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Setting the ground work for 2021

www.laurareimer.net

Well Happy New Year! 

It’s Monday and we have a service call lined up for our fireplace, I have already made a call to the Village Hall with a water consumption question and some Santa figurines are begging to be hauled back down to their boxes. The washer and dryer have been humming since 6 A.M. and Russ is back in his at-home office. 

Anybody else ready for a little routine again?

We really did enjoy the holidays. Even though they were different with family and friends not able to gather like we used to, it was restful and joyful in many ways. A respite from the craziness of the world. We watched some sports and documentaries. Russ had a couple of movies he wanted to see and we read and napped and goodness…we ate. 

As we head into 2021, I am not feeling called to make any attempt at resolutions.

I instituted one last year where I would try a new habit each month and that was fun until the pandemic hit and just figuring out how to safely navigate that with my mental and physical health in tact was enough of a “new habit.”

So today, I am just going to let you know my plans for my daily quiet time as of right now and share some tidbits gleaned from both a documentary and a ten day devotion I signed up for.  There will be a list of resources at the bottom of the post.

For quiet time I am reading through The Message this year. It works out math wise much like last year. Using the Eugene Peterson The Message Study Bible, I will be able to read about 5 – 6 pages a day to make it through the whole text. This includes some of his mediations and contemplative studies so I decided to set my beloved My Utmost for His Highest aside this year. 

I have a daily devotional that was gifted by my friend who has been prayerfully selecting an annual devotion book for me for more years than I can even remember. They are lined up on my shelves and are a reminder of her faithfully holding my arms up in love and prayer every day of the year for a very long time. This year’s selection is Jesus Centered Daily by Rick Lawrence. 

In addition, I received a Threadbare Prayer book from another friend and the author is doing a 100 day prayer commitment. Which coincided nicely with my decision to use yet another gift, a journal with personalized Scripture verses on each page, to journal my prayers for our family this year. 

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of committing to a daily time of intake of God’s Word, study and prayer. We simply cannot subsist on a weekly visit to our local church, a sermon, a couple of inspirational Bible verses posted on Instagram and be fed and grow and really follow Jesus. I couldn’t have made it through 2020 intact and thriving if I had just snacked on the Bread of Life when convenient. 

My second little item so share is from our viewing of the Social Dilemma on Netflix. It confirmed some of my suspicions and it definitely explains how we are seeing more and more conflict, confusion and conspiracy theorizing.

Money talks and fuels all manner of sin. Which brings me to the ten day devotion. I am receiving ten days of meditations and questions from Well Watered Woman that center on using Instagram for Jesus. The articles have been convicting as the attractions and pitfalls of social media are universal. 

Both The Social Dilemma and these writings (the Social Dilemma is not a Christian effort, but as a Christ follower I can appreciate the ethics and moral issues at risk with our current lack of standards for the internet market place), remind us that we don’t have to play into the hands of those who would use a wonderful tool like the internet for greed and profit only. 

Some of the reminders at the end of the documentary are reinforced in the study I am doing. 

  • Monitor your time – budget how much time you spend on social media. 
  • Live in the real world, not scrolling through a fake one. 
  • Fact check what you share and post.
  • Disable notifications and don’t let a social media platform choose what you watch, follow interact with. 
  • Make the choice to set limits on when you will check your social media and discipline yourself to stick to it. 
  • Put the phone away during times at the table or when with people. 
  • Recognize where you are replacing finding your comfort, guidance, peace in God with a means that will never satisfy your deep needs. 

Ok 

Lecture over. 

Have a blessed day! 

Resources:

Threadbare Prayers: https://www.amazon.com/Threadbare-Prayer-Prayers-Hearts-Hopeless/dp/1791008011

Jesus Centered Daily https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Centered-Daily-Touch-Smell-Taste/dp/1470759608

The Well Watered Woman website http://well watered woman

Personalized Scripture Journal https://papersunday.com/products/navy-floral-cross-personalized-bible-scripture-journal?variant=31042587623475&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google%20Shopping&papersunday.com&ag=115168117587&kw=&ad_id=475726100392&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxr3EuNOC7gIVEePACh1ArgzfEAQYASABEgKNC_D_BwE

The Eugene Peterson Study Bible is sadly out of print and available from used book places for a rather hefty price…sorry

The Social Dilemma on Netflix

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