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Page 4 — Wednesday, January 6, 2021 The Millen News
Opinions, yours and ours
from the
Editor’s Desk
Joe Brady
Millen News editor
Last week a very
dear friend invited
us over for tea and
scones to celebrate
the New Year. Now,
I’m familiar with
black eyed peas and
cornbread but tea
and scones? I al
most refused. My
first question was,
are you having
supper...I need more
than a biscuit and tea?
It had been years since I had attended high tea and I was
reminded of my funeral director days when a prominent
Claxton, Georgia family used to have high tea at Christmas.
For a country boy attending such a formal occasion in little
old Claxton with a family nationally known was truly an
experience.
I can still see the uniformed waiter, pouring piping hot tea
from a Minton tea pot into delicate china cups. In fact, the
first taste of the designer tea was quite a shock. I imagined
this must be what tree bark tastes like.
It was also all I could do not to beg for butter as every
one around me delicately dabbed jam on the scones and
proclaimed how delicious they were. I guess I failed to ap
preciate the finer points of scones. Give me a biscuit anyday.
All of this was swirling in my thoughts as I parked in
front of our friend’s house and hesitantly walked up to the
front door. As I spied the silver and delicate china cups sit
ting formally on the table I didn’t think I could stomach the
hot beverage again, suddenly I asked, “I must confess to
despising hot tea, can I please have a cup of coffee?”
Well, always a gracious host, my friend Bob quickly
informed me, “tough, you’ll drink the tea and you’ll like it.”
Saying a quick blessing that I had the forethought to stop
by McDonald’s on my way to Bob’s, I sat down to high tea.
I must confess, Bob’s scones were much better than what
I remembered from years past, and the tea was adequate..if
you were perishing from thirst that is. I guess my country
roots have firmly taken hold. To quote my favorite movie,
Gone With The Wind, “you’re just a mule in horse harness
and you’re not fooling anybody.”
I have not acquired the taste for hot tea; I prefer my tea
with ice and sugar. But I have finally realized why Brits are
so skinny. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and gold biscuits
dripping with butter would probably kill them dead! That’s
all for now, take care!
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Pastor Brad Asbury
The Year has Begun
2020 finally made its exit,
some of you celebrated the year
that passed and some of you
went to bed early and realized
the next day that it was 2021.
We can all agree that 2020
brought its shares of difficul
ties, joys, sorrows, gains, and
losses. While the year will go
down in history, we can only
look backwards to the past
year. We cannot change the
past; we can only live in the
present.
Regardless if it is 2021,
2020, or 2060 there are a few
things that will always remain
the same as long as the Lord
allows us to continue:
God’s mercies will be new
every single morning. Lam
entations 3:23-24 says, “The
steadfast love of the LORD
never ceases ;his mercies never
come to an end;they are new
every morning;great is your
faithfulness.”
God’s grace is sufficient for
our every need. 2 Corinthians
12:9 says, “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 of my
weaknesses, so that the power
of Christ may rest upon me.”
Our sins can be forgiven,
but only by God. God sent His
Son Jesus who would die in
our place, shedding His blood
to cover our sins. We turn from
our sins and turn to Christ (re
pentance), and we experience
the sweet forgiveness that God
offers to us through the sacri
fice of His Son.
1 John 1:9 offers this pre
cious promise: “If we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrigh
teousness.”
These are three simple, but
precious promises from God’s
Word. We must not forget the
pages of Scripture on these
first days of the new year,
read often from God’s Word
and take to heart all that He is
teaching you.
For every lie we believe,
there is a truth from God’s
Word that will counteract it.
For every bump and turn in the
road, there is hope found in the
Word of God. For every virus,
sickness, disease, famine, or
death there is promise to us
from the Word of God.
Too often we are caught in a
storm, and we then forget that
the promises of God are for the
valley and for the mountain
peaks. Often, the valley is the
loudest places to hear God’s
Word.
In 2021, make a commit
ment to get alone with God
and spend time listening to
Him through His Word. His
promises will never fail us,
He has never and will never
let us down.
Melissa Walker
This Year Let’s Have Positive Thoughts
Do you always think posi
tively? We think long and
hard about all the changes we
are going to make in the New
Year. We take an inventory of
ourselves and our relationships.
God loves it when we think
about good things.
But thinking good thoughts
can be hard when bad things
happen around us. That’s why
God tells us to think about
things that are good and wor
thy of praise. He wants us to
remember that He is in control.
He wants us to trust Him and
believe that He will take care
of us.
The Bible tells us in Philip-
pians 4:8, “Fix your thoughts
on what is true, and honorable,
and right, and pure, and lovely,
and admirable.” Think about
things that are excellent and
worthy of praise. Negative
thoughts will try to sneak in
and cloud your judgment but
it’s up to you to push them out.
Sometimes we have no con
trol as to what thoughts enter
our minds, however we are
able to take control of these
thoughts. During your quite
moments when you need to
drown out the noise of ev
eryday life and focus your
thoughts, think on good things.
Whatever we focus on be
comes magnified. If you keep
your attention on your prob
lems and heartaches, they
become overwhelming and
will control your life. But if
you fix your thoughts on God,
He becomes magnified in your
heart and mind.
As the New Year begins,
don’t look backwards but
ahead to all the good things
that will take place in 2021.
We all have good inside of us.
Everything we need to make it
in life is inside all of us.
The future of the seed is
inside the seed. You can count
the many seeds that’s inside
an apple but you can’t count
how many apples are inside
of a seed. You should always
believe in yourself and think
good thoughts.
So believe in yourself, trust
in God, and always remember
if you qualify yourself you will
only get what you qualify for,
but if you let God qualify you,
you will get more than what
you qualify for. Until our next
read, love one another!
Library Offers Variety For New Year’s Resolution
Sharon Blank
Welcome to the New Year!
Our resolution for 2021 is to
provide even better and more
innovative service to everyone
who comes in our library!
If you’re looking to get more
active or to help your children
to develop their reading skills,
try taking the Story Walk down
town and making it a fun fam
ily activity. Starting at the Old
PAL Theater, you’ll be walking
most of the length of Cotton
Avenue’s downtown area.
Each stop along the Story-
Walk will have a page from
a children’s book, and when
you’ve walked the whole
length, you’ll have read the
entire story! Every month will
have a new story, and the one
for January will be Jan Brett’s
THE MITTEN.
It’s the perfect story to warm
your heart on a chilly January
day!The Story Walk® Project
was created by Anne Ferguson
of Montpelier, VT and devel
oped in collaboration with
the Kellogg-Hubbard Library.
Storywalk® is a registered
service mark owned by Ms.
Ferguson.
Another great thing to do on
a cold winter’s day is read, of
course! No matter what you’re
interested in, the odds are, we
either have something for you,
or can get it. Whether you want
to learn how to improve your
photography or start eating
healthier, we’ve got something
for you.
The library will be closed on
Monday, January 18 to honor
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. On
Thursday, January 21 at 10:30
am, the Jenkins County Memo
rial Library Board of Trustees
will be meeting at the library.
New at the library: THE
BOOK OF TWO WAYS by
Jodi Picoult. Dawn is a passen
ger in a crashing plane, bracing
for impact. But instead of her
mind being filled with thoughts
of her family, she finds herself
thinking about egyptologist-
Wyatt Armstrong, and the days
they spent excavating together,
before she became a wife and
mother.
After she survives the crash,
the airline offers a gift in com
pensation: a free flight to any
where in the world. The logical
place to go would be home to
her husband and son, but her
heart is calling for her to head
to Egypt instead. Which choice
will she make, and how will it
transform her life?
Well, that’s all for now - see
you at the library!
Standard or daylight time? General
Assembly may ask Georgia voters
Georgia Sen. Ben Watson
doesn’t care whether the Peach
State observes standard time all
year or daylight saving time.
Watson, R-Savannah, a
physician, just wants Georgians
to pick one or the other because
studies show switching back
and forth every six months
causes heart disease and
sleeping disorders. “I prefer
either way,” he said. “Let’s quit
changing it.”
Watson pre-filed two
bills this month, one calling
for a nonbinding advisory
referendum asking Georgians
whether they would rather the
state observe standard time all
year, daylight saving time all
year, or whether they would
rather continue switching
between the two.
Under the other measure,
Georgia would observe standard
time all year, bypassing a
referendum. A third bill pre
filed this month by state Rep.
Wes Cantrell, R-Woodstock,
calls for observing daylight
saving time all year.
The Senate passed legislation
introduced by Watson last
March calling for a nonbinding
referendum on the issue. But
the General Assembly shut
down for three months shortly
after that vote due to the
coronavirus pandemic, and the
measure died in the Georgia
House of Representatives.
“It just got caught up in the
pandemic, and I didn’t press
it,” Watson said. Only two
states - Hawaii and Arizona
- remain on standard time all
year, as do the overseas U.S.
territories of Puerto Rico,
American Samoa, Guam, the
Northern Marianas Islands and
the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Any state wishing to observe
daylight time all year must seek
congressional approval. “My
gut is most people would like
to go to daylight time all the
time,” Watson said. “It may
be better to put it on the ballot
and see if we can get some
consensus.”