"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9 (NIV)  Happy New Year! Welcome to 2026 ! As we transition from one year to another, we are always inspired to take a retrospective look back. For some, looking back means facing challenging life issues that seemed to drain all their physical and mental juices. Looking back for others means reflecting on the times that brought joy and divine surprises. However, the previous year, through its trials and victories, was a gift that taught us great lessons.  One of those lessons for me was having faith through patience. As I spoke about before, my daughter and grandchildren's trials and her sickness and death put me in a situation that has tested my faith and my patience. But God has brought us a mighty long way.  What I noticed about 2025 was that it seemed to be a year of “Times of Refreshing.” God gave us new carpet in our apartment that transformed the atmosphere and brought warmth to the environment. My poor carpet took a beating when all the kids moved in, and I had never replaced it for 16 years. I kept it up through shampooing and vacuuming, but it was just worn out. He also brought “Times of Refreshing” to my grandchildren, who had the relationship with their father and his side of the family's fellowship restored.  But the biggest surprise came on December 4 th  when the Lord answered my prayer. In 2018, the Lord told me to get my driver's license. I began some practice drive time with a church member who offered to teach my granddaughter and I to drive. We had about six months of instruction before Covid interrupted every part of our lives. However, the Lord made the way for my granddaughter and I to take our 30 hours of driving class instructional lessons online from the comfort of our home. In the spring of 2020, He instructed me again to get my driver’s license. “But, Lord, I have tried that, and it’s not working. I don’t have anyone who will give me practice time," I explained. But, He wasn’t finished; actually, he was just beginning the journey for me. A few months later, a friend at work asked, “So, how is your practice coming along?”  “It’s not,” I responded. “I have asked a family member to help me, but I haven’t heard from her.” With a smile in her heart and on her face, “I’ll take you out for practice,” she offered.  In shock, I sat wondering why she would take me out in her new car? She hadn’t had her own vehicle for 8 years. But she was serious, and I was desperate for help, so together we navigated the practice time, the 2 failed driving tests, and we celebrated the victory when I got my drivers license on May 17, 2021 at the tender age of 58 years old. However, I had no vehicle of my own, nor did I have the means to purchase or lease one. But I had a very generous neighbor who loaned me her vehicle for 3 years against the advice of all her friends. She even gave me the spare key. When she offered me the use of her car, I was shocked and reluctant. She was trusting me with her car, although she had never seen me drive a car before. She surmised that because the state had issued me a driver’s license, I must have the driving skills. She was right; I had the skills, but not the courage to borrow someone’s vehicle. That was an enormous responsibility that I did not want, nor could I afford.  Then, a doctor diagnosed my daughter with cervical cancer. As she grew weaker, her parenting duties fell on my shoulders. The grocery shopping, doctor appointments, school responsibilities and the day-to-day raising and care of my grandchildren became my primary responsibility. She fought a valiant fight, but then she was gone from us. With broken hearts, we kept on as I assumed the sole primary caregiver and parental responsibilities of the 3 minor children. Besides the responsibility of taking my mom to her appointments and doing her grocery shopping.  Then in August 2024, the Lord spoke, “When are you going to ask me for your car? The last thing you asked for was practice time.” That was true, and that’s when He sent my neighbor in 2022. She was retired and mercifully helped with taking my daughter to her appointments and allowing me to take care of my other family travel responsibilities. At the end of November 2025, my neighbor, who had given me the free use of her vehicle, had to stop because of insurance concerns. I understood she needed to protect her best interests. At the time, I did not know that her grace would no longer be required because the Lord was up to something. I thanked her for her bravery in allowing me to use the car. Then, I broke the news to my mom. Immediately she went into panic mode, like she always does. And 3 days later she announced, “I am going to buy us a car.” She had mentioned it a few months before, but I didn't take her seriously. She had told my sister and I as teenagers that she would never buy us cars or allow us to use her car. However, when she could no longer drive because of health issues, she gave my sister her vehicle. And through another miracle, on December 4, 2025, she purchased a vehicle that she stated she did not want to drive. Initially, she told me she owned the car; I was just the driver. But I think the Lord had a little talk with her, and a few days later, she told me she bought the car for me. It didn’t matter who the owner was to me, because I was listed as the sole driver per her request. So either way, I was just grateful that we still had a vehicle we could use with the car insurance in my name that I can pay for. But God was not satisfied, and she admitted the car was mine. She is making the payments because my budget will not allow me the financial luxury to do so.   Looking back at all the ways the Lord maneuvered us into place and provided in His due season makes my heart smile and keeps me humble. It took 4 years for me to get my vehicle, and He used His means and the financial blessing He recently gave my Mom to answer His will, my prayer, and my family's needs. Faith through patience was the key.  I just want to encourage you to hold on; God has a plan and help is on the way. “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.”   John 16:24 (NIV) Prayer: Father, it's a new year, and I am reminded in Lamentations 3:22-23 (NKJV), that " Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness." Thank You Lord, for your unfailing love and mercies that great us each day. In this new day and in this new year, please continue to hear our hearts cry. We don't always know what to do, what to say, or how to handle situations we encounter, but we will continue to trust You. You always have our best interests at heart, and a way of escape through every test and trial. Lead us this year and navigate us through this unfamiliar time. We are fully and faithfully dependent upon You. In the name of Jesus, amen!

Last summer, I was sitting in my bedroom when screams erupted outside my window. As a mother and grandmother, my first response is to jump up and check to make sure everyone is alright. When I glanced out the window, I noticed a little girl, about 11 or 12 years old, screaming at the top of her lungs.  As she lay prostrate on the cement pavement, bawling her eyes out, she shouted hateful words of contempt. “I hate you!” she cried as her little brother, who was about three years old, ran about frantically trying to escape her wrath. With tears now flowing uncontrollably from his little eyes, my heart began to sink. What is the problem?  I wondered. Then she spoke, voice quivering, “You broke my cell phone.” What? A cell phone prompted all that sorrow? Then it occurred to me that one day her little brother would probably become the very big brother—in size, that she may need, and she just shouted out hateful words that penetrated his soul. How can she take that back? It hurt my feelings, and I wasn’t even involved.   Some months later, while disciplining my grandson, I too, shouted out words in anger that I can't take back. Like the little boy outside my window, who bore the hurtful effect of those verbal jabs, my grandson looked at me like I had just crushed his soul. We have since made up because I immediately apologized for the way I spoke to him, but not for disciplining him, because he needed it. Sometimes, we lose control and let our anger about the situation rule over our good sense. But the Bible states in Ecclesiastes 7:9 (NIV), “Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.”  “…because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.”  (James 1:20, NIV)   “A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.”  (Prov. 19:11, KJV​).   So, to ensure that we don’t lose our cool, we should consider Prov. 29:11 (NLT), "Fools vent their anger, but the wise quietly hold it back."   We should also consider what if this had happened within our marriage?

“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” (Galatians 6:9, NKJV) Is God telling you to go, but your flesh is saying, no? If so, I think you should listen to God; He knows what’s best for you. Although we may not want to do something that God is asking us to do, we need to understand that sometimes that prompting to go is for someone else’s sake. In July 1993, I had an experience that changed my life. It was the beginning of what I thought was the end. I had gone to work one night; I was working the “graveyard shift,” 11 to 7, when I collapsed at my desk. I was rushed to the hospital and told I might have had a stroke. My blood pressure was sky-high, and my stress level was even higher. My family and I were in the middle of preparing to move the following month. It would be the first time that I would have my own apartment. My daughter and I had lived with my family for years, and it was time for us to be on our own. I was so excited, but I was distressed because I didn’t feel well. I had been suffering from severe neck and back pain for a few weeks. Back then, I was very familiar will sickness; I was born prematurely, with a hole in my heart (atrial septal defect), and after years of suffering and fainting, in 1982 at 18 years old, I had open heart surgery to repair the defect. The morning after I collapsed on the job, I was sitting on a hospital gurney wondering how I was going to get home. I had called my family member, who had taken care of me for years, but she told me, “I’m tired and I’m not coming all the way out there to get you!” I was being released, but I was stuck with no way home. While the doctors prepared my release papers, the morning supervisor walked over to me. I looked up to notice her face smiling at me. Her name was Ms. Sandy, and she inquired about how I was feeling and asked if my family had been notified? Embarrassed, I passed the message on to her. “I’ll take you home,” she offered. The entire ride I sat wondering what I had done so wrong to deserve to be left stranded. I wanted to cry my eyes out, but I held my composure as my body lay weak against the seat. When I returned home, my loved one inquired about my diagnosis. “They really don’t know what’s wrong with me, but they think I might have had a mild stroke,” I replied and went to bed for years. That would be the last time I would see Ms. Sandy, because that was the last day I would work for that company. I went out on long-term disability and eventually had to go on Social Security disability. When life gets hard, especially when you have been serving for so long, and you feel completely depleted of energy to care anymore; just remember to let God be your strength. Psalm 46:1 reminds, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Although I wasn’t born-again yet, I had to forgive my loved one, remembering that she had always been there before, but in that season, she was just tired of caring for me. She had been doing it since I was born, and by the time I was 30 years old, she was worn out. God has a peculiar sense of humor because He has now made me a caregiver, even for her. Every day I serve, I understand how easy it is to want to give up and walk away. Physically, the serving is sometimes draining, but emotionally it can be just as challenging. Regardless of the challenges as God’s children, we can’t grow weary in well-doing because if we do, we might walk away and leave someone stranded when they need us the most. Family life is the most challenging of all the relationships, but it’s also the most rewarding. Every bit of love and care that is sown creates a strength in our loved ones that helps them to press on. I encourage you and myself to think of others when it’s so much easier to just think of ourselves. We can’t be there for everybody, but if we ask God to be our strength, we can be there for somebody. One person who receives our love is one person who can pass on that love to someone else. One family member we love is another family member who is strengthened to pass on that love. Galatians 6:9 says, “…that we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”  I believe that the greatest blessing that we will reap for doing well is to see someone’s life doing well because we didn’t walk away when our flesh wanted us to. Prayer: Father, please help us be strong when we feel the weakest. Help us never to turn our backs on anyone when we can help them. Help us daily to find our strength in You, so that we can share Your strength with others. And help us especially as family members to honor each other by being present to love each other. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.