31 December 2014
Every year we like to welcome the new year at midnight with the clanging of pots and pans, laughter, and eager anticipation of the days to come. How quickly one year ends and a new begins! But the best part of it all? That our God is all-powerful and ever loving, good, and faithful.
Looking back with thanksgiving and forward with hope, I found the following both beautiful and humbling: A Prayer for Year’s End from “The Valley of Vision.”
O Love beyond Compare,
Thou art good when thou givest,
when thou takest away,
when the sun shines upon me,
when night gathers over me.
Thou hast loved me before the foundation of the world,
and in love didst redeem my soul;
Thou dost love me still,
in spite of my hard heart, ingratitude, distrust.
Thy goodness has been with me another year,
leading me through a twisting wilderness,
in retreat helping me to advance,
when beaten back making sure headway.
Thy goodness will be with me in the year ahead;
I hoist sail and draw up anchor,
With thee as the blessed pilot of my future as of my past.
I bless thee that thou hast veiled my eyes to the waters ahead.
If thou hast appointed storms of tribulation,
thou wilt be with me in them;
If I have to pass through tempests of persecution and temptation,
I shall not drown;
If I am to die,
I shall see thy face the sooner;
If a painful end is to be my lot,
grant me grace that my faith fail not;
If I am to be cast aside from the service I love,
I can make no stipulation;
Only glorify thyself in me whether in comfort or trial,
as a chosen vessel meet always for thy use.
A joyous New Year to you all!
14 October 2011
”Every woman, whether rich or poor, married or single, has a circle of influence within which, according to her character, she is exerting a certain amount of power for good or harm. Every woman by her virtue or her vice, by her wisdom or her folly, by her dignity or her levity is adding something to our national elevation or degradation.” —John Angell James
9 March 2009
“The more of Christ that a people enjoy, the happier are they.” – Samuel Willard
“It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.” – Samuel Adams
“Consider that no sin against a great God can be strictly a little sin.” – Ralph Venning
“Mr. Rogers, I like you and your company very well, but you are so precise.” To which the Puritan preacher replied, “O Sir, I serve a precise God.”
“We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it, than we do from learning the answer itself.” – Lloyd Alexander
“Were earthy comforts permanent, who would look for heavenly?” – Anne Bradstreet
