Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Tiny Little Mommy

My 1 year old niece Kaelynn got her first babydoll for Christmas.


This was her UNcoached reaction.


She knew - instinctively, that you kiss the face.  She knew that you carry the baby on your shoulder.  I think this is a beautiful display of how God puts in the hearts of little girls - from the very beginning - the skills they will need to be mommies some day.  I just hadn't seen this in a "mommy" this tiny.  Or so cute.  Not that I'm biased or anything!

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Happy 2013!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  WELCOME 2013!!

"Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart." - Psalm 37:4, NASB

I am excited to once again be participating in the LPM Blog's Siesta Scripture Memory Team.  The first verse I've chosen to memorize is the one above, Psalm 37:4.

The Lord has already started to make this a theme for me, before this year even started.  I listened to a message Beth gave on this verse and it really ministered to me.  I also listened to her book, "Get Out of That Pit", which was very helpful.

I have been dreading 2013 in some ways for many years, because this is the year in which I will turn 40.  Being 40 is not a bad thing, but it's yet another milestone year that reminds me I'm not where I thought I'd be (wife and mother) - where I've believed I've been created to be - my whole life.  But I believe God is in control and His plans are better than mine, even when I don't understand them.

I do not view Psalm 37:4 as God being a vending machine and that I can ask Him for whatever I want and He will give it to me.  I know that's not how it goes.  I do believe that the Lord is capable of doing all things (see the verses on the sidebar there, Ephesians 3:16-21), especially changing my fleshly desires into His desires for me.  Maybe His plans for me - at least for now - don't include being a wife and a mother. He has certainly given me a great life with friends, family and a great job and church.  I have so much more than so many and have no reason to complain.  The voids I feel in my heart I need to seek Him desperately to fill, and I know He will.

I want 2013 to be a year of great personal spiritual growth.  I know that will not happen if I am not committed to seeking God in a new way.  Much as God loves us, He is not into forcing us to spend time with Him - it needs to be our choice.  I need to carve out more time in my day to be with Him and be in His Word, which is the only place I am going to find His desires for me.  It is the only place I am going to find Truth.  I need to spend more time in deliberate and dedicated prayer, seeking His face both for issues in my life and interceding for others.  I want to get off the spiritual plateau I've been on for a long time due to my own lack of desire for MORE.  The Almighty God of the universe wants me to seek Him and I have settled for less.  It's unthinkable, but that's what I've done.  God forgive me and help me not to repeat that mistake this year!

I hope that 2013 will be a year full of God's best blessings for you and your families - and that no matter what happens with circumstances, you will choose to seek Him and yearn to follow Him closer - each day.  Because with all that's wrong with this sinful world, the only way 2013 is going to be a good year is if we follow hard after Jesus.  In Him alone is all that is good and right and blessed.

Emmu-el came to us in the form of the baby in the manager.  That baby is the Son of God who longs to be Lord of our lives.  Let Him in and I promise you, you will never regret it.  It won't be a smooth ride, but then, what counts costs.

Lord, I desire to delight in You this year as never before.  Give me the strength to follow hard after you, no matter the circumstances and would-be distractions 2013 has in store.  For in You alone is all that is good, all that is right, all that delights.  All praise to You!