I'm starting 2012 with a new ATTITUDE!

http://youtu.be/OHRZxkluZ_Q - This is my Desire

New Year's Resolutions I make on January 1 can be quickly forgotten on January 2.

Most years I don't even bother to make a list of things I'm resolved to change, to do better, to stop doing.  But this year, I decided that instead of "resolutions", I'm going to set some goals.

Setting Goals for 2012...

Make a list - that's the easy part.  There are many things I hope to accomplish this year.  I can quickly make a very long list of things I need to get done or things I want to change in 2012.  Making a list is a good start, but to reach a goal, I have to have a plan,  a strategy.  That should take some serious thought. What do I need to do to get started?

Fortunately, I already know exactly what I need to do first if I want to succeed in reaching my goals for 2012.  I need to pray and ask God to mold my goals so that they are in complete alignment with His Plan for me.  Because if I'm seeking His will first, He will make sure I accomplish what He has planned for me.  If my goal is not in line with what God has planned for me, nothing I can do with make it happen.

So, I make my list and then I pray and ask God to give me wisdom and discernment.  What items on my list are not in line with God's plan for my life?  What on my list is not from God? What things on my list will draw me closer to Him?  Every item should be challenged - will seeking this goal glorify God or is it more about my getting the glory?  This is where I start reducing my list of goals.  If the goal is all about me, it needs to be marked off the list.

I don't know exactly what God has planned for me but one thing I do know. His plan is for good and not evil, a plan to give me a hope and a future.  HE never promised me happiness and riches in this life.  HE wouldn't let me settle for that.  His Plan for me is Eternal Joy and blessings, not temporary happiness on earth, although He may give me that too, at times.  If my goal is to accomplish His Plan for my life, my focus should be more about Christ - less about me. 

My goal - More of Jesus - less of me in 2012.  Wow!  That's a pretty big goal for me.  I definitely can't do this on my own.  I tend to put myself first in everything.  That's how we humans are, right? Where do I start?

I need to believe that I can accomplish my goal.  I have to have a "can do" attitude.  Without a good attitude, I'll never reach my goal.  I have to believe that I have the ability to accomplish what I want to accomplish, right?  If I'm not convinced that I can do what needs to be done, I'll never succeed. 

If my goals are in line with God's purpose for my life, if my goals draw me closer to being the person HE created me to be, then my number one obstacle will be the Enemy.  He will try to convince me that I cannot reach my goals.  He will become a little knat buzzing around my head whispering "defeat" and "discouragement".  So I have to shut him up by remembering who God says I am. 
To succeed, I must make sure the goals I have for my life are in line with God's plan because He most assuredly has a plan for me.

Jeremiah 29:11-12
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.



Ephesians 2:10 NLT
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

Even when my goal seems too difficult to reach, I must remember that with God all things are possible - if what I'm trying to accomplish is in line with His plan.
 Luke 18:27
Jesus replied, “What is impossible with human beings is possible with God.” 2 Corinthians 12:9 


Romans 8:25-28
But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.


In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Am I strong enough to accomplish the goals I have?  No.  Not on my own, but I have the very Power of Christ resting on me - living in me.  That's more than enough.


But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.

Philippians 4:13
I can do all this through Him who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:19
And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 1:7
For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.

Hebrews 13:5
“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

With these passages always in my mind, is there anything I cannot do?  Is anything too hard for me if God is on my side?  Has HE not promised to meet all my needs and that He will never leave me nor forsake me?  He has promised that I can do all things through Christ who is my strength.  He'll make my path straight.  He'll give me wisdom if I ask. 

I'm feeling pumped!  I can do this.  I can reach my goal because reaching my goal will bring Him glory.  He will give me everything I need to accomplish my goal. 


Holy Father, You are my strength, my protector, my provder, my power and my Wisdom.  Without You, I can do do nothing, but with You, I can do anything - anything that is in line with Your perfect will for me.  I may have a different idea from Yours of what I need to accomplish this year.  My vision for the future is so limited compared to Yours.  My dreams are so much less amazing than what You have planned for me.  So, Father, I'm trusting in Your plan for me.  All I ask is that You help my dreams to come in to perfect harmony with Your dreams and plan for me.  I want what You have planned for me because I know it will be so much greater than anything I might imagine or hope for.  Your will be done, Holy God.  I know there's nothing better than that.  This year use me as You see fit.  I know You will make a way for me to accomplish whatever You have for me to do. For Your glory always, Lord God.  In the blessed name of Jesus I pray. Amen. 



Jessie and a little friend at Christmas Party 2011


Miracles really do still happen!   

If you don't believe, you surely haven't met Jessica Boone.

It was March 2009 and 16 year old Jessie Boone loved skiing! She was so excited to go skiing on Spring Break with all her friends from church! She was doing great but hit a really icy spot and went out of control and hit a tree with her head. Some of her friends went right to her and got help quickly. They airlifted her out of Glenwood Springs, Colorado to Grand Junction, Colorado to St Marys hospital which is a trauma center. She had a depressed skull fracture on her Right forehead and had to go into surgery that night. Mom and dad flew in around midnight and met Justin and Erin and Scott and John who were with Jessie. She had such massive swelling in her brain they removed both sides of her skull. Her brain is severely injured.

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http://youtu.be/zsN0TNyz-5A - Through it All - Selah

This is when the Dallas Christian School Parents in Prayer began praying for a young girl we had never met from Oklahoma.  We all quickly fell in love with sweet Jessica Boone and her family.  I don't know how many times we thought for sure she wasn't going to make it, but that little lady fought back!  Through it all, we've witnessed the incredible faith of not only dad Bill and mom Lisa but of Jessie.  This family knows and trusts God with all their hearts. I think I can safely say that anyone who has followed Jessie's recovery over the last two and a half years has had their faith strengthened, too, just by witnessing this family look to Christ in every struggle and praise Him for every victory.

This first video is Jessie's mom - Lisa sharing their story in April of 2010.

http://youtu.be/mYRzEd4Kw5M - Easter People

This video is from 2010 when Jessie won the Jim Thorpe Award for Courage.  A year later, Jessie is still improving and working hard to get even better.

http://youtu.be/7xw2G2Ij94I - Jessica Boone and the Jim Thorpe Award 2010


I'm sending the update Lisa sent yesterday.  Sorry for the delay.  I hope the video will work for you.  I had a little trouble. = (
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Merry Christmas! 12-26-11



Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year in 2012!!

We wanted to close this year with a video to show you how much Jessie has improved since her accident. What a great year we have had as we have seen her continue to grow and heal in so many different ways. It is simply amazing to see how far she has come. She runs a mile 2-3 times a week. Her therapy is only two days a week with Speech and Occupational Therapy focused on memory and thought processing and planning. She continues to show improvement all the time. She is independent in all of her activities of daily living. She needs some supervision in the community as she can lose her way if she is in a place she isn’t familiar with. We are homeschooling focusing primarily on Math and English and will be looking at Vocational Rehab for help in getting her GED and training her in some job skills. In Speech they have been working on a checking account, balancing, writing checks and reconciling and she does very well. In OT this last week she had a budget and went to the mall and did some Christmas shopping for her family.



Jessie is very happy. She loves life, church, her family, and friends. She laughs all the time. She is sleeping all through the night and is on only 2 prescription medications. One to prevent seizures and one to help her liver flow better.



Her liver is one of our main concerns as it continues to show some enlargement and difficulty in draining properly due to a stricture at the site where her common bile duct was repaired status post her accident. She currently sees a hepatologist and a liver surgeon as they monitor her monthly for changes. She will have another MRI and liver biopsy after the first of the year and they will compare it to the ones she had last June to see if there is any further deterioration of her liver. If so, they will proceed with surgery to attempt to correct the stricture. We are praying of course for this to all resolve by itself but if not we have been placed in very competent care. Thank you for your continued prayers in her healing of her brain and her liver.



As I type this, Jessie is sitting in the floor and has wrapped a present by herself and is now putting ribbon on it. She is simply a miracle. And we are so filled with gratitude for what God has given back to us. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your presence in our lives and all you have done to help make this video possible showing the abundant life that Jessie has been given once again…

http://youtu.be/4FmmuFQl_eI - Jessie persistence 2011

May God bless you abundantly and know that the Boones love you.

To God be all the glory, honor, and praise!!



Bill, Lisa, and Jessie Boone

Christmas 2011

How Great is our GOD!

Before Jesus was born, even before creation, He was with God and He was God. 

In the beginning was the WORD.

http://youtu.be/u42Z4qIQO4Y - Faithful Love 

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

This message taken from the first chapter of the Gospel of John, the apostle whom Jesus loved,  is quite possibly the most poignant passage in all the Bible to me. 
 
The WORD was in the beginning. 

The WORD was with God.

The WORD was GOD.

Through the WORD all things were made that have been made.

In Him was LIFE and that Life was the LIGHT of all people.

He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him.

Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.

This is truly the best Gift ever - to be given the right to become a child of God - all because He loved us enough to become human, to live, die and be resurrected so that we, too, might die to sin and be resurrected to a new life with HIM forever and always!
Colossians 2:9-15
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.



8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.


9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. 11 In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your sinful nature was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through your faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Praise God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit!
Thank You for loving me.  Thank You for coming to earth to save me. Thank You for experiencing humanity by being born and living as fully human even to death on the cross. I know You understand what I suffer because You've experienced every struggle and pain that I will ever face, and You remained faithful to Your Father through it all. Thank You for teaching me by example to trust our Father who never fails us.  Father, thank You for Your grace and mercies that are new every morning.  Forgive me when I take Your amazing gift of love so lightly.  I cannot repay the debt You've paid on my behalf, but I can live my life to honor You. Help me to be a witness like John and boldly speak the truth of Your great love and plan of Salvation.  I pray all these things in the Name of my Savior, Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God, who was, who is and is to come!  Be praised and lifted high in my life, Lord.  Amen.

http://youtu.be/xi0yLRX4d2M - How great is our God - Chris Tomlin