Growing closer to Him...
Loving my family...
Seeking what it looks like to be a servant...
Our last six weeks have been utter chaos & when people have asked me, "How was your Christmas?", my response has been, "I'm glad it's over." Period.
I won't lie... I am thankful that the hustle, bustle, going, doing, buying, celebrating, cooking, baking, busyness is DONE. Christmas is a reality that lives within my heart each day that I live, for if it weren't for Christmas, I wouldn't know the gift of Christ. I would be lacking a Savior. I would never know the promise of salvation or the hope of Heaven. Yet what I am glad is over are all the things that, in our society, inevitably go with Christmas... I know...it's my choice to get caught up in the hub-bub of it all & every year by the time it's all over I regret it & vow to do things differently when the holidays (that stint between Thanksgiving & Christmas) roll around again, but I seem to forget. Someone remind me about mid-October next year so I can get a handle on it before it gets a handle on me. :)
To look back...
To pinpoint...
To remember...
Those things in 2013 that were impactful...
Life-changing...
Heart-altering...
Spirit-transforming...
And not just to acknowledge them, but to really evaluate how He longs to use those things...
Those experiences...
Those situations...
To springboard me into 2014.
It. Was. Refreshing. ♥
*Tom's heart attack...
*Hours in an ICU addressing the "hard things" in life with Beth...
*Watching Kyle lay something down that he is drawn to...
*Stepping away from "church"...
*Observing MaKayla as she sought to find "placement" in life...
*Realigning our view of healthy living as far as nutrition...
Each of these chapters of my last year brought about much needed challenge & sharpening & through that challenge & sharpening, God began the process of remolding my heart in fresh, new ways...
In more ways than one...
*Choosing freedom...
*Relinquishing bondage...
*Desiring happiness...
*Releasing negativity...
*Discovering the richness of God's Word in organic form...
*Setting aside books, studies, man's word/interpretation...
*Finding courage & strength of how God sees me & who He sees me as...
*Silencing the criticism & condemnation of others...
*Seeking GOD...
*Denying the temptation to find adequacy/value in being all things to all people...
*Allowing God to have His rightful place in the lives of others...
*Surrendering control of things that don't at all belong to me...
*Experiencing how God designed our bodies to work with proper nutrition...
*Disciplining the palette... :)
*Hungering & thirsting for God's best...
*Stepping away from what was familiar...comfortable...acceptable...
*Loving others for who they are...
*Realizing I am only responsible for self...
*Making God the most important relationship in my life...
*Putting friendships/relationships in their rightful places...
As I penned each of these things in my journal & reflected on them, I told Kyle that I could clearly see how this is only the beginning. That God wants to build, strengthen & form a new heart within me. That there are so many areas of my life He wants to realign & set forth in a new direction & the more I think about the reality that He wants to invest in me, the more grateful I am. I'm ready to dive in, swim deep & discover the Creator of my soul in ways I have never given thought to.
As Oswald Chambers says,
"We will never know God's best until we loosen our grip on the good..."
Yet all too often, we allow fear or complacency or uncertainty or familiarity or laziness to keep us from that which has the ability to liberate us.
Sometimes we need to force ourselves out of the sphere of comfort in order to allow God to walk us through the fire of refining...
A place where the unseen, unrecognized, unacknowledged sludge that holds us captive & weighs us down can rise to the surface...
And thankfully by the grace, mercy & love of His holy hand, will be skimmed off.
This is only the beginning...
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
~Isaiah 43:19
