Sabbath Keeping ~ New Year's Eve 2017

"Forget the former things; 

do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing!

Now it springs up;

do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness

and streams in the wasteland."

~ Isaiah 43:18-19 ~

"All discarded lovers should be given a second chance,

but with somebody else."

~ Mae West ~ 

"What are you allowing to stop you from letting go and starting over?"

"You may have a fresh start any time you choose, for this thing we call "failure" is not the falling down but the staying down." ~ Mary Pickford ~

"For last year's words belong to last year's language

And next year's words await another voice.

And to make an end is to make a beginning."

~ T. S. Elliot ~

"The beginning is always today." ~ Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ~

"The first step towards getting somewhere 

is to decide you're not going to stay where you are."

~ J. P. Morgan ~ 

"The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become - because He made us. He invented us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be...It is when I turn to Christ, when I give up myself to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own." ~ C. S. Lewis ~

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." ~ Seneca ~

"The chief beauty about time

is that you cannot waste it in advance.

The next year, the next day, 

the next hour are lying ready for you,

as perfect, as unspoiled,

as if you had never wasted or misapplied 

a single moment in all your life.

You can turn over a new leaf every hour

if you choose."

~ Arnold Bennett ~ 

"When someone you love dies, you are given the gift of "second chances". Their eulogy is a reminder that the living can turn their lives around at any point. You're not bound by the past; that is who you used to be. You're reminded that your feelings are not who you are, but how you felt at that moment. Your bad choices defined you yesterday, but they are not who you are today. Your future doesn't have to travel the same path with the same people. You can start over. You don't have to apologize to people that won't listen. You don't have to justify your feelings or actions, during a difficult time in your life. You don't have to put up with people that are insecure and want you to fail. All you have to do is walk forward with a positive outlook, and trust that God has a plan that is greater than the sorrow you left behind. The people of quality that were meant to be in your life won't need you to explain the beauty of your heart. They already understand what being human is---a roller coaster ride of emotions during rainstorms and sunshine, sprinkled with moments when you can almost reach the stars." ~ Shannon L. Alder

"You are never too old to set another goal or dream another dream." 

~ C. S. Lewis ~

"God reminds us of the past lest we get into a shallow security in the present."

~ Oswald Chambers ~ 

"And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been."

~ Ranier Maria Wilke ~

"And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command 

but one we have had from the beginning. 

I ask that we love one another. 

And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. 

As you have heard from the beginning, 

his command is that you walk in love." ~ 2 John 1:5-6 ~ 

Please pray for ~ Sharon's family and friends as they wend their way through the shadow lands ~ Rebekah ~ Jim ~ Betty ~ 

In 2018 may you be overwhelmed with God's grace, mercy, love, favor, kindness, and, in turn, shower those in your sphere of influence with love.