Light switch for comparison!

When you suffer a wee bit from Arachnophobia and you open your eyes on the first day of a new year to find this on the wall next to you and your first thought is “there is nothing much more that can frighten me, it’s going to be a good year”…
you realise that actually it is going to be a good year.

It is entirely up to me what I do with this year.

How I respond (not react) to things that happen.  It is my choice. There is a freedom and a peace in that knowledge.
So…I choose to be positive, to breathe deeply, and to be thankful to God ‘in’ all things.
I choose to believe “that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose”. (Romans 8:28)
I choose to be grateful.
I choose to make a conscious decision to see God in all who I meet and to spend far more time with Jesus and in His Word.

We have been staying in a little house in the mountains for the past five days and my family have been for a walk every morning whilst I have hunkered down in my bed and finished 3 books in five days (it has been amazing).

This morning, however, I was the second one up, dressed and ready to go.

One daughter drily commented “that’s one way to get mom out of bed in the morning, and walking. Just place a spider next to her”.

This incident has vividly shown me that the above verse is true.  All things do work together for those who are in the Lord.  I got some much needed exercise, and was reminded again, that my husband is my hero as he bravely caught the spider in a bowl and deposited it safely outside.

Father God, I pray that despite COVID, death of loved ones, illness, loneliness and pain, that many of us have experienced this year, we will choose to continue to give thanks to You in the sure knowledge that you hold us in the palm of your hand, you will never leave us or forsake us.

I pray that the year ahead will be filled with much laughter, few tears and the ever growing knowledge that we are loved by a merciful God.  Amen.

HAPPY NEW YEAR