Wrapping up another year

There are many things that I think of when I look back on this past year.. there are many things  I would wake up and redo every single morning if I could and then again there are some others I would not. As I got to thinking about the new 365 days ahead of my life I started to ask myself what those new year resolutions would be...I believe every year up until this year I have always asked for the same thing.. you know those resolutions of all the "better" things you want to be ... better organized, better GPA, better time management, better weight control or BETTER YET let me lose the _____lbs(fill in the blank)  by being better disciplined, eating better, exercising more, etc. you name it and like all college age girls, or anyone from my age to 89 people expect better of themselves in the upcoming new year.
I took some time to myself today to ponder on what makes us have all these better expectations of ourselves and then plato into this "oh maybe next year" attitude as many of us do ( for those  of you who have accomplished your new years resolution ... kudos to you my friend) but sadly many of us should be wrapping up and celebrating our New Years resolutions from the past year on these last two days and instead we are writing them back down on our list.
As i took some time to go sit out by my lake today and some "Me" time a certain bible verse came to mind.. one of my favorites... " I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus make me his own"- Philippians 3:12
I ve decided to take this bible verse with me throughout this upcoming year! All my goals and aspirations could never be possible without the wonderful God that I serve! I know Im guilty of forgetting about the statement I bolded above. Many times we feel as if we can conquer our goals without God.. Im not really sure of why other than we will always be less than perfect because of our sins! So in the upcoming year of 2012 I have decided to pray to God for the following reminding myself of Philippians 3:12 :

1. For God to be my number one focus... naturally we are so self centered but it takes the grace of God to forgive us and for us to learn from that... for us to give grace to our neighbors in return and to become unselfish and to live a life by doing good and serving our Lord the way HE SEES FIT for us too.

2. to quit praying not to have hardships, if there is ANYTHING I have learned through out this past year it is that!... as weird as it may sound I do not wish for hardships but I do know that God will get me through whatever I endure and that the hardest life lessons I ve been through I ve ended up closer with him. We will all fall in the upcoming year and have some scraped knees but just get back up and all will be fine through faith in God.

3. become stronger in my faith- Faith seeks understandment! in this upcoming year I have no clue what  is ahead of me but that's why i put my trust in God! A sweet friend dear friend of mine once told me "God has the picture of your puzzle(life) and you only get one piece at a time"- Shelby McKenzie... I have taking that with me since she shared it! And who better than Jesus is there to show us the direction and light of our life... our faith in God... for him to be our guidance should be more than enough! We all want many details to our puzzle pieces for us to put together but by having faith in God we are trusting that he will reveal those pieces and their minor details when it is time. God says to us " follow me" DONT THINK ABOUT IT, just do it.... because every step of the journey is the journey itself.

4. finding something this year that drives me and giving it to God- everyone has something that drives them (their passion) for me... its helping others, seeing someone smile after doing a thoughtful gesture or a smile on someone's face after helping them through a hardship drives me more and more to help others every single day. For many it may be several other things but I pray for you and I that whatever it is that drives us, whatever we are so passionate about.. that we take it and for us to give it to the Lord and for us do with it what he wants and for us and to glorify him with it whatever our passions maybe.

5. there are 2 other things that I wish for us to remember throughout this New Year:

• Gods love will never let me go
• God will forever and always be on my side because he choose me to be a child of his.

And finally " Give complete surrender, kiss the son, embrace in Jesus Christ with BOTH hands and NEVER let go" - Brother Steve Jussely

I hope everyone takes Philippians 3:12 with whatever resolution they want to accomplish and remember that in not only 2012 but always " I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me"-Philippians 4:13




Happy New Year!!!