To: Kathy in Alaska
Freep mail me to be on or off the Daily Bread ping list
Lonely Christmas
December 6, 2018
My eyes are ever on the Lord.
Psalm 25:15
The loneliest Christmas I ever spent was in my grandfathers cottage near Sakogu, northern Ghana. I was just fifteen, and my parents and siblings were a thousand kilometers away. In previous years, when Id been with them and my village friends, Christmas was always big and memorable. But this Christmas was quiet and lonely. As I lay on my floor mat early Christmas morning, I remembered a local song: The year has ended; Christmas has come; the Son of God is born; peace and joy to everybody. Mournfully, I sang it over and over.
My grandmother came and asked, What song is that? My grandparents didnt know about Christmasor about Christ. So I shared what I knew about Christmas with them. Those moments brightened my loneliness.
Alone in the fields with only sheep and occasional predators, the shepherd boy David experienced loneliness. It would not be the only time. Later in his life he wrote, I am lonely and afflicted (Psalm 25:16). But David didnt allow loneliness to cause him to be despondent. Instead, he sang: My hope, Lord, is in you (v. 21).
From time to time we all face loneliness. Wherever Christmas may find you this year, in loneliness or in companionship, you can enjoy the season with Christ.
Lord, thank You that with You Im not alone even in my times of loneliness. This Christmas, help me to enjoy my fellowship with You and to reach out to others.
With Jesus at Christmas, were never alone.
Psalm 25 is a prayer for and celebration of Gods guidanceextended to anyone willing to humbly learn from Him (vv. 5, 89, 12). Even the structure of this psalm as an acrostic poem (each line sequentially following the Hebrew alphabet) reinforces this emphasis on learning from God, since the structure was often chosen for its helpfulness in memorization.
The psalms theme of worship as a lifestyle of learning from God is also captured by the words put my trust in verse 1more literally, lift up my soul (nrsv; soul referring to all of oneself, both body and spirit). The image, alluding to the worship posture of uplifted hands, offers a beautiful picture of walking with God: we honestly lift up before Him all of ourselves and our struggles, while continually waiting with open, trusting hands to receive all we need from our loving, gracious God (vv. 1518, 2021).
2 posted on
12/05/2018 6:03:56 PM PST by
The Mayor
(Honesty means never having to look over your shoulder.)
To: Kathy in Alaska
~ " Hi Ya!!!" ~
~ Never Forget ~
~ ~
~ Good Evening ~
~ Welcome To My World ~
Frontier Flights - I'm Down There Somewhere
|
4 posted on
12/05/2018 6:14:28 PM PST by
SkyDancer
( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
To: Kathy in Alaska; LUV W; HiJinx; AZamericonnie; Jet Jaguar; SandRat; laurenmarlowe; beachn4fun; ...
Greetings to all at the Canteen!
To all our military men and women, past and present,
THANK YOU
for your service!
5 posted on
12/05/2018 6:16:16 PM PST by
radu
(God bless our military men and women, past and present)
To: Kathy in Alaska
“A date which will live in infamy” in my mind for TWO reasons:
The dastardly attack on Pearl Harbor.....
AND.....
more and most importantly:
My wedding anniversary!
I hope that Mrs. spel reads this post!
** snicker **
To: Kathy in Alaska
HIwdy, Kathy.
Hump Day! All checks out on time? Couldn’t have been easy what with having to start the week putting the office back together.
7 posted on
12/05/2018 6:20:18 PM PST by
radu
(God bless our military men and women, past and present)
To: Kathy in Alaska
Excellent thread, Kathy, thanks!
"A Day that will live in Infamy." - President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dec. 8, 1941
10 posted on
12/05/2018 6:23:06 PM PST by
PROCON
('Progressive' is a Euphemism for Totalitarian)
To: Kathy in Alaska
31 posted on
12/05/2018 7:09:44 PM PST by
luvie
(The bravery and dedication of our troops in keeping us safe & free make me proud to be an American!)
To: Kathy in Alaska
My great grandfather was a Navy salvage diver assigned to the USS Vestal and was part of the post attack salvage effort.
37 posted on
12/05/2018 7:53:58 PM PST by
2CAVTrooper
(Democrats... BETRAYING America since 1828.)
To: Kathy in Alaska
The first American aviator to face a Japanese fighter face-to-face that morning ...was an
aviatrix. Cornelia Fort was a flight instructor on Oahu and that Sunday morning she happened to be giving a flying lesson. They were doing touch-and-go's on an airstrip near Pearl and she had to take the controls away from the student to avoid a mid-air with a Zero that was making an emergency landing on the same strip, believed to be have been just coming off the first attack run on the fleet.
Fort was an heiress, her father the founder of the National Life and Accident Insurance Company, a long-time sponsor of the Grand Old Opry, and whose name you will have heard mentioned if you've listened to the Opry radio show. The Cornelia Fort air park, located next to the grounds of the present-day Opryland complex, was named in her honor (although most passers-by assume it's the site of some old fort named after a guy called Cornelia).
Fort was bigger, stronger, faster and smarter than most of the other kids and she grew up more tomboy than debutante. As a child in the 1920s she witnessed her father forcing her older brother to take an oath never to fly in an airplane but he never dreamt he would need to have his daughter take the same pledge.
When war ensued Fort joined the Womans Auxiliary Ferry Service (WAFS). She was killed in 1943 in the crash following a mid-air collision with an Army Air Corps pilot who was attempting to impress her with his flying prowess while they were participating in a formation flight to Love Field in Dallas.
Fort was only 24 years of age at her death and already had logged more than 1100 hours of flight time. She was the first of the 38 WAFS who would give their lives in the service of their country in aviation mishaps before the war was over.
To: Kathy in Alaska
Snowy and cold here. 200 Elk a mile west of me in the subdivision and 4oo to the east on a private ranch. My kind of invasion.
My mother was born December 7 99 years ago. I have a cousin entombed in the Arizona. We are losing the last of the greatest generation, kind of a change of the guard.
57 posted on
12/05/2018 10:41:52 PM PST by
mountainlion
(Live well for those that did not make it back.)
To: Whenifhow; null and void; aragorn; EnigmaticAnomaly; kalee; Kale; 2ndDivisionVet; azishot; ...
pause for reflection ping
79 posted on
12/06/2018 9:10:59 AM PST by
bitt
("Let justice be done though the heavens fall".)
To: Kathy in Alaska
Beautiful - but sad - opening. Most of us were just a twinkle in our dads eye but it behooves us to protect the true history along with other things the left is trying to distort.
Thanks Miss Kathy .. XOXOXO
81 posted on
12/06/2018 10:22:48 AM PST by
DollyCali
(Don't tell God how big your storm is...tell the storm how BIG your God is!)
To: Kathy in Alaska; GodBlessUSA; LUV W; radu; PROCON; MEG33; E.G.C.; All
Good morning, Canteen. Good morning to our
AWESOME
Military, our Allies, and their families.
Thank you, Luvy, for preparing the Canteen
for today's activities.
Please stick around and visit with the military
and/or family members.
That's what we're here for.
The FR Canteen is
Come in and sit for a while.
There's always plenty of coffee, tea,
pancakes, conversation, silliness,
and plain old BS
REMEMBER THEM ~ DEFENDERS OF FREEDOM
Til they all come home.
84 posted on
12/07/2018 3:52:41 AM PST by
beachn4fun
(Just because you THINK it, doesn't make it so.)
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