My Hopes for the New Year...

I'm a list person. I love lists. They make me feel secure by reminding me that my thoughts are concrete, unforgettable, and in black. It seems that with four children at home, my mind is constantly producing thoughts and simultaneously dumping them as my brain cannot hold an unlimited amount of information.

Because my brain is always working overtime and because time itself is limited, I have found myself starting many things and not finishing them. The most current demand gets the most attention and anything else that can wait, does.

My hope for this year is to finish a few things that I feel are important and worth the priority.

God has been good enough to regularly reveal to me what is important to Him for my life. I have spent a lot of time reading his Word and studying what he says about my roll as a wife and a mother as well as my roll as a daughter of the King. I have been convicted multiple times regarding changes He would have me to make and how he would have me to make them.

The good news is that I have made many changes. I have heard God's voice and have valiantly tried to make the attempt to follow through on His words to me IN MY OWN STRENGTH. The result is always the same - FALLING SHORT.

I fall short in being a joyful, patient mother. I fall short in being a supportive and loving wife. I fall short in bringing glory to God through the treatment of my temple. I just fall short.

A quiet moment of reflection at my church's New Year's Eve service allowed me time and space to reflect on the past year. God convicted me. I received a smack in the face. He showed me that it is not possible to pull off His direction for my life in my own strength. Last year was a year of attempting to pull things off in my own strength. In 2006, I accomplished a lot but not while relying on the Lord. This result was one tired woman. The result was many things started and only a few things finished.

My hope for 2007 is to depend on, lean on, and rest in my Savior. His strength will make it possible to finish the things that He allowed me to start last year, and a couple of years before that :) His strength will make it possible for me to be more consistent in actually DOING the things that I know I should. That's the thing - my strength ebbs and flows which results in my best days, weeks, and months looking a little "splotchy". What I need more than anything is someone bigger than myself to encourage my innermost being to continue on when there is nothing left.

My God has an everlasting, unending supply of power and my hope for 2007 is simply to tap in. My hope for 2007 is to finish things that are important to him.

Thank you Laurel Wreath for the invitation to reflect on the New Year and what we'd like to see God do in our lives.

This is a copy of a post made in my "daily life" blog. I will be posting more specific ways that I hope to see God's strength show up in my life this next year. Visit me at my other blog for more as the week unfolds.