You all know I have a heart for cardiac babies… will you please pray for Moriah Nelson and her family today? Her mama wrote a really tough post.

Kristyn Getty sings ‘What Grace is Mine’ at Shadow Mountain Church, San Diego in Feb 2009. In 2008, St. Patricks Day and Easter Sunday landed in the same week, which hasn’t happened for over a century. Kristyn wrote lyrics to match this well known Irish Traditional Melody.

This worksheet has been floating around my mommy message boards. The writer of the thread I copied it from said she got it from Nancy Leigh DeMoss’ Revive our Hearts e-mail where Nancy had given credit to Donald S. Whitney… I am still working on filling mine out (and probably won’t post my answers since some are pretty personal) but it’s a very eye-opening exercise and it’s helping me think through what I need to focus on in 2009.

Ten Questions to Ask at the Start of a New Year or On Your Birthday

Once, when the people of God had become careless in their relationship with Him, the Lord rebuked them through the prophet Haggai. “Consider your ways!” (Haggai 1:5) he declared, urging them to reflect on some of the things happening to them, and to evaluate their slipshod spirituality in light of what God had told them.

Even those most faithful to God occasionally need to pause and think about the direction of their lives. It’s so easy to bump along from one busy week to another without ever stopping to ponder where we’re going and where we should be going.

The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to stop, look up, and get our bearings. To that end, here are some questions to ask prayerfully in the presence of God.

1. What’s one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?

2. What’s the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?

3. What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?

4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?

5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?

6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?

7. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?

8. What’s the most important way you will, by God’s grace, try to make this year different from last year?

9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?

10. What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? In eternity?

In addition to these ten questions, here are twenty-one more to help you “Consider your ways.” Think on the entire list at one sitting, or answer one question each day for a month.

11. What’s the most important decision you need to make this year?

12. What area of your life most needs simplifying, and what’s one way you could simplify in that area?

13. What’s the most important need you feel burdened to meet this year?

14. What habit would you most like to establish this year?

15. Who do you most want to encourage this year?

16. What is your most important financial goal this year, and what is the most important step you can take toward achieving it?

17. What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your work life this year?

18. What’s one new way you could be a blessing to your pastor (or to another who ministers to you) this year?

19. What’s one thing you could do this year to enrich the spiritual legacy you will leave to your children and grandchildren?

20. What book, in addition to the Bible, do you most want to read this year?

21. What one thing do you most regret about last year, and what will you do about it this year?

22. What single blessing from God do you want to seek most earnestly this year?

23. In what area of your life do you most need growth, and what will you do about it this year?

24. What’s the most important trip you want to take this year?

25. What skill do you most want to learn or improve this year?

26. To what need or ministry will you try to give an unprecedented amount this year?

27. What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your commute this year?

28. What one biblical doctrine do you most want to understand better this year, and what will you do about it?

29. If those who know you best gave you one piece of advice, what would they say? Would they be right? What will you do about it?

30. What’s the most important new item you want to buy this year?

31. In what area of your life do you most need change, and what will you do about it this year?

The value of many of these questions is not in their profundity, but in the simple fact that they bring an issue or commitment into focus. For example, just by articulating which person you most want to encourage this year is more likely to help you remember to encourage that person than if you hadn’t considered the question.

If you’ve found these questions helpful, you might want to put them someplace—in a day planner, PDA, calendar, bulletin board, etc.—where you can review them more frequently than once a year.

So let’s evaluate our lives, make plans and goals, and live this new year with biblical diligence, remembering that, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage” (Proverbs 21:5). But in all things let’s also remember our dependence on our King who said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

Copyright © 2003 Donald S. Whitney.

Copyright Disclaimer: All the information contained on the Center for Biblical Spirituality website is copyrighted by Donald S.

Hands down, these past few days have made up one of the best weekends in recent memory! Okay, well, minus the end of pregnancy discomforts (I’m 38 weeks today) but everything else was wonderful!

On Saturday, my parents watched Munchkin for the afternoon so Hubby and I could go on a DATE! We went to the GCC Christmas concert and then had dinner at a favorite Italian place.

Blessing #1: I have been married to a wonderful man for almost 5 years.

Blessing #2: We are to live in a country where we are free to worship our Lord PUBLICLY and without fear of persecution!

On Sunday (yesterday) we got to go to church as a family for the first time in almost two months! I was struck by the immense privilege it is to be able to take our daughter to the assembly of believers where, while she’s still not quite old enough to understand what is going on, she does understand this is a special place where she/we are loved by the church family. Hubby and I have been taking turns going (he in the morning and me in the evening) but Munchkin hasn’t been in so long… but she remembered and she had a WONDERFUL time passing our smiles and giggles to anyone who would look her way.

Blessing #3: We are free to teach our children about the Lord (and take them to church!) without fear they will be taken away from us.

Blessing #4: We have a wonderful church family that loves on, and invests in the lives of, our youngest members.

Last night our church had our annual carol sing. They put all the chairs in a circle (three deep) around the piano and sing our favorites. Any song in the advent section of the hymn book is fair game. If you don’t know it, sight read it to the best of your ability but you have to sing!

Blessing #5: Music that exalts our Lord.

**Contented Sigh** My heart is overflowing as I consider how blessed I am.

This little boy was not expected to live a month ago, but God is bigger than any medical impossibility!

I have been following the blog of a family who’s baby has a heart problem for several months now. Though it’s not the same heart condition as Rebecca had, the disease process and treatment options have been almost identical. It’s been a privilege to pray for little Reese and her parents and I rejoiced to see her doing well.

I just found out that Reese has taken a turn for the worst and is not expected to live more than a few days. Her parents, Todd and Ashley, have a Christ-centered view of the situation and are choosing to not take heroic efforts beyond keeping her comfortable.

Please pray for this precious family:
1. That God would be glorified and magnified.
2. That someone will (or maybe already has) come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as a result of Reese’s life and her parents’ responses.
3. That Reese will be as comfortable as possible in these last days.
4. That there will be precious memories made.
5. For peace and comfort for her mama and daddy, and for her older brother and sister.

God is good, all the time, even though we don’t always understand why things can’t go the way we wish they could.

Watch the Lamb by Ray Boltz

Walking On the Road
To Jerusalem,
The time had come to sacrifice,
Again,
My two small sons,
They walked beside me down the road,
The reason that they came,
Was to watch the lamb…
And they said,
“Daddy daddy,
What will we see there,
There’s so much that we don’t understand,”
So I told them of Moses,
And Father Abraham,
And I said dear children,
“Watch the lamb….
There will be so many,
In Jerusalem today,
We must be sure this little lamb,
Doesn’t run away,”
And I told them of Moses,
And Father Abraham,
And I said “Dear children,
Watch the lamb….”
When we reached the city,
I knew something must be wrong,
There were no joyful worshippers there,
No joyful worship songs,
And I stood there,
With my children,
In the midst of angry men,
Then I heard a crowd cry out,
“Let’s Crucify Him!”
We tried to leave the city,
But we could not get away,
Forced to play in this drama,
A part I did not want to play,
Why upon this day were men condemned to die,
Why were we standing right here,
Where soon they would pass by,
I looked and I said,
“Even now they come,”
The first one cried for mercy,
The people gave him none,
The second one was violent,
He was arrogant and loud,
I can still hear his angry voice,
Screaming at the crowd,
Then someone said,
“There’s Jesus,”
I scarce believed my eyes,
A man so badly beaten,
He barely looked alive,
[ Watch The Lamb lyrics found on http://www.completealbumlyrics.com ]
Blood poured from His body,
From the thorns on His brow,
Running down the cross,
And falling to the ground,
I watched as He struggled,
And I watched Him when He fell,
The cross came down upon His back,
And the crowd began to yell,
In that moment I felt such agony,
In that moment I felt such loss,
Till the roman soldier grabbed my arm and screamed,
“YOU! Carry his cro———–ss!”
At first I tried to resist him,
But his hand reached for his sword,
So I knelt and I took
The cross from the Lord
I put it on my shoulders
We started down the street
And the blood that He’d been shedding,
Was running down my cheeck…
They led us to Golgatha
They drove nails,
Deep in His feet and hands,
And on the cross,
I heard him pray,
“Father, forgive them…”
Never have I seen such love
In any other eyes
“Into thy hands I commit my spirit,”
He prayed,
And then He died.
I stood for what seemed like years,
I lost all sense of time,
Then I felt two tiny hands
Holding onto mine
My children stood there weeping,
And I heard the oldest say
“Father please forgive us,
The lamb,
Ran away…
Daddy daddy,
What’ve we seen here,
There’s so much that we don’t understand,”
So I took them in my arms,
We turned and faced the cross
And I said
“Dear children
Watch the—– la—–mb…”

While I was writing the previous post, I got the following e-mail from my dear friend Nicole:

Yesterday we recorded Daniel (6) and Mally (3) quoting Matthew 7 from memory. I might be a biased big sister, but I think they did a terrific job. I love the way Mally yawns halfway through; and the way Daniel carries her when she stumbles a little.
I have such adorable little siblings!
My mom has done such a great job teaching them scripture; they memorize so much in the Psalms and now with their tackling of the Sermon On The Mount…..wow!

Here it is:

Good job, Mallory and Daniel and Mrs. H!