How will you journey and navigate through 2009?

A thinking person doesn't drift through life making decisions according to what looks or feels good. Acting on the basis of feelings places a person at the mercy of Satan.
Satan uses half-truths and fraud to trap people into the bondage of sin. If you have made a decision to continue the work of Satan with the degrading of others and trying to keep others from applying themselves to the good works of the Lord, you best believe you will suffer the consequences of being in the darkness of not knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the just reward of His heavenly home.
Wise men and women seek truths to guide them through life in order to avoid the snare of making poor and hurting decisions that harm others.
Since such half-truths flow freely today, it's very important that Christians be able to separate between truth and Satan's twisted account of reality. If a person listening to demeaning comments about others would just take a minute and think, "Would I want these untruths said about me?" If we make a decision based on an error in our thinking, we are likely to step out of the Lord's will and into pain and embarrassment.
But be assured that God has made provisions for our weaknesses. He is forgiving and has given us His Word and His Spirit so we can fill our minds with truth and live out His principles through divine power.
Love yourself enough to uplift someone else. Love yourself enough to love your fellowman and keep on encouraging each other to do their very best. Just love yourself enough.
The only completely trustworthy foundation of truth is Scripture. Living by biblical principles protects believers from the enemy's trickery. He may try to deceive with outright challenge to the truth, but those are easy to uncover. The greatest danger is the lie that contains an element of fact, which makes it both convincing and difficult to refute. Some people go out of their way to collect just enough fact to make a lie sound true. You cheat yourself listening to gossip and spreading the garbage that hurts and wounds the very soul of some people.
Don't lose the very sense of yourself. "You own the definition of who you are." The ability to grow into a loving and kind person is your responsibility and you should never allow anyone or anything keep you from being the good person you can become.
God has given each of us at least one spiritual gift to build up the body of Christ and to minister in our hurting world. All of the spiritual can be used in our homes, churches, communities and we should allow the Spirit to direct our teaching ability for God's glory and others gain.
As we take inventory of self and goals set for 2009 take comfort in knowing God's promises are firm and true. John 14:6-9 "I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me, anyone who has seen me has seen the Father."
Despite many people rejecting God the Father, His love, His justice, His mercy, God the Father still treats those people like they are in His family, in His group. He sends, "rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" alike (Matthew 5:45). In other words, he has no favorites.
If we are struggling everyday to be more Christ-like, than we should know that God the Father is slow to anger, loyal, pure in heart, truthful, and full of mercy, grace, and love. Jesus is not delivering a list of laws for people to follow, He is doing much more. He is describing a person. A person who embodies all of these traits. A person who not only speaks the truth, but who is the truth, who not only shows us the way, but who is the Way. What a wonderful charge, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:48)
I don't have a fail-safe solution, but the one thing I do know for sure, when you and I fail to be like God, remember that God the Father, unlike the godfather, is perfect in mercy, faith and love. Now that is comforting.
God bless. I am hopeful You be also.

Loretta Thomas-Whiteside is a neighborhood news columnist for The News Herald.