Wise gifts for a New Year

We have just returned from church where we have looked at the arrival of the Magi following Jesus' birth.  We discussed the gifts they brought and how we can respond in a similar way.  The gifts were lavish (gold), from the heart (frankincense) and sacrificial (myrrh).  My response is to prepare holiday club for the children of Highworth (lavish gift), to help with the food at our local night shelter (from the heart) and to spend more time reading my Bible (sacrificial).  To help us remember these promises we were making we had crafts to bring home.

Promises for the new year

With resolutions for the new year in mind I have made a few more.  I intend to get back into the habit of making our own bread, to craft more scrapbook pages and to spend more time exercising.

We have taken down the Christmas decorations and the lounge now feels very bare.  Which has reminded us that we still have the lounge to decorate, but before we do I thought I would share our Christmas tree with you.

We start the year with a Bible passage from Psalms:

You are my mighty rock,

    my fortress, my protector,

    the rock where I am safe,

my shield,

    my powerful weapon,

    and my place of shelter.

Psalms 18:2

Our prayer as a family is for the promises we are making to ourselves and to God at the start of a new year, that with God's strength and guidance we can keep to these promises and become the people God intended us to be.

With God's blessings from my family to yours,

Jo x