Word of the Day - End

This year has been filled with ups and downs.  There have been days I haven't been able to sleep and days that I haven't wanted to get out of the bed.  Work has been overwhelming and has worn me down more than ever.  Ethan has grown up and has changed so much.  He has had a year full of adventures.  He started 7th grade, got a little sister, gained a new kitten, discovered he loves certain cartoons, and best of all he got baptized.  His personality has come out more than ever and he loves to wrestle and goof off.  With everything that has happened I am glad that 2014 is coming to an end.  The good and the hard I am ready to start a new chapter in this crazy mixed up thing called life.  

Well, enough about my year.  I hope that your year was full of fun and delight.  Today's word of the day is end.  When people talk about the end it's usually the end of life or the end of day.  Is the end of something always a bad thing?  I think that the end of something can be the meaning of a new beginning.  So, I challenge you to allow the end of this year to be a new beginning of next year.  Allow the good and the hard things to happen in the year to come.  Allow this chapter of your life to close and for a new chapter to be written.

The word end is in the NIV version of the Bible 502 times in 498 verses.  After reading the verses the following are the ones that stood out to me.

**Numbers 34:12 - Then the boundary will go down along the Jordan and end at the Dead Sea. "This will be your land, with its boundaries on every side." 

**Deuteronomy 4:32 - [ The Lord Is God ] Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? 

**Psalm 22:27 - All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, 

**Luke 1:33 - and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” 

**John 13:1 - [ Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet ] It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 

**Revelation 21:6 - He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.

Abba Father as I go into the new year I pray that you would surround me with your love and protection.  I pray that the end of this year would be the beginning of a year to come that is filled with peace and hope.  Please watch over and protect my family, friends, and even those I don't know.  Allow my love for you to reach to the end of my life here on earth.  For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.  Amen