Blogging in the New Year

I have spent the last year waking up early most weekday mornings and writing for this blog, publishing about once a week. I've mostly written about my grief journey of losing my sister in 2018 and my son in 2019, but I have also included some life updates and devotional material. My goal in writing was to pursue healing and offer encouragement while following the Lord and His call to share our stories. It has been a great joy to strive toward this goal.

When I started I had a list in my head of some of the things I wanted to write. Throughout the months I have written the list down and expanded it. Each time I felt like I was getting to the end of it, I would brainstorm for a few minutes and have lots more ideas for posts. One post often led to another, and I would ignore the list for weeks at a time. Recently I have felt the list of blog post ideas related to my grief journey wrapping up.

I have some new goals for my writing in the new year:

1. Create a landing page that organizes what I have already written

2. Write about my ongoing grief journey as I continue to pursue healing and God's leading

3. Challenge myself to write more devotional content

I am still praying about what my publishing schedule will look like in the new year. It probably won't be every week, but I am looking forward to continuing to write and connect. I am also interested in hearing from you. What parts of my story would you like to know more about? What questions do you have for me about life and grief? You can use the comments below, reach out to me in real life, or email me at jbandeff@gmail.com.

Happy New Year!

Janet

Sunset on our property after a couple warm days of rain, mist, and fog.

Things I am Loving This Christmas Season

1. My house!

You may have noticed from all of the snowy pictures lately that I have changed locations. My daughter's homeschool activities wrapped up in early December, and we have been visiting the home we purchased this summer ever since. We arrived to over a foot of snow on the ground, more fell the first week we were here, then warm, then more snow, and then very warm. Hopefully it will snow again before this is published! We'll be headed back to our regular house in the New Year.

2. Functional Fitness

All that snow means a lot of cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, shoveling, wood hauling, etc. I haven't had to struggle to find time to exercise, or exhibit the self-control to actually take advantage of the available time, as my days are so much more active here. It's been great!

3. Relevant Reminders from the Blog

I have been reflecting back on two blog posts as I prepare for Christmas.

This one is a reminder not to worry about what we will eat or what we will wear: https://carryingsheaves.blogspot.com/2024/02/laughing-in-church.html.

And this one is a reminder that everyone grieves differently, and it is OK: https://carryingsheaves.blogspot.com/2024/01/tension.html.

4. For King and Country Christmas

My family and I have been loving listening to For King and Country's Christmas Album, "A Drummer Boy Christmas". It's not often something captures all of our musical interest.

5. The Piano Guys - The Sweetest Gift

I heard this song for the first time the Christmas after my sister died. I think it just randomly came up on youtube while I was listening to other music while making dinner. It continues to be an often played song each Christmas season, as I miss celebrating Christmas with MaryJo and Oliver, but take hope in the chorus of this song:

You’re with the Son of God.
You’re with the Prince of Peace.
You’re with the one we’re celebrating
And that thought amazes me.
Sometimes I still break down,
Grieving that we’re apart,
But the sweetest gift is knowing where you are.
You’re with the Son of God.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yFXfAGl17M

6. Christmas Bells: a novel by Jennifer Chiaverini

My daughter and I are reading this book together. It is a touch mushy for her taste, but I love the mixture of historical and contemporary fiction and the wide variety of characters.

Merry Christmas!

Today

Since Oliver's death, my husband and I are noticeably more aware that the only day each of us gets is today. I can see differences in how we make decisions and respond to events based on this knowledge we now feel in our bones. I have seen in our lives pros and cons to making decisions with the uncertainty of tomorrow on the forefront of our minds. This awareness has given us humility as we rightfully admit we don't know what is going to happen next. It has also given us a drive to do and create the things that are most important to us now instead of putting it off for another day. But, this awareness also brings about impatience, pressure to do all the things or have anything just right, and fear of missing out.

As I strive to lean into the good parts of this mindset and offset the temptations it brings, I remind myself of truth.

1. God gives us daily bread.

Matthew 6:9-13 

Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

2. We do not know what is going to happen tomorrow. That is the Lord's business.

James 4:13-17 

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

3. We are called to set aside tomorrow and focus on today.

Matthew 6:24 

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Hebrews 2:13-15 

But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”

4. We are called to do the work that is right in front of us.

Joshua 24:15 

And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Jeremiah 29:4-5 

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce."

Psalm 118:24 This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

5. We are not to put our hope in today, but rather in the promise of a future restoration with Christ.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Hebrews 11:13-16 

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

6. We are called to wait.

Psalm 27:14: "Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!"

Lamentations 3:25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.

It makes sense to think about these things during the Christmas season, as we wait for Jesus' second coming and try to embrace each moment with our families. I'll definitely be turning to these verses when I notice I am becoming unbalanced in how I approach living in the moment, waiting, yearning for future restoration, and giving thanks for today. I pray they are an encouragement to you as well.

The Lord Has Done Great Things for Us

I can't believe it is December already! The snow has been falling in Michigan, and I have been making Christmas cards and Christmas goodies, slowly working through a fairly short gift list, and wrapping up another semester of homeschool. We like to mark the season of Advent together as a family. This year we got a dog treat advent calendar and are reading some Scripture each night. Ash loves the treats, and we all love to give them to him, which has been helping us stay consistent with our reading.

As we begin to anticipate the birth of Jesus, we often find ourselves reading the first two chapters of Luke. In Luke 1:46-55 we encounter a passage of Scripture typically titled Mary's Song. When Mary visits her cousin, Elizabeth, she declares words of praise, including "for the Mighty One has done great things for me - holy is his name". These words echo a similar declaration from Psalm 126, which is this blog's namesake and holds a very dear place in my heart. Psalm 126:3 says, "The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy." In my reading of Scripture, I have seen these words one other time in Joel 2:21b: "Surely the Lord has done great things!".

In the original languages the words aren't exact quotes of each other, and I have no idea if Mary was thinking of Psalm 126 when she was praising God. She might have been, as Psalm 126 is part of the Psalms of Ascent, which would have been sung during the pilgrimages to Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish feast days. Regardless, in a Psalm that speaks of people returning from exile, in a book by a minor prophet highlighting the coming day of the Lord, and in Mary's Song, we see a declaration that the Lord has done great things. This is never more true than at Christmas, when we remember "the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us" (John 1:14a) and "when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons (Galatians 4:4-5).

Loving all the snow we already have!

These words echo throughout Scripture because they are true. "The Lord has done great things for us." And what we can see now is only the beginning. As we remember His first coming, we also look forward with hope to His second coming, when He will wipe every tear from our eyes. Happy Advent!