If you’re sick?  Stay home.  Get well.  Make lists, lists of every kind.

• Places to go
• Movies to see
• Movies to make of the grandbebes
• Restaurants to try
• Languages to learn
• Books to read
• Projects for the house
• Blogs to write
• People to have coffee with
• Recipes to try
• Scriptures to memorize
• Pre-school ideas for Amelie Belle
• And ok, yes, the obligatory get-in-better-shape schedule

So, on the 8th day, it beginning to look less and less like Christmas.

I have to hurry, because my goal is Christmas cards by Epiphany.  ;)  Oh, Lord, help me.

And for that matter, for real, help me!!!

I was noticing the 8 maids-a-milking on that ornament up there, but I actually only see one and she is carrying two pails.  I feel like she has been abandoned by the other maids and some one else might not be carrying their part of the load.  And there are times when that is actually true.  There are times we are called to carry more than we think we can handle and for sure something some one else should have been carrying.

Sometimes we forget to ask for help {or are too prideful to ask – though I have never personally been guilty of that, really, ever, for sure – are you doubting me here?!}.  Sometimes no one else can help us even if we do ask, no one, but Jesus, anyway.

So heading in to the New Year, let’s remember this about HIM!:

Psalm 55.22 AMP  “Cast your burden on the Lord [releasing the weight of it] and He will sustain you; He will never allow the [consistently] righteous to be moved (made to slip, fall, or fail).”

1 Peter 5.7 AMP  “Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.”

Hebrews 4.16 NKJV  “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Don’t carry the heavy baggage longer and further than is needed.  Turns out we have a High Priest with ready access to the God of the universe and He actually knows and understands and empathizes with what we’ve been going through.  So READ THESE 5 translations of Hebrews 4, get encouraged, ask for help and lay your burdens down, fresh and light for the New Year.

Was this just like 2 1/2 weeks ago???  It was.  Wow, time flies when you’re having fun!