Starting the New Year Off Right
I'm not working today, it being New Year's. In fact, I've been able to take a few days off between Christmas and New Year's Day and, after the initial rush of activity from Christmas Eve through the Third Day of Christmas, I've had some down time and done a little thinking about my life, more specifically my work.
The challenges of improving my work and growing my business loom before me and with the economy being so sluggish, I know my best efforts plus some will be needed to face those challenges. But I'm as ready as I'll ever be to deal with all that.
As for life in general, I've been wondering how this whole government health care mandate (aka "Obamacare") will play out this year. Will we Christians take a stand against the government forcing us to buy health care that pays for contraception and abortion? Will the government back off or slowly but surely tighten the screws on us. And if they do back off, will it be just a kind of temporary truce, or will the government once and for all recognized our First Amendment rights?
Most specifically, I wonder how I'll deal with this personally. Will I have the courage to take a stand? As a business owner with no employees, I won't have to offer health insurance to others as will business owners who have employees. But I will have to consider how to deal with health care issues for my family.
I've been thinking about this because Obamacare is the latest - and one of the greatest - in a series of threats to us Christians from a culture and society that has more and more rejected God and become a "secular" society. "Secular" doesn't sound so bad until you realize that, at heart, it really means "Godless." I don't think I'm exaggerating here.
Living in a Godless society, especially raising a family in a Godless society, isn't easy. It can even be daunting. While our kids are grown now, it's still tough as a parent when you watch them make their way in a Godless society. Will they hold on to their Faith in the face of a flood of secularism in the form of pop culture, so much of which is communicated in vulgar speech and behavior? How about the onslaught of "gay rights" which now includes the "right" to marry - a direct threat to the family?
Well, I think you get the drift of what's been on my mind. And the point of telling you all this is that I really want to start the year off right. So I was reading Psalm 18(17) and it did the trick:
That does it for me. It puts me right where I need to be on this first day of 2013.
The challenges of improving my work and growing my business loom before me and with the economy being so sluggish, I know my best efforts plus some will be needed to face those challenges. But I'm as ready as I'll ever be to deal with all that.
As for life in general, I've been wondering how this whole government health care mandate (aka "Obamacare") will play out this year. Will we Christians take a stand against the government forcing us to buy health care that pays for contraception and abortion? Will the government back off or slowly but surely tighten the screws on us. And if they do back off, will it be just a kind of temporary truce, or will the government once and for all recognized our First Amendment rights?
Most specifically, I wonder how I'll deal with this personally. Will I have the courage to take a stand? As a business owner with no employees, I won't have to offer health insurance to others as will business owners who have employees. But I will have to consider how to deal with health care issues for my family.
I've been thinking about this because Obamacare is the latest - and one of the greatest - in a series of threats to us Christians from a culture and society that has more and more rejected God and become a "secular" society. "Secular" doesn't sound so bad until you realize that, at heart, it really means "Godless." I don't think I'm exaggerating here.
Living in a Godless society, especially raising a family in a Godless society, isn't easy. It can even be daunting. While our kids are grown now, it's still tough as a parent when you watch them make their way in a Godless society. Will they hold on to their Faith in the face of a flood of secularism in the form of pop culture, so much of which is communicated in vulgar speech and behavior? How about the onslaught of "gay rights" which now includes the "right" to marry - a direct threat to the family?
Well, I think you get the drift of what's been on my mind. And the point of telling you all this is that I really want to start the year off right. So I was reading Psalm 18(17) and it did the trick:
I love thee, O Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock and my fortress, and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shelf, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies.
Happy New Year!
And a Merry Eighth Day of Christmas too!
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