Welcome 2024. Happy New Year! Greetings from the mountains of NC. No snow on this first day of the year but chilly temps. The color of the sky to the south and east certainly have the elements of color that resemble snow skies. I slept in this morning, although it was not intended. If there were any celebrations at midnight with firecrackers around us, I slept through them. Although, at 1:45 am I heard a few. Sound travels differently here than on flat land, so I can never tell if they are close or at a distance. It seemed like someone realized they had five firecrackers left and just went outdoors to shoot them. Nothing like Katy NYE when fireworks fill the sky and the sound of continual celebration lasts two weeks past the new year.
So far this morning I have experienced great laughing and a minute or two of being sentimental. First text, from CourtneyS. She and Joseph were sitting on the patio drinking hot chocolate around a fire pit, sent a pic when Joseph breaks into singing,🎵 logs by the fire.... I tells ya, Merry Christmas Darling is for all seasons, times and fire. First good laugh of the new year. Then I texted Inez wishing her a HNY complete with runny eggs and medium rare steak. She wished the same back except adding the phrase, WELL DONE. Had to give her props for the biblical reference on this new year, WELL DONE good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord. As I do every new year morning, I wait for the Blog to Print code to arrive so that I can print out my blog in book form. It came, I assembled and left the choice of the front cover to the first pic of 2023 that I posted on the blog. It was Theresa laughing so hard as I leaned in toward her with the famous Mildred and Gertrude SPAM turkey, complete with chicken legs and the little white chef hat things that all the finest put on their chicken legs. I may or may not have shed a few tears remembering my friend. She has almost been gone a year. I miss her, even though we never did anything together outside of church. Her presence and her love...servant heart, contagious. Her laughter, oh my, she is one of the best laughers I ever did know. Oh now, I have had the second sentimental moment of the morning. Just watched The Golden Band from Tiger Land, play at a rally this morning. As I watch I cannot help but think of the seniors in the band, playing at their last football game of the season. Their only opportunity in the future is when alumni come back for a game and play. The first few notes of Hold That Tiger and I am crying. I cry more over football and such. I am goofy but not as a Disney Goofy.
Please excuse any typos as GMoey is helping me blog this morning. I will also blame any grammatical errors on him as well. I love my friends who are the grammar police and honor their commitment to correct any and all mistakes. But as for me and my house, Roy doesn't care about grammatical mistakes either, we will give great joy for those who correct but we will just continue to have fun. Well, the fun part is more me than Roy. I did make him laugh this morning by announcing I was an overachiever on the first day of the new year by sleeping in. I overachieved sleep. Most of the time I just chieve.
Yesterday was the last of what I called field trip lessons liken back at days of excitement when a class went on a field trip. Just something in the air. We looked at Luke 24:17, Jesus asking the two on the road to Emmaus, what they were talking about. The lesson looked at our conversations, our what-ifs and our OCD approach to being prepared for conversations that never happen. These thoughts came about when I decided that my ONE WORD for the year is Notice or Noticing. Don't live in the past, be present in the moment and don't be afraid of the future. See what the Lord is doing in the moment. Don't miss those little things or His presence in the everyday. Last week I talked about a Christmas Eve sermon that a pastor didn't get to deliver, because he died of cancer before Christmas Eve. Yesterday, I used the ending of Kyle Lake's sermon that he didn't get to preach because he died in the baptistry when he touched a microphone. His sermon ending encouraged living and experiencing life, even used wiping a snotty nose of a three year old that didn't quite hit the tissue. He said live into that moment cause soon enough, the three year old will be wiping his own nose. This week I don't have any sermons not preached by a dead pastor. I had seen an article on a children's book that is meant for all ages, Noticing. This led me to ordering it as well as a book, Holy Noticing. I like both books but I enjoyed the children's book better. Another thing that got my attention, on X formerly known as Twitter, a Bible publisher mentioned that maybe, just maybe your dry spiritual condition could be due to your Bible Reading Plan, or your BRP. Now I see BRP and I am totally thinking of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Oh, we could be on the Parkway with our BRP! Anyway, I don't necessarily agree with that reason of a dry spiritual condition. We get too trapped up in our legalism thinking our BRP should be boring and difficult. Thus we can brag about keeping on keeping on. I try to approach that discipline with joy and wonder. Not every time will have wonder but oh my friend, the times that do, blessing after blessing after blessing. Roy has found a plan that he loves and has been using it for over a year. The plan is going through the NT every ninety days. He says he loves it because everything, timeline related comes together for him. It is a delight in our early morning conversations, although I slept through that time today, to hear him tell of what he has learned or never seen before. He still reads the OT but his quiet time is NT. No BRP that dies in the throes of Leviticus.
I read a new year greeting today and I will end with it:
No thank you I have found the best man! Going on forty seven years best man. Happy New Year 2024! Yes, I realize I have taken his words out of context but better Franklins than a BRP stuck in Leviticus! Also, I may or may not have just sent some grammar friends into orbit.
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