New Year’s Day is always so fresh, so hopeful, so inspiring. It offers a new start with no mistakes in it yet. Seven days into the new year and I already ditched my long weekend run and the house is a mess.
The good news is that tomorrow can be just as new, just as fresh, just as inspiring, and just as blemish free as midnight New Year’s day when we watched all the fireworks go off, blew those funny little whistles, and yelled “Happy New Year!”
Tomorrow is a fresh start. Pull that funny whistle out if you need to and yell, “Happy New Day!”
P.S. In my defense, I was fighting a cold all weekend and we started remodeling our bedroom.
This year I have decided to keep it simple. I’m not making a bunch of resolutions that will inevitably result in failure by January 21. I actually only made 2 resolutions this year. I have a really LONG New Year’s to-do list, but I’ve decided to make 2 resolutions and work towards those resolutions above all the other to-dos on my list.
- Run a marathon in May 2010. My only out on this one is injury. If I do have to miss, I’m going to aim for Sept 2010.
- Develop the habits to keep our house no more than 15 minutes from clean by August 2010.
Neither of these are actually New Year’s Resolutions because I’ve been working on them both for a few months now. I must not be a very good resolutioner.
You heard it first here. Sunny is going to run a marathon and get her house clean. What was that about keeping my resolutions simple this year?
When I put Wiggles to sleep each night, I am deeply reminded how much I desire for him to have the courage to follow his dreams. I sing a little song to him and one line says,
“I have just one prayer for you, may your every dream come true.”
Each night, as I sing that song, I am convicted. How can my baby learn faith and courage if his parents don’t model it for him? How will he live out his dreams if I don’t have the courage to live out mine?
In Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby, the step after hearing God’s calling is facing a crisis of belief in which a person much choose whether or not to follow God. That crisis of belief comes from looking at the huge, scary, overwhelming thing God is asking me for and thinking, “There is no way I can do this.” The problem comes when I look at God’s calling with myself in the center. When I put God in the center the question becomes, “Is He really going to do all this through me?”
A God-centered life moves the problem of failure onto God’s shoulders. The crisis of belief is me facing what I really believe (or don’t believe) about God. Is He really big enough to carry out all that He promises? Will He be faithful?
I cannot look in the future to know the final results. I can look back, and He has been faithful in the past. His record indicates that He will be faithful in the future. I have to live in that trust and step forward to say, “Her am I, Lord. Send me.” If I live in a crisis of belief always questioning God, His purpose, and His plans, I will raise a child who lives always questioning God, His purpose, and His plans.
The dreams I have in my heart have been planted there by God, but I approach them with a crisis of belief.
I don’t know what I fear more: Not having the courage to live out my dreams, or Wiggles not having the courage to live out his.
