Life Upraised January 7 2022

It’s 2022! A brand new year filled with brand new opportunities.
I’d like to take just a couple of minutes to say “thank you” to those of you who read Life Upraised every week.
It’s been going on two years since Rob Patz first messaged me, asking if I would consider writing a weekly devotion for a southern gospel page. I’ve done a lot of things, writing has not been one of them. In fact, you may be wondering just who this person is…
A little bit about myself.
First and foremost, I am a Christian. I was saved in Oct 1998 at a little Nazarene Church in Cairo, GA.
I am a mom of four “kids”… 2 sons who still live at home, (one engaged, and one a senior in high school) and 2 married daughters. My “real” job is a dental hygienist and then I sing with my kids in our family’s southern gospel group, The Sheldon Family. We are based in Michigan. It’s not our living, but it’s our ministry, and we love being able to do what we do.
The kids all work and go to school. Law enforcement, EMS, and flying pretty much wraps it up for them, so life is always busy!
I was widowed in 2013 and in 2020, I met David, who is a pastor at a church where we sang that summer. He was also widowed. God arranged it, no question, and we were married in April 2021.
So, it goes without saying, that life has been full of ups and downs, triumphs and tribulations, but I can absolutely say that God is good. I can also say, He holds the future and my complete trust is in Him!
The weekly writings that I do are usually things I have mulled over during the prior week, mostly while working. More often than not, I’m talking to myself!
I enjoy the opportunity of putting scriptures and my thoughts out there in cyberspace and I hope that as we connect each week this year, you are challenged along with me to keep on pressing forward. Sometimes forward thinking is hard. I know many have had losses in 2021.
I get it. In June, I held my dad’s hand as he passed from this world to the next. It was tough, it still is, but we press on.
We’re also living in some rather unsettling times.
I hope I’m a “constant” for you during this time, and I trust an encouragement also! I want to be!
So let’s determine TOGETHER to make 2022 a year of unprecedented spiritual growth! Serving God with sweet abandon. A year of good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. Completely spilled out… for Him!
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