Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

 The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of Heaven and Earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.

God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps

reach out for Him and

find Him,

though He is not far from each one of us.
‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’

Acts 17:23-28

Every morning, I look out across the snow, and as the sun rises, it makes the snow fairly sparkle! It’s so pretty.

Have you noticed how at night, because any lights reflect off the snow, the nights look brighter? It doesn’t look as dark as it normally does at night. The pure whiteness of the snow seems to light up the night.

Although I can’t say, as the song goes, that I think it’s the most wonderful time of the year ( I love summertime ), it is such a lovely time! :)

[The Lord] testified concerning [David]: “I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after My own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.” Acts 13:22

Throughout, God spoke very highly of David. However, we all know that this man had problems. He made mistakes, some very big ones. He sinned.

Yet, there must have been something else about David that the Lord could say this about him: “He was a man after My own heart.”

What was it? Was it his tender heart toward the Lord? Was it his teachable spirit when God sent the prophet Nathaniel to confront David on his sin? Was it his earnest repentance? Was it his exuberant joy in the presence of God?

I want to be like David. I want the Lord to be able to say the same about me: “She will do everything I want her to do.”

*shoveling snow* *shoveling more snow* *reading books* *listening to teaching CDs* *cleaning* *cleaning some more* *baking* *sewing* *knitting* *preparing to start teaching piano lessons again*

Recently, like “this afternoon recently”, found me searching the web for how to get wax out of knit sweaters. (And for any Wikipedia fanatics: No, Wiki does not have an answer for this one. :) ) While putting away Christmas decorations at church this morning, it happened … wax on clothes is not nice … not nice at all. 

For those of you fellow candle-lovers out there, don’t carry candles next to your clothes … specifically red candles … specifically if you’re wearing a cream-colored sweater, like I was. *sigh* I hope it comes out.

Other than that, there’s not much else going on. :)

I’m out to shovel more snow! It just keeps snowing and snowing and snowing …

[*singing to self*] “Oh, the weather outside is frightful …”

Did you stay up until midnight???

I did! :)

I can hardly believe that today is the last day of 2009. This year has seemed to go by so quickly!

It has truly been a good year, with many new experiences, and many amazing opportunities to travel and see new places. It was not without its hard times and struggles, but God is faithful and good. Always! I can absolutely bank on that.

_______________________

The highlights of 2009 for me were:

• Working at the Nebraska Christian Home Educator’s Association children’s conference in March – pictures here and here (and spending several EARLY mornings at the church making scrambled eggs in our pajamas and taking power naps on the comfy leather chairs in the atrium!)
• Graduation from high school and my reception in May (and having thrilling wheelchair races down the hill in our church’s parking lot before my reception, and standing up on stage watching my relatives [dare I admit that I'm related to them?] make goofy faces at me and trying not to burst out laughing, and listening to Pomp and Circumstance over and over and … :) )
• Being a counselor at camp for the first time in June (and talking to the Lord while standing out in the field looking up at all the lovely, twinkling stars, and scampering over to the basement of the chapel at 11 pm with my girls when the electricity in my cabin went out!)
• The Bright Lights conference trip in August (and practicing skit lines over and over, and tripping over camera men while dressed up as a horse, and late night snacks of yummy ice cream that was really frozen yogurt, so that means we could eat more of it, right?!)
• Serving at The Voice of the Martyrs in October (and frogs that didn’t have names and lambs named Felicia and crawdads named Bob, and fuzzy-wuzzy limey-green blankets, and sitting on gi-normous stacks of cardboard boxes, and throwing bouncy “world” balls to each other when the mail machine broke down!)

______________________

My “theme verse” for 2009 was 1 Peter 3:15:

But in your hearts, set apart Christ as Lord.

I haven’t found a theme verse for 2010 yet, but I’m praying that the Lord would give me one to focus on this year.

Tomorrow is a new day, a new year, and a new decade. And I can hardly wait to see what God has in store!

My sister and I had appointments at a new optometrist today. I was secretly praying that the optometrist would be nice, because nice optometrists are, well, nice, to be quite honest. :) And he was very nice.

On top of it, they also didn’t do those little air puffs on my eyes! I was so happy, because that is the one thing I absolutely dread about optometrist appointments. I do not like puffies. :) It’s so hard to keep still during them, and they are just generally not, well, nice. :)

Well, I guess that’s all for now. I just thought you might want to hear about those little random blessings in my day today … :)

Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in Him, for He shields him all day long, and the one the Lord loves rests between His shoulders.

There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, Who rides on the heavens to help you and on the clouds in His majesty.

The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.

Deut. 33:12, 26-27

In Him, we have a purpose for the present – by bringing honor and glory to Him. In Him, we have a hope for the future – that no matter what happens to our earthly bodies, we have an eternal home we will go to, where we will live forever - with HIM!

He is truly The God Who is There.

He did not create us and leave us to live our lives trying to figure out what in the world we’re here for. He is there, and not out there somewhere. He is here and there.

And He has spoken … to us. The Almighty penetrated time and space in the form of a baby boy. As if His revelation of Himself to us in the form of written words was not enough. In His ultimate knowledge, He knew we needed more. It’s completion and fullness was wrapped in the dirty cloths that covered a baby’s tiny body.

And I’m amazed.

We had a beautiful little party for my Grandma on Sunday to celebrate her 85th birthday. She had a lovely time – we were so happy to be able to arrange everything for her. The weather threatened to cancel the festivities, but it cleared up enough for us to have our party!