Saturday, January 02, 2010

Ushering in the Decade


Friends, how are you? I would love to hear from you, about your holidays, your resolutions, your life-themes moving forward.

As for me, I decided that I am going to write out, by hand, all of Jesus’s words in the Bible, which are identified by their red lettering.


So far, I am in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. I will go through the entire New Testament. It is easy for me to lump the Bible all together and not pick specific aspects of it to focus on or distinguish. I know, by and large, what the Bible says about lots of things. I can very easily tell when something goes against the tone and tenor of Scripture. But knowing and being able to identify the Words of Jesus will help me to know Jesus better as well. About two years ago, I realized that I knew Jesus as Father and Jesus as Holy Spirit better than I knew Jesus as son, as man, and as the carpenter in Galilee. So I did a Bible study called “Jesus the One and Only” which helped a lot, and now this Red-Letter experience will only solidify that, I think.

So that is my New Years Resolution. I also want to floss everyday, but I missed yesterday. Oh well. I also want to become a better dancer. And now I need to start looking for another job for when mine ends next December. A friend encouraged me last night by saying that unemployment should fall below ten percent soon. Let’s hope so! But even then, that doesn’t bode well in all natural accounts. Good thing God isn’t bound by the natural!

Yesterday I had a great start to the New Year. I got off the plane at 6 a.m., after a seamless and perfectly smooth journey from Bakersfield to Dulles, VA. I have never had such easy travels as I experienced in all of my December journeys. My trips to Nashville, Sacramento, and Bakersfield all went just as expected. No delays, no problems at all.

I got home and talked my roommate and good friend into going on a walk with me. I mentioned that it would be nice to have people over for a New Years Day dinner party. We decided to go for it, and she decided to fix a traditional southern NY meal—black eyed peas and collard greens. We also made black beans and chicken chili with rice. We had corn bread, sweet potatoes, regular baked potatoes, spaghetti, and a few other things. I was so scared we would not have enough food, or that the crockpot dishes would not be ready in time (we only had a few hours to prepare). But it TOTALLY worked out! There were 17 people that I can count that were there, and they ate and ate and we had a little bit of everything left over! It was perfect. Thanks, God! And it tasted pretty good as well. And it was healthy.

I had to face one of my fears and hang-ups, which is, “if I can’t do something perfectly, I don’t want to do it, because that feels like failure.” So this prohibited me in the past from having parties…because I didn’t have the time and money to spend to have a fabulously perfect party. But last night, we made do, thanks to my VERY classy hostess roommates and friends, who make everything look and work out beautifully. It was one of the best dinner parties at our house. People were there from 6 until after 10 pm, just laughing and talking about faith and life and funny things. It was so great!

More to come, for sure, in 2010! And not only that, but if you read back to my entry on “How God helps me in the Kitchen,” I was able to use the 2lbs of ground beef, spaghetti and sauce that I had in the freezer for just such an occasion!

To those of you who came, THANKS! You blessed us. Come again soon.

No comments: