It's the end of the first week of the New Year, and I'm realizing I had high hopes for this week. Hopes I hadn't even spoken aloud. They just came along with the feeling that a new year brings a fresh start, a clean slate. But nothing seemed to be different this week. And for the most part, that is good news. My children are healthy, our home is warm, we are blessed.
But in my heart there was turmoil. Monday rolled along, and I was dealing with the same things: willful, disobedient attitudes in my children, imperfect homeschooling, and a messy house. I don't know what I was thinking, of course these things don't magically change! Maybe it's the information the world feeds us; you know, the idea that we can make our life perfect, control our surroundings, and we can start it on January 1st.
My heart was troubled, deeply. I had obviously put too much stock in what my circumstance bring to life, and had not been focusing on what the Lord brings to my life. He is my rock, He is my fortress. I can turn to Him in the midst of earthly challenges, and I can find rest. He makes everything new. Not my resolutions, not my children, not the books I read or the house that's always clean. It's Him. He is the "new" in my life. Everyday!
So I am challenged to face each day with the newness that Christ brings, and to take the life God chose for me and be diligent with it. To
"make it my aim, whether present or absent, to be pleasing to Him,"
2 Corinthians 5:9
and when trouble comes, which it will every day, remember what it says in Isaiah 40: 28-31,
"Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."
2 comments:
I just spoke about this very thing with a friend of mine yesterday. Oh how deceitful our minds and thoughts can be- so sneaky!Praise to Him who TRULY saves and brings us peace!
I needed to read this!
I so understand how you feel--the emotional drain of disciplining little ones, picking up messes, getting homework completed, etc.--I too am in the midst of trying out some new "techniques" to making life run a bit smoother but.....
The truth of the matter is that we can try to make changes but it is only with God working through us that it can happen And change can happen any day of the year not just Jan 1st. Praise God!
P.S. Any thoughts about that new year's resolution you messaged me about? :)
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