Happy New Year!
How can it possibly be the year…2013??
The very number 2013 sounds sooo…well, it sounds so futuristic!!
I mean, I was born in 1949…the end of 1949…December 20, 1949.
My Mama always said I was her best Christmas present!!
I had my 63rd birthday just 12 days ago…
It’s not that I’m older than others…many are older than me…
People are in their 90’s and not only getting around…but golfing…or dancing…
Look at Mick Jagger!!
I do, however, represent the baby boomers…as I’m a late baby boomer…
My father was in the army during WWII, though he remained state side…
My father in-law fought in the Battle of the Bulge…
He was in the Invasion of Normandy…
My uncle fought the Japanese in the Pacific…
My sisters and parents…and my husband’s family…and the wonderful friends we grew up with in my high school…
We were brought up at the change over from segregation to integration…
We went to all white schools…and then, one day, a black boy, Lorenzo, joined us…
We were ecstatic…everyone wanted to be his friend…
Now, we shared public water fountains…and restrooms…
It was a new day!
Then, peers of ours…went off to the Vietnam War…
Some came back in a box…
There was the G.I. Movement…
There was Kent State University!
There were students taking over universities…
There were the black panthers…
There were hippies…
There was marijuana…
There was Woodstock…and free and open sex… and love children..
I can remember coming home to my mother’s house as a “hippy” look-alike…
I had a floppy leather hat and poncho…
I was barefoot with no make-up…
My hair was in “dog-ears”…
I was holding my baby…only a couple of months old…
I remember my Mama cried…
I didn’t get it…then…but I get it now…
I’m sure that she wasn’t sure how far I had slipped away from my JESUS!!
My Mama was a Bible Teacher…a Baptist Sunday School teacher…
Daddy taught a Sunday School class…and was a deacon…but Mama…
Known as Baba to her grandchildren..well, she just walked to a different drummer…
Mama came to know Jesus as a teen-ager…led by her Sunday School teacher…
Her Daddy took her to church as a child…her Mama not getting saved until she was an adult…
But, her Daddy began to drink…and had it not been for that Sunday School teacher…things would have been different…
Mama taught young married women for many years…and many of those dear women called themselves her “out of the womb” daughters…
I can hear them until yet…How dear all of them were to us…her daughters!!!
In later years, Mama and Daddy…Baba and PawPaw led the 2nd Seniors at the church they attended…
I am very blessed and thank God for this heritage! My Mama’s grandfather was a Hardshell Baptist Preacher!!
I could give you many more details…but trying to focus on what the LORD has laid on my heart…
I know that…though I’m 63 years young…I know that I’m embarking on an extraordinary adventure…
All the news broadcasters are speaking of us going over the cliff…but I have the greatest peace about the whole thing…that can only be God!
Well, if we go over a cliff…so be it! Our God is at the helm! It is He that is Captain of the Hosts!!!
He’s manning the ship that is heading over the cliff…the waterfall…
My Trust is in HIM!!! I place my trust in no man!! No bank!! No institution!! No body!!!
I Trust in God!!! It is He that has made me…and not me …myself…
I cannot add a cubit!!
In me…I can do nothing!
In HIM…I can do all things!!
I have a challenge for you!
I want you to join me in this challenge!
I choose to be enthusiastic!!
Joel Osteen preached, Sunday, December 31st, that “enthusiasm” is a Greek word…that theos meaning “God” and that it meant filled with God!
Here’s a link to confirm what Joel said…http://www.thefreedictionary.com/enthusiasm..
Well, here’s your challenge…
I don’t know where you are in your walk with Jesus…
I don’t know if you walked closer in the past…
Or if you’ve ever known Him at all…
I ask that you fill yourself with God…Jehovah God, that is…
The Word declares to us over and over that we rejoice!!
We’re told to rejoice in all things!!
Well, I don’t know about you…but I don’t feel like rejoicing all the time!
It’s hard to think no evil…
It’s hard to love my enemies…those that persecute me…and torment me…
But, my God says to count it all joy!!
Let me share with you what I believe I’ve received from the LORD just recently…
When the disciples came back to JESUS…having gone forth…by twos…healing the sick…casting out demons…etc…they were amazed! The were awed!!!!
Why?
Because they were walking in the same authority Jesus did! But Jesus said…” Not to marvel at that!”
He said to marvel that their names were written in Heaven!
That makes sense!!
We don’t rejoice in the evil…or the bad times…
We rejoice that our names are written in Heaven!
How wonderful is this?
What was hard to do or understand…is now clear!
I rejoice that my name is written in Heaven!!
Woo Hoo!!!
Until the next time…
Teddi!!!!!
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