Happy New Year!!! Changing of the Times!

As I start the New Year, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on all the things that I'm thankful for from this last year.
I'm thankful for Dana!
I'm thankful for the girls
I'm thankful for my new house
I'm thankful for my health...even all the aches and pains...
I'm thankful for my church and the college department
I'm thankful for my job...
I'm thankful for my Mom who gave me my values and brought me to church
I'm thankful for my brother and sister...
I'm thankful for my friends and co-workers

I'm just thankful that I am here and that I was placed in this day and age and that I know a savior like Jesus... I'm thankful for the joy that I have and the expectancy of good things in my future...

If you're like me, you don't want to live the kind of life where you are just barely hanging on. You don't want to merely eke out an existence, find a way to cope with your misery, or just get by... You want to have the abundant life Jesus spoke of when He said, "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly" John 10:10.

I've just started reading "The power of a Praying Wife" by Stormie O'Martian and it has great insight into the way prayer can change us... Not other people, but US!! The change has to start with me (us) before God can work in the hearts of other people in our lives... If we harbor resentment or bitterness in our heart at all, our prayers are ineffective... We have to get rid of the hurt and anger and rage and pain in our own heart first... Only then can we offer prayers for others and they be heard... She even recommends that you get involved in a prayer group that has other people pray with you to relieve you of the junk that's in your life... You may be thinking... "Yeah, that's sounds wonderful... but how do I do that?" Here it is... brace yourself.... are you ready for this?...

You have to surrender the right to not feel hurt before you will ever feel better... (you may have even said before, "I'll never let anyone HURT me again." or something like that...)

If that's just too hard to do... If you are so miserable and just can't forgive... let me ask you something... Have you tried to? Have you said, "Lord, Help me to forgive?" "Lord, Help me to love"... It has to start with you.

I highly recommend the book."The Power of a Praying WIFE!!!".. Make this year a year of abundant living that starts with submission to Christ and laying down our right to feel the way we do... Tear down the walls that have been built to protect you from pain, and realize that we are made to feel things... sometimes it's pain, sometimes it's joy, sometimes it's love, sometimes it's sadness... In Ecclessiastes 3, it says there is a time for all things... Learn to recognize the changing of the times...
I love you!
Lea Anne