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Happy New Year

 

Happy New Year! Entering a new year may bring various thoughts and emotions but I am excited for what is to come. I’m excited about my goals for the year. I’m excited to see where God takes me.

Last year was busy and stressful. With the ongoing frustrations of renovating, being on an organizing committee for an extra event and my husband’s health problems including a trip to hospital for emergency surgery, plus keeping up with my volunteering and day to day chores, it has been exhausting.

As I reflect on lessons learnt last year, I realize that to a certain degree my time with God suffered as there never seemed to be enough hours in the day. Being very organized and task-oriented, I have a diary to help me remember all I have to do and this allows me to accomplish a huge amount in a day. However, this same diary can be demanding, inflexible and energy-sapping. So some goals for this year include getting priorities right! This will include:

·         Scheduling more God-time into my day. If it’s in my diary I will do it. I have a deep desire to continue to develop my relationship with the Father; to develop greater intimacy with and dependence on, Him.

·         Allowing more flexibility in my day. There may be times when I simply have to leave unimportant chores undone so that I can use my time and energy to be obedient to the whisper of the Holy Spirit. So I will put aside my diary if necessary. Sticking rigidly to my diary is unimportant if I want my life to glorify Him.

·         Taking all requests for my time to God and having the courage to simply say ‘no’ if the situation requires it. Being obedient to His Holy Spirit.

·         Continuing to study and learn about holiness, prayer and other subjects that the Holy Spirit brings to mind, that I might grow in these areas.

·         Finishing editing my book and my children’s books and start offering them to publishers. God has given me a love of writing and a passion to share stories with others, yet I have continually put these things on the backburner thinking them a selfish use of time, allowing less important activities to fill up my day. If God has given me the desire to write, I should make it a priority.

As well as being excited for the coming year, I feel a real peace about what it might hold. God bless you each, as you also think about goals for the coming year.

 

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