Revelation, Christmas and a New Year

Christmas turned out not to be so bad after all. A few days after my last post, I'm driving down the interstate thinking about how my kids are seemingly selfish, not wanting to spend any time with me when the Holy Spirit whispered..."Now you know how I feel. How many times have I prompted you to spend time with me, read my word, worship, pray and see all that I have for you but you were too tired, too busy, had more important things to do, too poorly organized with your time management, etc."

BOOM!

I DO read Scripture and pray daily. Even if it is just one or two verses and even if it's a hurried prayer. And I know it all counts. But I know God has so much more for me and yet, so many other things get in the way.  I know He understands. He is patient and forgiving. Me, not so much.

So I am choosing to use my current phase in life as yet another lesson--to adjust my priorities yet again. I love how when we refuse to take the time to learn what God wants to show us He will use the situations and circumstances in our lives to teach us anyway. All we have to do is listen.

We wound up having a wonderful Christmas Eve where the kids and I exchanged gifts like adults before going to my mom's for dinner. They went to their dad's to spend the night and wait on "Santa" and I came home alone. But it was not so bad. I lay in my bed, talking to Jesus and listening to 24 hours of A Christmas Story until I fell asleep. In the morning, we went to my sister's house to see what Santa brought the little ones. Later that afternoon I met my singles group for some bowling and then came home and spent some time alone with my son before he headed back to Tuscaloosa.

Me and Dylan at Highlands Christmas (awesome, btw! If you ever get the opportunity to go, do NOT pass it up!)

My little family! Yes, I realize there is a black kid in my picture! It's Brooke's boyfriend, Anthony. I don't really care what you think of that. We like him and I trust my daughter.

My mom and dad and all their grands.



So now I am looking forward to my FAVORITE holiday--New Years! I love New Years because there is just something about getting rid of the old and welcoming new that I have always loved. I love that the slate is clean (kinda like when we let Jesus wipe our slates clean) and start over. Everyone gets a second chance.

Facebook did their usual "year in review" customized for each user of course and I realized that the year was really pretty good. I got very involved in various things at Church of the Highlands. Kayti graduated high school and moved into her own apartment. She danced her last year of dance and went to her first and only prom. Brooke had the lead in the spring musical, did colorguard for an OUTSTANDING season of high school football (State Champs, remember?), danced, got her driver's license, and finished a year of voice lessons. Dylan began his Senior year at Alabama and launched a student team of UAV designers even securing significant funding for the project in grants and donations. (have I ever mentioned how super intelligent he is?) We went to Orlando, Chattanooga, the beach and Atlanta. I started another year of graduate school and a new job.

I guess I have to accept that there will always be some bad days here and there and that things are not always going to be perfect. For my personality, that's a hard fact to accept. But I'm learning. It's just not so easy for some of us to "go with the flow" no matter how hard we want to be able to. But most days, I love my life. I still have dreams and goals though and I will always be the type of person that tries to put together a plan to make it happen. What I have to do, however, is seek God first in those plans. His plans are far better than mine. But I believe that He puts desires in us because they are somehow part of His plan.

I have also been hesitant in the past to share too many of my goals and dreams for fear that if they didn't work out, I would be disappointed or look stupid and like I don't follow through on things. But in listening to Joel Osteen, one of my favorite pastors after all the ones at COTH, of course, and going through LIFE is that words have tremendous power. I need to speak my dreams out loud and give the words the power to work. I need to show God that I have faith enough in myself to do what I can do so that He can do what He wants to do.

So my hopes, dreams, goals, plans--whatever you want to call them--for 2015 are (in no particular order):

1. Continue serving on the prayer team for the LIFE retreats and the Events team.
2. To not miss a single SERVE Saturday and to make every Saturday prayer meeting that I can.
3. Get involved with prison ministry.
4. Continue writing to Richard (a childhood friend doing life at Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer.
5. Tame that tongue!
6. Learn a new language
7. Go on a big trip.
8. Spend more time with friends
9. Get on a doable budget!
10. Make myself over physically (gonna keep the details of that to myself!)

And that's just a sampling. There is so much more that I want to do and so much more that I HAVE to do. And I will try to accept my limitations when I start to see them and not be too disappointed. But God knows the plans He has for me--plans to give me a hope and a future, plans to prosper me and I claim His promise today!

Be blessed!