My New Years Wish

This is my wish for you in the New Year of 2011!  What an awesome YEAR this is going to be.

If you don't like country then mute the sound and read the words!!!  This Texas Girl sends you this WISH!
Happy New Year

Closing Out the Year - Sackcloth Removal

The end of the year is always a very big deal to me.  I contemplate the past, start to look to the future and resolve in my heart what it all means.  I get quiet before God.  Because my birthday comes just two weeks after Christmas, I feel a double desire to organize my thoughts about the year past and the one to come.

The last couple of years have been emotionally draining as the Lord has walked me through paths I would not have chosen.  In this journey, I have met Him in a new way. As in the Old Testament, I can look back over this past year and see the markers.  Most of those markers were documented on my blog...who would have guessed God would use a blog to teach me for a full year?  Each lesson He walked me through was enforced through reading others' blogs...I am so grateful to you bloggers and your obedience to share.

 Step One - I began the year asking God to return me to His potter's wheel...so I posted Editing My Life.

 Step Two - As I started to submit to his hands, He walked me through past lessons that He had taught me and spoke "it is time to re-energize."  The trials had left me feeling lifeless and yet I had young ones around me  I needed to give life to...it was a heart issue.  So I stepped out and blogged a week of re-energizing, as I followed each one, I felt I could breathe again....and breathe deeply.

• Time to Re- Energize - Day One
• Time to Re-Energize - Day Two
• Time to Re- Energize - Day Three
• Time to Re-Energize - Day Four
• The Final Day

Not very original titles to my five days of posting....but the change in my heart was the opening to spring in my life...I could feel the buds of my heart starting to bloom again.

Step Three - God took me back down memory lane with my 15  Mommy Piggy Tale posts.  Here He reminded me of His faithfulness through the first 18 years of my life.  These posts brought every emotion to the surface, but mostly reminded me of the firm foundation I have built my life on. It also reminded me of who I was...somehow I felt I had lost ME.

Step Four - As I continued to submit to the Potter's wheel, I began to hear His voice again.  I know He had been speaking in the past years, but my ears had grown deaf.  So, through the sounds of nature, He opened my ears to hear His voice again. God Hears!

Step Five - God also decided to re-establish the foundation my marriage was built on.  I began to read and post all that I was reading.  Then, He gave me the precious gift of returning to the city where we began and walking down memory lane.  The two days finished on such a high note that I could only shout - Bravo, Bravo God, as He re-established our marriage, which had been tested through the shaking of the years of trials.

Step Six - He began to open my eyes...away from myself to see others.  He began giving me eyes to see again and my heart turned outward. When Headlines Hit Too Close to Home, was one post where He made me look outward.  In January 2011, I will begin mentoring a fifth grade girl at a high-risk school...I am so excited and have been praying for her.  The field in my neighborhood has been filled with opportunities to serve Him and love on people.  The pumpkin bread and caroling party opened doors for ministry.

The Final Step for this year, God started meeting financial needs through miracles.  The provisions provided for Thanksgiving, Christmas and other needs.  God touched my heart in the deepest way possible as He spoke to me, "I will take care of you!  How and when is my choice and through whom!"  I have never felt the love of the Father so deeply.  My heart's prayer is that I will share it with others.

So, as I close the door to 2010, I am not slamming it like I have in the past.  I am not wishing it never happened...I am rejoicing in the fruit the Lord has established in my life. Removing of the sackcloth hasn't been comfortable at times, but necessary in order for me to return to the living.  I am coming into an understanding of my journey through my reading of  Lost in the Middle, Midlife and the Grace of God by Paul David Tripp.  I am embracing the work God has been doing while on His Potter's wheel and excited about what He will do in this new year as I enter a new decade....yes, I will turn 50!!!

So long 2010... you have been good to me.  Welcome 2011!  Thank you all for your posts and maybe, just maybe, this year I will be able to learn to get to my points faster, making for shorter post.