A New Year Prayer

Happy New Year!

I am making only one small change to the "Musings" this year. I am adding Google's "Ad Sense" - a tiny block of ads - to both my blog and my website, in a small attempt to defray my publishing costs. The e-mail version of my post will continue to be sent ad-free, just as I promised. In fact, the program policies for the Ad Sense program even prohibit me from encouraging you to click the ads, so this is the last you'll hear about it from me.

I am well into my 11^th year of sending out something funny or inspiring every weekday, with a little bit of weblog fluff and nonsense on the occasional weekend. I can't be positive, because I don't look back often, but I do believe that very little of that material has been repeated over the years.

May 2010 leave you a little closer to Christ, a little kinder, a little richer in spirit and bank account, a little closer to those you call friends and family, and still musing with me.

God Bless You, Every One.

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A NEW YEAR'S PRAYER

God of our yesterdays, our todays, and our tomorrows....

We praise you for your unequaled greatness.
Thank you for the year behind us, and the year ahead of us.
Forgive us for the times we fell short in 2009.

Help us, in this new year, Father, to fret less and laugh more.
To teach our children to laugh by laughing with them.
To teach others to love by loving them.

We know, when Love came to a stable in Bethlehem, it came for us.
So that Love could be with us, and we could know you.
That we could share your love with others.

Help us Father, to hear your love song in every sunrise,
In the chirping of the sparrows in our backyards,
In the stories of our old folks, and in the fantasies of our children.

Help us to stop and listen to your love songs,
So that we may know you more and better.

We rejoice in the world you loved into being.

Thank you for another new year and for new chances every day.

We pray for peace, for light, and for hope, that we may spread them to others.

We leave the past in your hands, and step out into this unknown new year knowing you will go with us.

We accept your gift of 2010, and we rejoice in what lies ahead.
We depend on you to help us do exactly what it is you need done.
I say it again, no matter what is to come, we rejoice!

In the name of Jesus,

Amen.

[Ha Life w/edits and additional material by Mark Raymond]

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We will either spend today cleaning and rearranging the furniture - our annual New Year's Day tradition - or we will chuck it all, sleep in, and go to the movies.

Either way, I'll see you on Monday.

Mark

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WEB SITE of the WEEK: Shameless Self-Promotion Dep't: I mentioned earlier that I've been writing the "Musings" for more than ten years. I started using Ezine Director about six years ago, though, so that's all the farther my archives go back. I hope to one day transfer as much material as possible to my website. For now, though, you can stroll through about six years of material at http://mrhumor.net/archive.html or check out roughly four years of blog postings at http://mrhumornet.blogspot.com/.

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Mark's Musings is sent each weekday using Ezine Director and I pay a little more to make sure my posts are certified by Habeas to be a safe source of e-mail. That means no ads, no spam, and no worries. Subscribe, view past issues in my Archives, and do other things over at my web site. To contact me and someday get a reply, click here. Like the economy, my number of readers dropped about 3% this year and there are now just under 600 of you reading these credits. You can still forward or reprint Mark's Musings freely but please keep the credits attached. The credits want to start the new year out right, and that means sticking with the post through thick and thin, people. Can't do it without you. Original material and musings © 2010 by Mark Raymond. I update this blog with a copy of my post daily (plus I often add graphics) and very occasionally with "bonus material" whenever the mood or muse strikes. Look for the label that says "bonus" and you can bring all that extra material up with one click. My personal mission statement remains John 3:30 into 2010 and beyond. Find me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/baldmark/. Jot down "2010" on about the next dozen checks in your checkbooks; that way you won't inadvertently write the wrong year. (Thanks, Lavonne.)

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WORDS for YOUR WEEKEND: "Your life is an occasion. Rise to it." (Dustin Hoffman as Mr. Magorium)