Stephen Sparks
Director
Senior Adult Ministries

How well I remember as a child complaining about how slowly time seemed to go. Over and over again, my parents would tell me that someday I would pray for time to slow down. Guess what, my friends? That time has come!

I can hardly believe another year has come and gone. How sobering to realize that life is but a vapor…here today and gone tomorrow!

A number of years ago, someone in my pastorate gave me the following:

Count Down to Your Best Year Ever

• Six very important words: “ I admit I made a mistake.”

• Five very important words: “You did a great job.”

• Four very important words: “What do you think?”

• Three very important words: “If you please.”

• Two very important words: “Thank you.”

• The least important word: “I.”

The challenge was and still is to remember these simple words and people will remember you.

Frances Ridley Havergal penned these beautiful words:

Dear Master, for this New Year just one request I bring:

I do not pray for happiness or any earthly thing;

I do not ask to understand the way Thou leadest me;

But this I ask, teach me to do the thing that pleaseth Thee.

I want to know Thy guiding voice, to walk with Thee each day,

Dear Master, make me swift to hear and ready to obey.

And thus the year I now begin, a happy year will be,

If I am seeking just to do, the thing that pleaseth Thee.

May the Lord bless you with a wonderful New Year filled with His glory and His presence. May He continue to bless you and yours with health and strength and give you a fresh anointing. May He crown your life with loving kindness and tender mercies. May He give you the very desires of your heart as you seek after Him. May He bless you with a holy year as you forever experience His love flowing in and through you.