{Happy New Year Everyone...2022}

 Happy New Year to all my blogging friends. What a gift the Lord has given to us to be able to go forward in this thing we call "life" in this New Year. I hope that you all have a wonderful New Year weekend. I spent a couple days with Marty and his dad in those wonderful Georgia pines. 

We had a great time. The weather wasn't the best...too hot and too windy but we enjoyed our time. 

I did a little clearance Christmas shopping, reading the Word and a whole lot of eating! 

Tried my hand with my new air fryer before we left to go hunting and the chicken and potatoes turned out perfect! I think I am really going to like it. I am pinning lots of recipes and hope to try some more out this week. 

As most of you my WORD for 2021 was JOY and my scripture was Neh. 8:11. "The joy of the Lord is my strength". When I felt that was the word for me little did I know that I would quickly learn that my true JOY could come ONLY come from Him. Let's face it! A lot of life circumstances does not bring us joy!

With the circumstances in life that we deal with and have surely dealt with the last two years our joy could be slapped off our face quick like!

 For me personally, we lost friends and family. Some due to Covid and some not. That itself taught me more about embracing my own life!

I had two eye surgeries that started out to be simple and turned into way more than I had expected and more complicated that the average cataract surgery. "But"...it taught me that my independent personality had to LEARN to depend on others and that my eye sight should never be taken for granite.

I had Covid and I took a HARD hit. I learned a lot during that time. I realized that for whatever reason that God chose to revive my health on earth from this UGLY virus though it took many months. He could have just as easily healed me in heaven but He chose to heal me on earth. I learned that life is very, very short. I learned that I should never take my health for granite and to love others well with actions as well as words.  

I had the shingles...Though I had a light case it proved to be very painful. I learned that being proactive is our best friend. I learned that we all deal with stress differently and to respect that about others. I learned that there's a lot in my life that I simply cannot control!

I gave my letter of retirement in September and my last day at my work will be January 13th. I hope to share more on this later but I will tell you this, GOD HAS BLESSED ME BEYOND MY BEYOND with my minstry/job for 22 1/2 years. This will be truly a bittersweet time for me. BUT...I have prayed for direction and guidance for over two years and I know that I know..."for such a time as this". 

Lots of changes have surely happened to all of us in 2021.  Life is ever changing isn't it? I am just thankful that I know the ONE that never changes. He has surely been my best friend.

But that brings me to my WORD and SCRIPTURE for 2022. 

I had been looking at some bible studies recently that had been gifted to me and was trying to pick out one to do at home on my own. I had several laying out on my desk in my home office and could not decide which one. I had also been praying about my 2022 WORD. All of sudden I just simply closed the books that I was looking at and got up from my desk to get some water to make me a cup of hot tea. I have a little set up for making tea and coffee in my home office and it sure brings me JOY! I walked back in the office and look over at this candle that a soul sister gave to me over a year ago and it says this:

I grabbed some blank pieces of paper and just began writing what came to me. Well, I carried all those pages I had dabbled on with me over the weekend to ponder on as I knew God was sharing a new Word with me, somehow...through the words on that candle. 

So, here's what came from that time of pondering:

 Not travel adventure per say but, well, here's what I finally wrote in my journal on Jan. 1, 2022 if you care to read my poor handwriting....

Life is an adventure but for me it's about a whole lot more. Y'all, I have no clue what tomorrow holds for me but I know the ONE that holds tomorrow and I truly desire to do this journey in life with Him and to be on a God given ADVENTURE no matter what that might be. I pray that each of you has a very Happy New Year and that 2022 brings us change that is GOOD for you and PLEASING to Him. 

Jeremiah 33:3...Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things you did not know. 

I will leave you with a good chuckle...I tried to do a mirror selfie from the hotel over the weekend because my daughters wanted to see if my new jeans looked right on me!!! YES, I have those kind of girls! Well, I wished I had saved the first 10 pictures I made to show you before I finally got one decent one! I had my head chopped off in several, making the ugliest face in quite a few and I even snapped one of just my feet....NONE of the those was done on purpose....I am simply not a mirror selfie I don't guess! Ha! 

P.S. They did approve of the jeans though!!!

P.S.S. YES, I did decide which gifted study to do. I will share more on that later.

Hugs and blessings, Cindy