Friday...Happy Re-Birthday

Happy Birthday Dad!
Today is Dad's 87th Birthday and the 1st Anniversary of his by-pass surgery.

We hope you all have had a blessed holiday season and wish for you God's continued blessing during 2010.

In many ways 2009 was a very long year and in other ways it has flown by. So many life changes and challenges for many members of the Jones clan as well as our family of friends.

For me, the events of this year were both energizing and exhausting. About the time one adrenaline surge was subsiding, another stimulus required a response. Each new adventure into jeopardy or adjustment to a modification in life's pilgrimage demanded more epinephrine until finally the benefits of these hormones ceased and I had to rely on sheer will and the wonderful assistance of my siblings (especially Nancy), Charlotte and our terrific children (especially Nathan) as well as so many friends and the "angels" that seem to appear with solutions at the most desparate of times.

We have experienced countless periods uncertainty and feelings of inadequacy this year and for me, pangs of guilt due to these deficiencies. But perhaps the regret I rue the most is my inability to express gratitude or make recompense to the level deserved by those mentioned above (especially our Heavenly Father).

God really made life simple. Creator and created. We are the ones who make it complex and pretentious by trying to fill a role we were never meant to play. So humbly, I once again bid you a simple thank you.

Philippians 4
6-7 - Don't worry over anything whatever; tell God every detail of your needs in earnest and thankful prayer, and the peace of God which transcends human understanding, will keep constant guard over your hearts and minds as they rest in Christ Jesus.

Psalm 54
[6] With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to thee;
I will give thanks to thy name, O LORD, for it is good.
[7] For thou hast delivered me from every trouble,
and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.

God is good!