Hope in hard times

Beginning of a new year and I keep hearing messages of fresh, hopeful, new beginnings. Maybe it's my age or my place in life, but things around here don't seem so fresh or new. I have a number of big concerns on my mind these days that have just carried over from 2008. One of them is my friend Mariam-- in the hospital just having received 5 days of massive chemotherapy. She'll be home 2 weeks and then back at it again. There wouldn't be much hope in this or any my "worries". except that today I heard a different message. "All men are like grass,and their glory is like the flowers of the field;the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever." --I Peter 1:24 The things that plague us when life seems difficult, are temporary. God is eternal. Sometimes life if just so hard, but I can have hope.