The End of the Year

Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hello Everyone:

As you know, I have taken off from posting until the New Year.  Our church practices rest month during the month of December, where we only attend church service on Sunday but all other activities are suspended until the New Year including bible study.  It allows us to rest, be with family and friends during the holiday season and begin to get focused for the New Year. 

I would like to personally thank the many followers that have faithfully followed my daily devotional this year.  I am still working to try and find the right format that is most effective for my audience.   Any suggestions that you have are welcomed and you can send them to bernice@bernicedavisministries.org and I will definitely review them during this holiday season.

Please take time during the holiday season to enjoy you and don’t be stressed by the commercialism and pressure that can go along with this season.   I absolutely have no pressure on me during this holiday season.   I don’t spend more than I have allocated for this season and if I don’t want to spend anything at all then I am free to do that also without feeling any guilt or shame.    I have learned to live free and I will never go back in bondage again concerning anything.

I love this season of the year.  People  seem to be nicer, so much excitement and it also exposes us to a lot of charities, organizations and people that are in need that we can assist that we may not acknowledge except during this season of the year.   While I know that statistics also show that this can be one of the most depressing times of the year due to economic situations, the loss of love ones, etc…   Use this opportunity to make a difference in someone else’s life by showing them the love of God through giving.   It doesn’t matter how much we have or how little, we can all share whatever we have or volunteer our time and talents to assist the needy.

This season is very hard for those of us who have lost loved ones.  I never knew how hard until the loss of my mom.   There were things that she loved to do during the holidays that use to bring so much joy to her and doing them is just not the same without her.   It’s been five years now and some days it feels like it just happened.    I was telling a friend that around the fourth year I started feeling a little relief like I was getting use to living with such a great loss and it seemed like I was going to be okay and the fifth year, it felt like it had just happened all over again.   I use to be so insensitive to people who after 10, 15 years would tell me that they still struggle sometimes with loss and in the back of my head, I would be like “okay,,, you really should be over that by now” but experiencing it myself makes me understand exactly how you can still be saddened after so many years.  

Please be clear, I am not depressed about the loss of my mom, but I do often find myself thinking of her especially during the holidays and my eyes will get a little teary.   I am so sure that she is enjoying Jesus and is right where she wants to be.    It’s a journey that we all have to take and actually dying in Christ is bitter/sweet.  If you have a relationship with Christ, death can be the most beautiful yet the most painful experience you’ll ever encounter.

Wow.. It felt good to talk about her.  Thank you for listening.   Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and I will be returning at the first of the year to share with you as I always do my reflections of the past year, my triumphs and obstacles and my plan to move forward. 

I hope you will continue to join me daily as we strive to be more like Christ in everything we do. 

Stay encouraged everyone and don’t forget to pray and read God’s word daily.

Again… MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR…

This entry was posted on 7. December 2011 at 12:42 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.