I hate New Year's Resolutions. They only seem to set us up for failure. How many of us really ever manage to keep them? So usually my Resolution each year is to not make any resolutions. This year I decided to bypass the whole resolution thing and work on developing one good habit that I should be doing anyway but haven't been. I decided I needed to be more active in my faith walk with God. Wow! That's pretty vague and pretty hard to figure out how to accomplish. So what specifically am I trying to accomplish? What specific goal do I have in mind? These questions were what I was pondering in the weeks leading up to 2013.
As Christmas drew to a close I eagerly anticipated a new study with my son leading us from Christmas to Epiphany on Jan. 6th. We discovered a book "The Twelve Days of Christmas" by Helen Haidle that goes over all the symbolism of the traditional Christmas carole of the same name. Now I grew up going to church and my family is a Christian family but I have never celebrated Epiphany before so this was exciting for me! Before Christmas I did some research and checked out a few books from the library so I could turn this into a lesson for my son and I to incorporate into our homeschool curriculum. I also discovered an amazing website with a daily devotion for each of the twelve days.
As we went through each day, my son LOVED learning what each day meant and very proudly would recite them each night. By the time Jan. 1st rolled around we were already in a good routine. We continued our twelve days of Christmas study and added a nightly devotion from Jesus Calling 365 devotions for Kids by Sarah Young along with our journals we started back in November. In addition I discovered Ann Voskamp's Joy Dare on Facebook a day or so before the 1st. So I had my answer. I would do the Joy Dare and Jesus Calling everyday and start letting both sink into my life. Basically I decided to allow my heart and mind to be OPEN to the promptings of God through two short, simple, daily activities. Guess what? To my immense surprise and pleasure just days into it I could already see a change in myself!
The Joy Dare is awesome! I highly recommend starting it. Go to Ann's website www.aholyexperience.com and download her Joy Dare calendar. Then follow her on Facebook and everyday she will prompt you to find three gifts in the everyday mundaneness (I think I just made that word up). Just a few days into it and I could feel my perspective shift. By challenging myself to find the three gifts of the day, I was focusing on the positive. I wasn't aware how much I focused on the negative until I started this!
So the Joy Dare immediately opened my eyes and shifted my perspective to all the blessings that surround us.But this week was the kicker. In three days I was confronted with THREE different devotions from THREE different sources about Martha and Mary. It was like God was holding a bullhorn to my ear yelling "Are you listening?" WOW! Okay, Lord. I thought, I am listening. God was making it abundantly clear that He wanted my attention. He was loudly proclaiming, you want to become more active, then you need to LISTEN! Not just Hear, but actually listen. Get rid of the "stuff" that is distracting you and LISTEN to what I want you to get fromMe!
That is why I started this today. I need something that will keep me honest and keep me accountable . Blogs are public so this is perfect. I commit to post updates regularly on this journey and I hope at the end of the year, I can look back on this and see the growth. I'm excited and eager to see what happens. Maybe, God willing, this will inspire someone else to further their own walk in faith.
Blessings,
E
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