our beds.  I had been stung once and I was terrified of them and went into hysterics when I saw one.   I will claim drama queen when it come to scorpions.  

Unfortunately scorpions were not the only bad memories I have of my life on Amy Street.  My Dad was an alcoholic and I remember him staggering down our halls singing and laughing... thank goodness he was a happy drunk.  Still the memories are painful because my Mom cried.  When he didn't come home at night I remember seeing her on her knees crying and praying beside her bed, long after I was suppose to be asleep.  Matters got worse when a lady started calling our house asking for my Dad.   It was only a matter of time until I lost my Dad to alcohol, and his new wife and son.  I was almost 5 when he left and  I remember hanging on his leg as he walked out to his car begging him not to leave.  

Okay that was emotionally draining for me ... so let me continue this another day ..... Excuse me as I grab a tissue.  LOL