New Years Eve 1951

                                                                  Steve Tom Mark
                                                                              Vicki

This is a special time of the year for me.    It's when my eye caught  something like it had never seen before, something that I just couldn't forget.    It was New Year's eve at the Bohemian hall.  I had been there several times before,   but this night my eyes focused on this most beautiful young lady.    She had blond hair and  a great smile.    I asked her to dance and we have been dancing for 57 years.   I went home that night and told my mother "I met the girl I am going to marry".   She is my bride and the mother of four,  grandmother of nine,  great grandmother of four and hoping for more.  I thank  the Lord for Darlene.   She is the best thing in my life.  Things have not always been easy or peaceful but they have been good because God is good.   We made a commitment to each other and we have stayed true to that commitment by the grace of God.    I would like to share something that is hard  but you can do it.    The Lord is a Lord of new beginnings.  He is always doing new things  in our life.    It is a new year ahead of us so it is time to look ahead,  not behind.     Looking back at our failures will kill us.      In Lk.9:62  "Jesus replied,  'No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.' "  In Philippians 3:13. "Brothers, I do not consider myself  yet to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do;  forgetting  what is behind and straining toward what is ahead."   In 2.Cor. 5:17      " Therefore,  if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, the old  has gone , the new has come."     If you have not accepted Gods love, mercy, and forgiveness for yourself  it would be a good time.    Peace.