Yesterday was a day filled with many blessings. It was also a wonderful afternoon and evening of relaxation. As for my musings …

-We had a great Christmas worship service yesterday at my 10:30 church. Our attendance was good, the spirit was very good and at least 2 people made the decision to accept Christ as their personal Savior! There was a wonderful feeling of family as people greeted each other and many even hung around after the service and talked with each other longer than I expected on Christmas Day.

-On Saturday evening we had our Christmas worship in a Christmas Eve service at my 9:00 church. There 2 people who made decisions at that service as well. Decisions for Christ always make for a good worship service.

-Surprisingly the temperature was in the high 40’s and we got some rain in the afternoon. It was not a white Christmas and it was a sharp contrast to temperatures of single digits last Sunday.

-Later this week our daughters, 1 son in law and 6 of our grandkids will come to our house for a couple of days for our Christmas celebration. We will be missing 1 son in law who can’t get time off work and my son, daughter in law and 4 of their kids didn’t think the trip from Africa was doable. Our house will be full, it will be fun, the volume will go up several degrees and it will be wonderful.

-We are now able to record the message at my 10:30 church. They are posted each week on both of our church’s Facebook pages.

-Sometimes prayer seems hard, at least it does for me. Sometimes it just flows. This morning was one of those hard times. Good news is that God is still God and He still met me and it was still good.

-My wife and I had the joy of giving some food to a few families this past weekend. This was from a generous outpouring of giving from our congregation to help some families who could use a boost this Christmas season. There are at least 6 families who received food.

-My Assistant Pastor and I each received a special gift yesterday from the church. It was a carved wooden plaque with the Cubs emblem on it! It will hang proudly in my office.

-It is warmer today than it was yesterday. It is going to get to 50 degrees! This is crazy nice weather for December 26.

-From some of my reading this morning, “No one is greater than their prayer life. Our potential is directly proportional to our prayer life.” (Mark Batterson from Day 37 in “Draw the Circle”)

-I am looking forward to sharing our theme for the new year on the 8^th.

-My thought is that this coming Sunday, New Year’s Day, might be a difficult Sunday. I hope not, but history tells me it might be low in attendance and energy. I may have to do something to make sure everyone is awake.

-Some conversations this weekend just increased my burden, and prayers, for those who are going through this Christmas and New Year’s missing a loved one.

-The week between Christmas and New Year’s is always an odd week. People are recovering from the physical and emotional energy of Christmas and the feeling of the in between. Some people are working and some are not. Some people are busy putting their Christmas décor away for another year and some are debating when to take it all down. There are a lot of expectations and anticipation at church leading up to Christmas, this in between week seems to not have many expectations and almost no anticipation. This is a week to take a deep breath and allow your body and mind to recover and renew.

Here’s hoping you find some recovery time this week and that you find someone else you can bless.

Dennis