have you retired?

 "And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great." Job 8:7

I have to tell you, this devotions has SO MANY possible angles.  And as i type i'm not sure which path it might take. Maybe you should stop reading this one, and write your own.

For my friends who have retired, most of this might sound familiar.  Retiring can be viewed as a chapter short of death OR as a new beginning.  Two drastic views, right?  I'm somewhere in-between them. When i was a child, i'll never forget when the local meat market man retired, he died the next month.  People kept saying, "retirement kill him."  I'm sure that had an indirect impact on me in dragging my feet to retire (besides the fact i LOVED my job).  You retire and die??  No, thank you. 

At church we were given the opportunity to pick a STAR word for the year… a guiding light, so to say, for 2025. As I returned to my seat, I turned the star over to find the word “expand”.  I had no immediate thought or feeling. I felt like this year was more of a time to wind down instead of expand. Was I wrong?  Expand?  Yes, that is exactly what I needed to do. 

Besides enjoying more time with my grands and family, i started imagining all kinds of fun things i might do.  I could attend a morning Bible study, volunteer at church or other organization, start a cooking\ Bible class for students, have a “what’s cooking?” plan  and sell select items, offer a pickup/do this service… all of a sudden I started getting excited about my new chapter. And to think, God stirred my heart with a star of HOPE and TRUTH.  Our latter days are called to be great, not meaningless. 

Do you need a star for your year?  I know where some are. 

we are loved and chosen by God,

may we live, love and do like we believe,

veneal