Isn't it amazing how children look at things? This photo shows Erica (L) and Perri looking at a gift Perri received for Christmas. The gift is Squawkers, the talking parrot, and Perri wanted this thing badly. She squealed and yelled when she learned what was in the box. After he was opened and sat on a table, the girls sat and played for quite a long time. It's their expressions that intrigue me.

I can remember being that enthralled with Christ and His salvation as a new Christian way back in 1979. I can remember thinking that special feeling would surely never, ever leave. I remember thinking I would be like this for the rest of my life. Not so.

Somewhere down the road I lost those feelings and for a long while debated if I had ever really been saved after all. Then the years began to roll ... faster and faster it seems, the years fly and leave me wondering where time has gone. With those years however, have come maturity and for that I am thankful. I don't have to be the starry-eyed person I was at 32. I can be the older, more mature Louise who's come a long way since 1979. The lady who's walked on more rough ground than I would have chosen for myself. But, it's been these rough places that have taught me the most.

Just as Erica & Perri can't stay as they are in this picture, neither do we stay as we were when we first came to faith in Christ. We aren't meant to stay in one place for our time on this earth. We're meant to walk, and learn and grow into the people God desires us to be. We're to do our best to keep our first love alive and well and allow it to grow too. We best do this by remembering that we're to do all for God's glory, not ours.

It's easy to forget that you know. It's easy to get caught up in daily routines that before long become hum-drum and well, routine. We can easily forget where we've come from and Who it was that opened our hearts to receive the gift of eternal life in Christ. We can easily do things without thinking about why we're doing them, or for whom they're done. We can easily forget that we live Coram Deo ... before the face of God ... and that He sees everything and hears every word.

I'm not a person to set New Year's resolutions. Repeated failure has taught me a few things about that. For those who do, may they all work for you. As for me, I'll keep telling myself and others, "If God wills, I'll do so and so", because I have absolutely no clue what the New Year is going to hold, but I do know the One who holds it, and my desire is to be pleasing to Him in whatever comes my way. I will strive to love God with all my heart and soul and strength, and love my neighbor as myself. I will, God willing, live today and tomorrow and all the days I have, I will live to honor and glorify my Father with the life He's given me.