What an exciting year we have had! The highlights were the addition of a daughter-in-law named Ali and an Anniversary trip to Alaska for Tom and I. Josiah and Ali were married November 20. It was a beautiful wedding.
I guess the truth that has stood out most this year is God's mercy. I find that I am quite self-sufficient a lot of the time and don't realize how dependent I really am on God. I have been reading through the Old and New Testaments and I am amazed at how often God calls to Israel and tells them to turn back to Him. Could I be that way? Why does God record so much of Israel's history? Why did Israel follow God and then turn away from Him?
God describes His dealings with Israel many ways. One description, in Ezekiel 16, is very vivid. It describes a newborn babe just left to herself with no one to care for her and how God comes and cleans and washes the babe. God gives her everything she needs and then she turns away and acts very foolishly.
I am very grateful to God for all that he has done for me. He is doing great things in our family, though they may seem very small to you. Our children are growing in the Lord and seeing that His ways are supreme. Of course, they learn by wisdom sometimes and by painful experience other times. All we can do as parents is to love them unconditionally and teach them, exhort them, warn them, and PRAY for them.
As we draw near to this Christmas Season I pray that you will reflect on how good God is to you. Can you read this? Then thank God for the eyes and the brain to do such a thing. Did you wake up today? Then thank God for the very breath that you are breathing right now. Spend this day and every day thanking God for your very life here on this earth and the one that He has prepared for you in heaven if you are saved.
Have a wonderful and blessed Christmas!
