Ringing in the New

It's raining in our part of the world this morning. We're still in our pajamas. We may stay that way for a while. I may not do anything today. I may read a little. I may work out. Or I may just sit here and do nothing. It all depends on how I'm feeling.

I was thinking about the last year and how fast it passed and the new year and what it holds for us. We'll get our new house built and our current house sold (that's the plan anyway). It would be wonderful and amazing and miraculous if we got our adoption referral in 2013, but the timing is in God's hands not mine. I want to continue to work out and take care of my body not because I feel obligated or because I have to, but because I know that I function best when I'm physically active. But when it comes down to it, while all of those things are great and certainly things to which I aspire, more than anything my biggest goal is to chill out . . . to let go of the idea of what is perfect . . . to relax . . . not be so driven about everything all the time.

I was reading Blue Eyed Bride's latest post on goals and grace, and I felt like she was writing so much of what I was feeling. It's so easy for me to fall into the trap of wanting and expecting the perfect life, house, family, kids, body, quiet times, eating habits . . . the list could go on forever. And then I'm stressed and tense and anxious because I'm not living up to the image in my head, but this year what I want more than anything is to find my freedom fully in Christ. After years of thinking I had to read a certain amount everyday and pray a certain number of minutes everyday, I'm finally realizing that my relationship with Christ is not a schedule. It's not an event or an appointment that has to be planned and executed. It's a relationship. It's about quality not quantity.

This year I want to let God live in me fully and work through me completely. I want to learn what it means to have peace and patience and joy no matter what. I want to trust Him through all things and in all things. So actually, I have some pretty lofty goals when it comes down to it, but the great thing about these goals is I get the easy end of the deal. I don't have to do the hard part. I just have to let God do His work in me. And my prayer today is that when I look back over the year of 2013 that I don't see all I've accomplished, but instead, I see all God has accomplished in me and through me.

“Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea And a path through the mighty waters, “Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:16, 18-19 NKJV

Praying that you have a very blessed and wonderful New Year!