Blessed New Year!!!

Well, the final page of 2007 is being written - only four more hours and this year will be history! What story does 2007 tell about you? Did you accomplish anything for the Lord? Were there personal goals you accomplished?

There were definitely some major changes in our family in 2007. In February, our daughter, Kristina, married a wonderful Christian man, Sam, and in May, a little over two months after their marriage, Sam's father passed away from cancer. In May, our son, Ryan, was married to Jillian, a wonderful Christian young lady, whose father passed away from cancer two weeks before their wedding day.

In March, between the two weddings, I was let go from my paralegal job. In July, after a somewhat frustrating job search, God gave me a wonderful job, which I totally love. Then, in September, Jeff was laid off from his job and after a very short job search, God provided him with a job in November.

We now have a clean slate for 2008 - we can decide on the eve of a new year what we will accomplish - spiritually, personally, physically, etc. We even have an extra day, 366 days in which to achieve our goals. I challenge you to consider what you want to achieve in every area of your life.

I took some giant steps in the faith department this year. God has been so faithful and He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Great is Thy Faithfulness!!!

As we look to begin 2008, our first major event will be Ryan leaving on January 4 to start the process of deploying to Iraq. This is an emotional start to the new year, but I have total peace that God will protect him while he is away. Please pray for Ryan and the other soldiers if you think about it. I know I have not been as diligent as I should have been in praying for the troops, but now that it has hit closer to home, I'm sure I will be praying more fervently for their safety. Maybe this is what it will take in my life to accomplish my spiritual goal of drawing closer to the Lord in 2008. Once again, this will require faith in the Lord. I also have personal goals and physical goals I would like to achieve in 2008. Remember, I will be hitting the big 5-0 in the second half of 2008, so I have a goal to lose 30+ more pounds. I will be starting back attending Weight Watchers this week, so I will be well on my way to achieving that goal.

What goals will you achieve? What lessons will you learn? You can decide right now to make 2008 the best year of your life.

Three hundred sixty-six days from now, how will the next chapter of your life read?