Providence Presbyterian Church - Powdersville SC

January – the month of new beginnings.  A fresh start.  A new chapter in life waiting to be written.  New questions to be asked.  Answers to be discovered.  A time to pray and dream and listen and think. 

I love New Year’s.  During my growing-up years, my home church always celebrated “Silent Lord’s Supper” at 11:30 PM on New Year’s Eve.  My family would slip away from parties, and drive through the night to the church.  We would enter the Sanctuary lit only by candles, listening to quiet organ music, and the beautiful and familiar sacrament of communion would be shared.  It seemed more holy in the middle of the night.  It was time to let go of hurtful things from the year past – and to look forward to a new year.  A beginning again.  The service would be completed right at midnight, and we walked back into a cold, quiet world of twinkling stars, church bells pealing forth, and hope for the future. 

I don’t know what you are dreaming of as we enter 2008.   Margaret Young has said “Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want so that they will be happier.  You must first be who you really are, then, do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.”

Here are some New Year’s reminders for you –

            You are a beloved child of God.

          Do the next faithful thing God places in front of you.

My prayer for each of you at Providence in 2008 is that you will love God with all your heart and soul and mind; that your year will be filled with learning and creativity and imagination and laughter; and that you will be faithful in Sunday School and worship attendance. 

                        A New Year – a new beginning . . .

                                    Love,

                                    Karen