New Year-New Perspective

Okay. A comment on last year's resolutions spurred me to write my first novel. I am now polishing up the query letter, and hopefully will send it out just any day. Thanks Porchwise for spurring me on. Thank you Diane, Maya, Lisa, Dave, Vicki, Linda, and all you others out there who have encouraged me to develop my talent. I look forward to joining you in print someday.

It's a new year with new hopes, dreams, and plans. From my little corner of the world here in Henry County I look out with my natural eyes and see challenges, difficulties, and hardship ahead as we keep struggling to bounce back from the blows life has dealt us. And it seems sometimes they just keep coming. Or is it like editing? Do I need to keep rewriting the same scenes over until I get them right?

It's a good thing that I can see with spiritual eyes as well. When I ask God to take the scales off and let me see, sometimes the picture is still not so pretty. Sometimes He shows me the bitter truth of the sin I still struggle with, the things I need to root out. And yes, the picture is sometimes ugly, ugly.

Until He shows me the finished work. Until He gives me a glimpse of heaven and the afterlife. Until He shows me the things I've missed seeing while having my pity party. Like the love of family and friends who are there for you through it all. Lord, what would I have done without faithful friends and loved ones to cry on their shoulders? What would I have done had I not found you waiting with open arms to comfort me, to quiet my frenzied soul, to whisper to my heart, "It'll be all right, daughter. I have you in the palm of my hand. I will not let you be destroyed." What sweet words to my heart He brings during these moments. What precious comfort I find in Him.

He knows me. He made the heart that beats inside, that breaks so easily. He cares when we lie awake at night not knowing where to turn or what to do. He knows our past, our present, our future. He is our strength when we are weak. When He said, "I am," He reassures us that He is. He is all that we need. In Him we live, and move, and have our being.

Resolve--isn't that a stain remover for your carpets? Hm. Perhaps there is a correlation there. There are many things I would like to resolve out of my life so that others can shine forth.

This year I resolve to find the beautiful things inside me that He wants to let out.
This year I resolve to work on both the inner and outer man.
This year I resolve to worry less, trust more --and rest in the safety of His provision.
This year I resolve to give more of myself away and quit holding back out of fear.
This year I resolve to be a better Christian, wife, mother, and writer.
This year I resolve to not let other's opinions matter quite so much.
This year I resolve to let go of the immaterial and grasp onto the eternal.

For as Charles Carter, my Intermediate Sunday School teacher always said,
"Only one life
It will soon be past,
Only what's done
For Christ will last."

Thanks Charles. And thank you friends for being here. You give me a reason, a purpose, a smile.