Happy New Year! I hope that you all had a blessed holiday season! I am sending this from my wellness blog since my Creative mother blog is acting strangely. But I will not let technology stop me! NO! I will push forward or fail in the process! So bear with me and here goes!
I spent New Year's Eve camped out in front of a fire in my living room eating, watching movies and eventually waking up right when the ball dropped to welcome in the new year. I was just overcome with emotion at all the lord has done in our life this year with bringing my family closer through hardship with my daughter's health, finances, changing church homes, etc. I know that many of you have had similar or even worse obstacles to overcome this past year. But through it all I have felt so extremely blessed for through this circumstances I have seen God. Really seen Him. He has showed up through others, through circumstances, and through the faithfulness of His Word. My faith has grown and I've seen my children's faith grow as well this year. Trials really do bring about perseverance, hope and faith because we are forced to lean on God and not our own understanding. He had to take us to a place where we could NOT understand what was happening around us and therefore we had to lean on His sovereign understanding. And as customary for Dija's New Year I am immediately thrown into a life lesson on January 1st! I am convinced that this happens to me to remind me that I am not perfect and will not have a perfect year and must remember WHO is in charge!
To make a long story short, a play I'm in will be opening in two weeks and I was getting anxious. More anxious than necessary. I began to worry about things I should have no business worrying about. But most of all I realized that I had lost focus. I had wasted to many minutes on stress. Stress is stupid and does not deserve my energy. Worry is stupid and God told us not to spend our energy on it either! Phillipians 4:4-6. So why am I worrying? I decided to take some time to decompress and go back to my bible study: Lord I Want to know You by Kay Arthur. Of course I open to lesson 15 :The Lord is My Shepherd. "It doesn't matter what I am. It only matters who He is because He is all I need!" This smacked me in the face like a fist from the Ultimate Fighting Competition Heavy Weight Champion of the world! I was worried about ME screwing up, ME not knowing my lines, ME, ME, ME! I lost focus on HIM, HIM, HIM! When my focus was on Jesus I wasn't concerned about anything else. In fact, I was full of JOY at the prospect of using my talents to glorify Him and touch someone's life. God is our Shepherd. We follow Him! He takes us where we need to go, He gives us rest, He restores us (Psalm 23). I used to feel really down that I would "screw up" on my first day of the new year when I was younger, but now I feel so grateful that God saw fit to change my attitude...quickly. And He is so merciful to do so if we ask...almost immediately sometimes! And what better way is there to start out the New Year than with a reminder that "The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not be in want. Don't worry my daughter, I have it under control."? I honestly can't think of one.
Thanks for reading.
God Bless!
