New Year Planning

I know I'm a couple weeks late but....Happy New Year! I have been away from the blog longer than I hoped, but the last few weeks have been nothing short of crazy. I sincerely hope I never have to move 2 weeks before Christmas again! I do hope you had a wonderful and blessed Christmas with loved ones, celebrating the coming of our Savior. Our Christmas was quite different this year, having just moved and still being in the midst of unpacking and settling into a new home. This is the first year we have not been home for Christmas in almost 25 years. Being in the ministry meant we always had to be home for Christmas, and our children came to us. This year, we have one son who is too far away to come home for Christmas, and a daughter who just gave birth on December 12 to our newest grandchild (see my last post), so we were thankful and happy to be able to spend Christmas Eve and part of Christmas Day at the home of our older son and his family. Four grandchildren between the ages of 6 months and 8 years made our Christmas busy and fun!

The week between Christmas and New Years I made a lot of progress getting settled in our new home. We finally have unpacked our last box (I think)! Besides unpacking and organizing I spent some special times with the Lord that week, praying about and considering my goals, Bible reading plan, and choosing my verse and word for 2017. I have come to relish the week between Christmas and New Years as one in which I can really do some preparation of my heart for the coming year.  For many years, I have prayerfully chosen a special verse of Scripture for the coming new year. I highlight it in my Bible and memorize it. I'm not one for New Years Resolutions, but I firmly believe in personal goal setting, because if we don't stop and take stock on a regular basis we will find ourselves drifting or becoming stagnant.

For my Bible reading plan this year I am doing a chronological reading plan. This takes you through the entire Bible in a year, but in the chronological order in which Biblical events took place. You can find a plan like this in many Bible apps and so far I am really enjoying it.

This is just the second year that I have chosen a special word for the year. In 2016 my word was "perspective." This proved to be an appropriate choice, because as I looked back at this past year, there were many times I had to remind myself that my perspective on things is very different than God's. When we view the events of our lives from our limited perspective and dwell on our own reasoning, we are setting ourselves up for problems. This is the "But I thought..." focus - the way I think things should be or should work out, and when they are not that way, we can become very distressed and discouraged. This is something that I know I will have to continue to work on.

My new word for 2017 is "contentment." I hate to think of the number of books I have read and lessons I have taught on the topic of contentment, because it is clear to me that I have a long way to go when it comes to being truly content with what God has allowed or given me. As I meditated on it, contentment ties into the verses I selected to be my 2017 verses. Last year my verse was short and sweet (1 Chron. 16:11). This year, it is more than one verse, and verses that I have already memorized and always treasured.

Psalm 37:3-5: "Trust in the Lord, and do good. Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass."

Contentment comes into the picture here because if I am not actively choosing to be content with what God has done, what He has given me, and where he has placed me, then that means I am delighting in those other things that I am wanting or wishing for more than I am delighting in Him. His promise to give us the desires of our heart is not a "give us whatever we want" promise, or one that will make everything turn out perfectly. It means that if we truly have our delight in Him and make him our exceeding joy (Psalm 43:4) then His desires will become our own. I specifically included verse 3 because it reminds me to

•  trust in the Lord - in the One who knows all and does everything out of love for me, for my good and His glory. We are in a position now more than ever where we have to just trust the Lord for all the unknowns.
• do good - continue to do what is right according to His Word, even if I am misunderstood or mistreated.
• dwell in the land and befriend, or cultivate, faithfulness. I need to just be faithful wherever he has put me and look for opportunities to serve and be a blessing (more about this in a future blog post).

How are you doing this second week of 2017? It isn't too late for a fresh start! May the Lord bless you in this coming year. Thanks for reading my blog! I hope to be a blessing and source of encouragement to you this year as I continue to write.

Kathi