Happy New Year

The more appropriate greeting would be that I pray you have a blessed new year. I pray that prayer for our family as well. I do not think the economic turn down has done us a disfavor. Aren't we all appreciating God's blessings a little more instead of always looking for more? I know that some of you have businesses suffering and have lost jobs or securities. My heart goes out to you. From past experience I urge you to hang on to God's promises. Remember the Reagan years? To my dad and many others he was a great leader. To Ken and me, some of his programs were partly responsible for the loss of our business. There were many other factors. Ugliness trickles down. But since that day, I have looked at money in a totally different way. I learned first hand that one can have money one day and be penniless the next. One can appear to be a successful person one day and a fool the next. A seventy year old man recently confessed to his children that he has lost a third of his holdings in the last six months. It isn't uncommon for us to blame ourselves.

My son, John and I were discussing those difficult times on the phone the other day. He reminded me that through all that ugliness, we were never without food or shelter. My pride was seriously bruised. I wanted to run....move far away and start over. My husband saw it differently. H e felt it was an opportunity to stay put and prove our integrity to our community. He was right, of course.

I learned not to point fingers. We as observers never know all the factors involved in another's misfortune. Hopefully, we all will have learned a few lessons from the hardships some of us are experiencing. So to any that find facing the future with less security, be reminded that you don't know the future but you know Who holds the future.