2012: A Gift of Grace

"We spend our lives dreaming of the future, not realizing that a little of it slips away every day." ~Barbara Johnson

2012, a new year, a new beginning, the future within grasp, at last. But is not the future now? Is not every moment the future of the moment before? Indeed, every moment we are living our future.

Let us live life in vibrant color, in the moment called "now," in the presence of the Almighty. It is easy to speak and to write these sentiments, but how do we live it? How do we capture the beauty every day? The answer is found in God, in Whom life begins and ends, Who paints the golden beams of the rising and setting sun, Who directs the events of each day, Who scatters the night with fireflies and watches over us as we sleep. The answer is found in living every day with Him, "counting the ways He loves," recording His tokens of grace. Several special friends and I are beginning the new year with a project, a journey into the beautiful presence of God. We are recording His gifts of grace, those miraculous blessings that flow from Him every day. Please join us. You will soon find that these gifts of grace are not to be recorded only, but to be shared with others, as well. Grasp and give His grace. It is boundless, ceaseless, unconditional, overwhelming.

Included in my New Year's Resolutions are the following:

• Chronicle His daily grace.
• Study His Word.
• Read books that broaden the boundaries of my knowledge of Scripture.
• Pray ceaselessly.
• Trust the Father unconditionally.

"If God didn't withhold from us His very own Son, will God withhold anything we need? If trust must be earned, hasn't God unequivocally earned our trust with the bark on the raw wounds, the thorns pressed into the brow, your name on the cracked lips? How will He not also graciously give us all things He deems best and right? He's already given the incomprehensible. Christ our Cross-beam." ~Ann Voskamp

• Do not allow my schedule to become overloaded, nor my leisure time to be spent foolishly.
• Use my time and talents to serve first God, then others.
• Write.

"If you want to change the world, pick up your pen." ~Martin Luther

• Create and collect treasures for my hope chest.
• Play the "glad game." (from Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter, and the 1960 movie of the same name)
• Read. (Yes, please! In the car, on the porch, by the fire, in the rain, in crowds, all alone, with a friend, in my bed, in a tree, by the sea...) 

"No man can be called friendless when he has God and the companionship of good books." ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

• Capture moments through my camera lens.
• Visit Narnia. (or Ireland--either is quite acceptable) :)

Our Father, this year, "...Teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom." ~Psalm 90:12