December 24th - Final day of Advent

Psalm 118:24-- This is the day the lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.Each day is a gift from God to us. It is up to us how we decide to use it. When I wake up each morning and regain full consciousness while basking in the warm water of a morning shower, I thank God for the gift of the new day and ask for guidance in helping me to use it the best way I can. I ask for help in finding ways to serve God by looking for opportunities to help others. Of course, it is easy to rejoice and be glad on a bright sunny day when I am going through life without a care in the world, but there are also gloomy days when it is hard to feel like rejoicing.  It is on those days when I try to remember that God gave me resources to get through those days. During this Christmas season we can rejoice because God gave us Jesus who is a source of eternal hope and who lived on earth to teach us the right ways to lead our lives. On Christmas Day our savior Jesus was born and that is surely the most important reason to rejoice and be glad.Dear God—I thank you for all of the blessings that you have given to me and to my family. I rejoice for the days that I have been given to enjoy these blessings. Help me to grow in my faith so that even on difficult days I can rejoice in the knowledge that God gave me Jesus to show me how to live them.  AmenMM