A new year ...

I hope you all had a nice Christmas and 2025 is off to a good start for you.

I decorated my hall stand with cards and my 'tiny tree' (wooden bead necklace and a star button).  I will leave it up as the family are arriving next week for our 'family Christmas' and gift giving at Marnie's.   

She, Tom, Denver, Sophie and I were to have a Christmas lunch at her house on Christmas day, but Tom unexpectedly ended up in hospital a few days prior and has only just come home (2nd January).

  He was very sick for a time, two different hospitals, a time in ICU, and the high care medical section, but is well on the road to recovery now.

On Monday and Tuesday, the family arrive from interstate and overseas for Denver and Sophie's wedding on 11th, so we will have a family Christmas meal on Tuesday. 

I've set myself a 'challenge' to buy no new books for the first 6 months of the year.  12 months was a bit too daunting, and 3 months didn't seem like much of a challenge, so I went for 6 months.  I will still buy secondhand, and this is my first 'challenge' purchase from the op shop today ($2) ...

Went on my first 'proper' walk for the year this morning (walking to the shops and the post office doesn't count).  Saw a friend on the way...

I'm excited to start my '52-week Bible Study for Women' which includes reading through the Bible in the year...

FYI - both books were bought last year, before my 'no new books' challenge :)

I'll leave you with this thought...

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."  C S Lewis

Well...what are you waiting for... :))

xx

Weekend Words

From Oasis of Hope...

Quiet Waiting

"It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord." - Lamentations 3:26 ESV 

Jeremiah went through hard times.  For years he preached to the inhabitants of Jerusalem about turning back to God, but they did not bother to listen.  Enemies captured Jerusalem and Jeremiah suffered alongside the people of the city.  He experienced deep anxiety, which he poured out directly to God.  Yet in the middle of the long lamentation in Lamentations 3, his tone changed.

He said, "But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope" (Lamentations 3:21 ESV).  And then Jeremiah had peace.  He ended by saying that it is good to wait for God in quietness.

Jeremiah seemed to take on the idea of yet.  During affliction, God is faithful.  We can also choose to say the same.  After every difficulty, God is faithful, and so there is hope.

We have many questions for God.  Various pressures draw us in different directions.  Sometimes God takes His children into situations where questions fall silent.  We learn to wait in quietness and simply put our trust in Him.  Job stated that after his trials it was his turn to "lay my hand on my mouth" (Job 40:4 ESV), to be silent before God.

In quietness, we can let go of senseless striving and trust God to be God.  We learn that He is different from what we imagined.  We cannot define Him, and above all, God has countless possibilities to give us help, even ones that we know nothing about yet.  As a matter of fact, in the waiting we learn our secret weapon is "in quietness and in trust shall be your strength" (Isaiah 30:15 ESV).

There is hope yet.  the fact that we are still here, asking for help, is an indication that He has sustained our life.  Allow His quietness to be your strength today.  Rest on Him.  Trust in Him.  Spend a few minutes in silence before Him, and breathe of His peace.

- Anu Ahonen  

From In Green Pastures...

The Lord will Provide

Write deep in your heart this new year, this word of sublime confidence, JEHOVAH-JIREH.  It tells you that you can trust God always; that no promise of his ever fails; That he doeth all things well; that out of all seeming loss and destruction of human hopes he brings blessing.  You have not passed this way heretofore.  There will be sorrows and joys, failures and successes, this year, just as there were last year.  You cannot forecast individual experiences.  You cannot see a step before your feet.  Yet Jehovah-Jireh calls you to enter the new year with calm trust.  It bids you put away all anxieties and forebodings - "The Lord will provide." 

Artwork by Robin Elise