Happy Little Trees

Today is one of my favorite days of the year. I’m by nature, a reflector—not the bicycle kind—someone who tries to relate past to present to future. I really try to learn from my mistakes and like to think about the journey that’s been traveled and how it will affect where I’m going and where I’m standing today. In the midst of all that pondering, I am very thankful for God’s grace and his plan for this world, because if everything was only about my life and choices, God helps us all.

Last year, I made a big long list of resolutions, which I plan on doing today, and I fulfilled a lot of them. I ran a 5K, read ½ the Bible (I was going for the whole Bible, but I’m showing myself some grace), I ate more fruits and veggies, exercised more, and did many more fabulous things.

I could very easily become a very legalistic person, and sometimes in a sick way, it’s fun to be legalistic. That way, I can chart my abilities and activities in a way where I could almost turn myself into a baseball card with all my personal statistics on the back. I can picture the card having my very best photoshopped picture on front with my caloric intact average, my number of Facebook friends, frequent flyer points, and my church attendance stats on the back. Thank you, Jesus, that those things are not what life is about. It’s kind of like what 1 Corinthians 13says (paraphrased immensely from my brain), if I had abs of steel and have fulfilled all my resolutions from last year, but I have not love, I am nothing.

This year, I want to do fabulous things like visit faraway friends and swim a mile, but I also want more than anything to focus on my heart being his. The crazy thing about the status of my heart, is that none of my resolutions have too much of a part in it. They might help influence the patterns of my life, but the heart is something that only the Holy Spirit can mold and break and heal. I can read the Bible three times through in a month, and I might get better at Bible trivia, but unless I’m letting my heart be changed, what’s the point?

I’m not married yet, so the best I can do to assimilate what that would be like would be to think about my relationship with God. This year, I want to keep the romance alive with my relationship with God. We’re past our golden anniversary together, and I love him more each day, but sometimes I neglect him by getting so caught up with the process—or all the other things that swim in wavepool of my head. I want to spend more purposeful time with him. And sometimes be still so I can soak in his love for me. He loves silly, top-spinning, forgetful, impulsive, freaked-out, little old me.

And he loves you, too.

Blessings for the New Year to you!