Happy 2013!!! I celebrated New Year's Eve with my sweet friends Megan and Emma and Teen Mania team that Emma was helping Impact Africa host this week. We had snacks, played games and welcomed 2013 at 10:00pm so everyone could get some rest before they headed out to another full day of ministry. I came home and then actually rang in the New Year chatting with my parents online. It was a fun, albeit quiet way to ring in 2013.
On New Year's Day I took our toddler to her first in-theatre movie since she's been in our home. We drove through a torrential rain storm and made it into the theatre during the previews. Our big girl happily made it to her seat in the dark and started eating her kiddo sized popcorn like it was her job! She got a bit bored mid-way through our 3:15pm showing of "Rise of the Guardians" but after a few reminders to be quiet she was able to finish the movie out. We concluded our day out with dinner at Spar where she happily munched on her chicken nuggets and chips. She really is such a good girl and a joy to be around... especially when she is doing something she loves like going "bye-bye".
One of my goals for 2013 is focus more on the little bits of grace that hold each and every one of my days together. The enormity of this wonderfully chaotic and beautifully turbulent season of my life often got the better of me this past year and I want to find practical ways to help me "keep my heart screwed on right" in 2013. After a stroll down Pintrest lane I decided to make myself what I call a "Buttons of Grace" Jar. It's basically just a spaghetti sauce jar, covered in scrap-booking paper and some packing tape with a slit cut in the lid and a paper pocket glued on the back. BUT the idea is at the end of each day to take the time to make a quick note of one of the ways I experienced the grace of God... just simple record of a tiny button of grace helping hold my day together. Then at the end of 2013 I will have 365 reminders of the Father's grace to guide me into 2014!
I pray that as you enter this New Year that you will take some time to ask the Lord for some practical ways to know Him better and reflect Him more clearly than you did in 2012. Love you!
I could get used to these frequent updates! Love hearing about your life in SA!! Love you too!
ReplyDeletei am glad, mel! and YES i think you need to come back to get a look at my new digs. miss you and happy new year!
ReplyDeleteSweet! I still have two button lapel pins your mom made way back a couple decades ago :) Buttons run deep in your family, but this is the most precious way I'e ever heard of, for using a button :)
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