Growing in the Lord & Walking in the Spirit

 I came back from the New Years' party that I got to attend last night and I immediately thought about the past year. I have a feeling that most people are having similar thoughts to "2020 has failed me" but my brain instead thought "Did I fail 2020?" It's more like "Did I fail God by not using the many chances He gave me during the year 2020?" While I am so thankful for how much I have grown in this year, I have a feeling that so much would be different, and for the better, if I chose to make the effort to spread the gospel or show God's love to strangers, friends, and acquaintances in my life.  But did I really fail 2020? My goal in life is to Give God Glory, and like I mentioned, I did not do that every single time I was given the opportunity to. I messed up quite a few times, yes, but I did not fail 2020. I lived my life the way I did, and God has been able to help me to focus on Him again and again when I lose that focus. God has always be...

 As I am writing this it is Christmas Eve of 2020. Hopefully, I can get this published not much time between now and New Years'. I want to get as much of my thoughts on paper before I forget, though I doubt any of this will be hard to forget.  Over this year there is so much that I have been able to learn, and as I have grown up I have learned to pay attention and appreciate the table conversations, or family conversations we have in general. Over the past few months I have been able to learn much and add much to the conversations that I was engaged and paying attention to. While there are far too many for me to count, there are a few that  I would like to talk about that apply to the holiday season this time of year.  What started from a slight accident of reading 'too much' of the Christmas story in Luke 2 on celebration turned into a discussion full of great observations. The passage that is normally read is Luke 2:1-21. The passage that my family chose to read th...