The 2013 Project: February, the LOVE month!

Well, it's the last day of January, my month for PEACE.  It's funny:  when I decided on my resolutions for this calendar year, I came up with 16 theme words.  I had thought "one a month," but obviously a few months will double-up.  Peace is January's theme, and all through the month, I kept coming across scripture verses, articles, blogs, devotionals that focused on peace....just like "they" knew!  It was more than coincidental.  Wonderful words they were and so helpful to me in my quest for peace.  Our family has been through some storms this fall and winter, and we have all needed God's peace:  it defies logic, permeates the soul, so wonderful that it we cannot understand it.  It keeps our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  It is the ONLY place to be:  encompassed by God's beautiful peace.

So now, we approach February:  LOVE month!  Our church always had LOVE MONTH when I was a young adult.  Sermons, devotionals, articles, classes all focused on love.  It was a tradition I loved and looked forward to.  We had secret saints...surprised each other with acts of love and little gifts of love.  The month culminated with a Love Feast, a gathering of church family for a meal, music, and program focusing on God's love for us and our love for Him and each other...very meaningful indeed.

In 2013, love will again be this next month's theme.  I'm excited to see what's in store for me and mine as we venture into this month.  How can I better love?  How can I share this love with a needy and hurting world?  Can I love when I might instead hate or dislike greatly?  Will my love shine forth or will I hide it under a bushel, like I sometimes tend to?  Will I answer with loving words?  Will I BE His love?

Yes, 2013 is shaping up to be a fruitful year, one month, one theme-word at a time.  Here's to February, the month of love.  May it be so.  And by the end of December, may our lives and world be just a little richer for the building of a great big bowl, piled high with this fruit of His spirit, plus a few other goodies directed by Him :)

Remember "Little is Much?"

Several months ago, we were given little vinyl signs saying, "Little is much in the hands of God," to place at strategic places around our home.  We have two, one on the microwave and one on the base of our bedroom tv. 

I've probably looked at them hundreds of times since they were placed and had many different thoughts about what they say...here are a few of the "thoughts:"

- my faith is sometimes small, but God can increase it
- my patience can be small, and my temper short; but God can increase my patience and curb my temper, if I can accept His proddings and help
- I can be a very small person, thinking bad thoughts and saying ugly things; but God loves me and discplines me because of that love...and takes me to higher thoughts and kinder words
- my wavering hope grows by leaps and bounds when I put my problems in the hands of God
- I am weak but He is strong
- humility is not a weakness but rather a strength
- All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small; all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all
- a tiny splinter can cause great pain (both literally and figuratively)
- even a tiny child can have a great spiritual nature
- a smile means the world, to someone hurting
- even a small gesture of friendship means so much
- finding a penny is exciting!
- next time you hear "Happy Birthday" being sung, give the birthday person a crisp dollar and watch their face light up!
- buy a homeless person a hamburger...or give him/her a bottle of cold water...or a Coke...might just make their day!
- clean socks to a barefoot person make such a difference
- a tiny seed grows into a beautiful plant
- a word of kindness, a hug, an understanding word mean more than a speech
- write a note, send a text, ask how a person is doing...be a friend!
- on and on, we can go...the list is endless, the possibilities for good, as well

Yes, it doesn't take but a little to make much, in the hands of God. 

Will you join me today is offering just a little something to someone? Then wait to see what big, wonderful things God will do with that small gesture!  He won't disappoint.

2013

Well, another new year is here!  Time is moving on, and here we are, with 364 new days ahead of us in 2013.  What will we do with these days?  Will they be good ones?  Memorable ones?  Hard ones?  Time will tell...If I had to guess, I would imagine they will hold a little bit of everything...good, bad, happy, sad...perhaps I should "resolve" to do/be some things that might help me everyday, whether it's a good day or a bad one.

Since I'm already one of those who likes to make New Year's Resolutions,  here's what I'm thinking this second day of the new year: 

 - I know I will not be perfect in keeping my resolutions, but I do resolve to do my best and to keep each one as a priority.

 - Since there are 12 months in the year, I'm thinking I'll add a resolution-a-month; and at the end of December, I will have at least "grown" in those 12 areas.

 - I've made my list, and it came out to 14~  I guess I'll have to double up a time or two :)

 - I'm going to call my list "Fruitful Resolutions," and I don't mean apples, oranges, and bananas (although a few more of those in my diet might just be a good thing!)

I resolve in January to make PEACE a priority.  Peace:  not just the absence of dissent or discord, but that place in my heart and life where the peace of God resides.  No matter what happens, He is there; He will get  through the fire, the storm, the raging sea.  He will soothe my spirit and give me His peace which passes understanding.  His peace:  calmness, respite from tension and anxiety, a quietness and sense of acceptance and tranquility that is out-of-body, out-of-this-world, yet perfectly relavent to my circumstances...in other words, not because I'm trying so hard or because I've decided it will be but because I'm trusting Him for it.

Here's to PEACE:  I hope to both walk with it by day and sleep in His heavenly peace  at night.  And may it be contagious to those whom I love most and to those with  whom I share life: my husband, children, and grandson...and with our dear friends, acquaintances, and strangers alike.

In the year of our Lord 2013, may PEACE prevail, and may it begin with me.