Merry Christmas! 2009 sure did fly by, it seems that we were just preparing for Christmas 2008 yesterday and now here we are, a full year later! God’s grace has been poured out on us so immensely in 2009 and we feel so grateful to Him and we both feel it so strongly. We pray that our friends and family could experience the joy that we have felt this year-- through trials as well as blessing. And we surely have been blessed a lot. Praise God for choosing to love us when we continue to be so unlovable and sustaining our faith in Him when we would surely lose it if left to our own devices. Our feelings could best be summed up in a verse from the hymn “Come Thou Fount”:
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
Probably the most significant thing to happen for us this year was our baptisms. The baptism was an outward expression of an inward miracle that had happened for both of us. Baptism symbolizes how we have died to our old life of sin (going under the water) and are raised with a new heart that now loves and wants to serve Jesus (coming up out of the water). (Romans 6:4) Neither Jeff nor I had done this as Christians, though we’d both been baptized before.
The greatest blessings in our lives (besides being loved by Jesus) continue to be our beautiful children. Lincoln (6), our smart, silly, hard-headed, creative, musical, analytical, inquisitive, engineer; Jackson (4), our dramatic, hilarious, loving, rough, helpful, heroic, mediator; and Miss Lola Marie (2), our precious, girly, tough (yes—girly AND tough), lovely, motherly, sassy, snuggle bug. What gifts! Pray for us that we honor God by raising up these whom He has entrusted to us the way He has commanded in His Word!
Remembering to do everything for God’s glory has been a motto lately, which is why that verse was included on our Christmas card. What a sobering concept! How often we find ourselves doing things that do not bring Him glory. Yet He graciously gives us another chance and calls to mind His Word which is there to guide and convict us. It is an important concept to remember when days seem monotonous; that we are to do the jobs God gave us to do to the best of our ability and for His Glory. SoJeff goes to work and take care of his servers for God’s glory and I work in our home and with our children for God’s glory. And we remember to be thankful to God for giving us the jobs He gave us and creating the roles we’re in perfectly and for His glory. “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31.
We are also thankful for you, our family and friends, whom we are constantly blessed by and love very much. We pray that Jesus Christ would be real to you and working in you this coming year. That He would give you faith and would call you to Him or continue to grow you in Him. We love you.
“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” Romans 11:36
