Goals for 2015

#TheLoft
One thing I've noticed this past year is my bad habit of wasting time.  Wasting time is so easy to do in the era of social media.  Scroll through Facebook and you will find endless articles, video clips, and conversation to lose yourself in.  Before you know it, it is 2:00 pm and you are still in your night clothes, the kids need to be picked up from school, yesterday's dishes finished before making dinner, and you realize your little home schooler hasn't had lunch! So you rush about trying to catch up and you feel like a "loser mom."  

So, this year I want to utilize my time more wisely.  Spend more time on the things that matter.  Set a specific time aside to read those books I long to finish. I can clean while listening to that sermon or pray.  I really don't need to check Facebook to see if I have any other updates.  Instead of having my social needs met through internet, maybe I should go and sit with others in the nursing home making an eternal impact.  Or actually pick up a phone and talk to a live person, this terrifies me!  We've lost the art of community.  I would love to invite people over for dinner more often.

So this year I'd like to be a better steward of the time that God has given me.  Breaking those addictions are hard but so worth it!  This is a simple post today but I really need to get moving.  I searched for a song to accompany this post and God gave me the PERFECT one!

 

RETHINK

#Theloft 

For years I've heard the buzz in Christian circles every January of THE WORD.  Pick a word, a verse, a phrase and focus on it for the entire year.  It's a great idea but I never joined in.  Call it a fear of failure mixed in with a little bit of laziness.  You know, those New Year's resolutions start off strong and by February everyone has forgotten.

This year I am taking a chance, a chance that I might fail.  A chance that I will prove to myself, once again, how undependable my flesh is.  I am risking disappointment.  But that is o.k. because I may fail but GOD NEVER DOES.  He never tires, He is dependable, reliable, steadfast, true, loyal, trustworthy, all knowing, all sufficient, and the Lover of my soul.  So if I fail, all the more reason to exalt Him.

My word is RETHINK.  Every time a negative thought or false truth enters my mind the alarm will sound RETHINK.   It is my warning signal, warning me of my of lack of faith, or a lie that has crept in and altered my thinking.  It doesn't take much but a little step to get you off the path.  NO, it is NOT positive thinking or wearing rose colored glasses, thinking that if I focus enough on the positive all the negative realities will disappear.  That is not walking in the truth!  That is living a life of denial and illusion.  I will not go there.  I strongly prefer to have my feet firmly planted and rooted in the truth.  God never asks us to live in denial or pretend everything is well in the world.

Just like the Hobbits did in the forest of Mirkwood, when they wandered off the path they fell under an oppressive discouragement, they became more disheartened and distrustful of each other.  Their thinking became warped.

That is why it is so important for our thinking to be filtered through God's word.  God's word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, Psalm 119:105.

So when my mind strays off the path in Mirkwood the alarm will sound RETHINK.  What does scripture say, who does God say He is, what is truth here.