Friday, January 11, 2019

The first faves of 2019

It's been way too long since I joined in with the writers at Susanne's Friday's Fave Five!

I'm all about having an attitude of gratitude so I'm going to dive right in.


1. I love January! For a lover of new beginnings, there is no time like the first month of the year to revel in the newness. Fresh calendar pages, new planners, goals, choosing the yearly One Word 365, setting up current files and packing away the old - what's not to love for an organizing geek like me?


This year is especially exciting because after 14 years of dealing with a desk with drawer issues at my main job, I have me a new beautiful BIG desk with not one, but TWO hanging file drawers. Be still my heart!





2. Of course, my faves always include stories about my grandkids. Today's offering is a story about Brody, one of my 4-year old grand twins.



The other night, Brody and I were wrestling on the floor. He was getting too rough and I told him to quit; he needed to do that kind of stuff with his dad. He got this hurt look on his face and said, “What? You don’t love me no more?”

Oh my! He's only 4 and can twist the strings of my heart!

3. For those of you that read my What I learned in 2018 post, you saw that our church was trying something new by having twice-a-month Family Night services instead of midweek services. I'm happy to report that our first one was a resounding success! We had good attendance, and more importantly, good participation and feedback during our bible study. I can't wait for the next one.

By the way, I just wanted to clarify our Family Nights aren't just for families. It is for everyone who makes up our "church family," and is our way of doing life together.


4. I love when I receive a revelation from the Lord. During my devotional time at bedtime, this thought stood out to me: What if I focused in 2019 on believing, really believing, that goodness and mercy was going to chase me down? (Psalm 23:6)  I believe this thought was from the Lord because my devotional was on a different subject.


Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life,
and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.
Psalm 23:6 New Living Translation

Pursue can mean chase you down.

Really, what can upset you if you know goodness and mercy is going to show up any minute? And it is not just anyone's goodness and mercy, it's God's goodness and mercy!

So, my friend, I ask you the same question:

During 2019, what if you focused on believing, really believing, that His goodness and mercy was going to chase you down?

I'm imprinting that question on my brain. I believe it will make a stunning difference in my attitude and in my faith. Care to join me?

5. Last on my list today is thankfulness for an awesome present I received for Christmas  - phone case that charges your phone! So handy! When my phone charge dips below 20% I just push a button and my phone case starts charging up the phone. What will they think of next???

~~~

I just want you to know how highly I value those of you that make your way to the Journey to read my words! I believe encouraging others with the written word is a worthy calling. Thank you especially to those who respond. You make it worthwhile!
I don't want you to miss a post, so why not sign up to subscribe. It's easy-peasy. Just enter your email address in the sidebar right above my profile.

If a post resonates with you, please consider sharing by clicking one of the social media buttons at the bottom of this post.

I'm linking up today at Living to Tell the Story and #FreshMarketFriday.

9 comments:

  1. So jealous of your organization! LOL! What's the difference between your regular Wednesday night services and the new Family Nights?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I used to not like January because of the darkness and cold. But last year I realized that it's a time for rest after the busyness of the holidays and before family birthdays start showing up on the calendar. Maybe rest isn't the right word, because there's always stuff to do. But maybe it just a no-pressure month, for us anyway. I do like getting things organized that month, too, though. Yay for a new desk with two hanging-file drawers! And the charging phone case!

    Funny story about your grandboy! And thanks for the enlightenment about what "pursue" means - I hadn't thought about it that way before.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh my...the twins are now 4 years old? WOW...time does go by quickly!

    Congratulations on that new desk! Very nice!

    Glad there was a good attendance for your family night service at the church. It is always so rewarding when there is good participation in something like that...not to mention the encouragement it is to the hearts of those who have spent time preparing!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I like January too although for me as a teacher it means we are half way through the school year!! ( minus summer school which i am required to do as a special ed teacher). But January, is a time for me to nest. Get my house in order, clean it, organize, read more books, dig in to small group study a little deeper and watch movies cause too cold to hike or snowmtoo deep ( usually).

    So thankful the family night got off to a great start!

    Wow..your grandtwins are 4 already????!!!

    Enjoy the weekend!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sounds like the family nights are going to be successful. Wow Grandtwins. That must be a handful. But lots of fun. Linking up from Susanne's site.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Congratulations on your new desk! I love my desk (my sanctuary), and I love new planners, calendars and notebooks. For this reason, I look forward to January and the return to ordinary time and planning.

    I can't believe the twins are 4 already! Wow, time flies.

    Good to see you at Friday's Fave 5 again:)

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a beautiful desk! Being organized makes getting things done sooo much easier!
    Grandkids are a huge blessing--no matter their ages :) But four year old do seem to have that talent to be very black and white in their thinking.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Your grands are so cute. Little ones that age say the darndest things. What a beautiful desk and so neat and tidy! #4 is an amazing question. One that I will, for sure, be pondering over this next week. Thanks for drawing our attention to that.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Congrats on your new desk! It makes such a difference to be able to have everything in order. I like January also, and particularly this year because as so many others have expressed, it was most difficult year. I'm ready for a fresh start also. Hoping your new year is full of fresh, new blessings!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for commenting! I consider each comment a gift.