2011. Probably one of the biggest years of my life. This was definitely a hard and an amazing year. Basically my whole life changed. I became a college graduate and joined the working world. I moved a state west and went from a Colorado culture to a completely different one here in Utah. I had to start paying my own bills J. I had to learn to be far away from my family and friends. I went from being engaged to married to my very best friend. My grandpa got really sick and almost passed away (Praise God he’s still here!). I visited Jamaica. I got a puppy…and talk about a test of patience there. I switched jobs. We bought a new car. And I’ve been learning how to juggle this all with a relationship with God. I can easily say I’m not the same person I was last year, and I hope to say I will continue to change and grow year after year.
I find it crazy how life never stops, we don’t get any breaks—and I’m pretty sure it just gets busier and busier. I think the biggest struggle I’ve had this year in my walk with God is just keeping my heart engaged in the midst of all the crazy. I was reading my bible, I was going to church…but my mind and heart were so preoccupied and maybe even exhausted that I feel like I really missed out on knowing God’s heart better. Now here we are about to enter 2012, and I get so excited about it, because it restores me and gives me a new mindset that this year is going to be different: that this time I’m not going to let life get in the way. There is something so refreshing about a new year, a new beginning and I really do want this year to be so much better than the last. I’m learning that no matter what life looks like…NONE of it means anything without a meaningful relationship with the One who created it all. I feel comfort in knowing that no matter WHAT happens to me, I know that God has ordained it so.
I’m not usually big on New Year’s Resolutions because I really don’t feel like they work. However, what is the harm in setting spiritual goals? With this new start of a year I want to set new goals. Goals to grow in my knowledge of who God is, how I can constantly trust Him and pray to Him. I want to KNOW GOD more, with my heart—not my mind. I want to LOVE people better. I want to open my home to people who need it, I want to meet new people at church because they may not know anybody at all, I want to have a more tender heart towards the people I’m closest to. I truly want to challenge myself this next year because we are getting older and more set in our ways, and the only way to change anything is to do simply that: CHANGE. I know it’s only by God’s grace that He can make me a woman who represents Him well—but it starts with me and my desire to be that kind of woman. I want 2012 to be a year where I learn to be a better wife, friend, daughter, sister, coworker, neighbor, etc. And I hope you will join me in this challenge, not because we have to be, but because it honors God when we live according to His Word. And most importantly is because He truly wants to know our hearts.
