soul rest

 

I had the privilege of being part of the book launch team for Bonnie Gray’s “Finding Spiritual Whitespace”.   This book is a much needed oasis that speaks truth into our hurried lives.  Bonnie weaves keen spiritual insights and revelations into her story of a difficult childhood which led to unexpectedly dealing with PTSD and the ravaging effect that had on her as a whole person.   She speaks from a deep well of experience, and relates definitive mile-markers of spiritual growth, where God divinely showed her how much her soul desperately needed to seek Him, to slow down, to rest.

She calls that “spiritual whitespace”.

I’ve also heard it referred to as “margin”.  You know – that extra room on the side of a lined piece of paper that is supposed to stay empty.  Have you noticed how that beautiful white, unfilled space on the page makes the whole thing more readable?  That is exactly what whitespace is supposed to do – in art, in music, in life.  As Bonnie tells us, if we don’t build it into our lives, if we don’t plan for it, if we don’t arrange our day to make sure it happens, if we don’t look for God along the way where He is showing up time and again, life will surely take over our agenda and our calendar and we will not naturally make room for Him in the process.  We must slow down, we must have eyes to see, we must let our soul feel His stir. 

If your soul needs rest and if you want to find ways to incorporate God into your every moment, then Finding Spiritual Whitespace is a must read for you.  The book also has questions at the end of each chapter and journaling prompts, to further your study alone or with a friend(s).   

Enjoy!

under the mess

It was early spring; winter was finally past with nicer weather here to stay.  Not wanting to be inside any longer, I was anxious to get "out there" and start clearing up the gardens around our house.  One sloping bank in particular was a mess of weeds and downed limbs, as well as being home to mounds of leaves from the previous fall.  My husband had planted tall spikes of forsythia along the upper edge of the bank, and I was eager to free the budding branches so eventually they could bloom in all their glory.

I attacked the overgrowth with gusto.  I pulled, tugged, threw to the side, cleared and pruned to my heart's content.  Happy with my progress, I was almost to the end of my crusade when a spot of color caught my eye. All movement stopped for a moment. I wasn't sure what I was seeing because it was nestled so deep in the underbrush.  Only after I had a chance to move the surrounding debris was I able to see the source of the color - the first forsythia bloom of the season.

 

I stood there in awe. This perfect beauty, produced from the branch that had been buried beneath the muck and the mire.  Flower bursting forth from the limb that had been denied all but a little light.  Apparently, the one with the most junk dumped on it blooms first.

 

Sounds like something out of Life 101.

 

We all have weights bearing down on us in our lives; no one escapes that fact.  Some come for a season or a time and then leave; others make their nests in our days and roost.  This overgrowth, this debris, these heartaches and pressures and unwanted circumstances that threaten to bury us and squeeze out the light in our lives - they don't come to weigh our heart down for no reason.  God allows them into our lives to help us to grow, to flourish, to bloom.  We usually don't recognize them as beneficial fertilizer (because we're too busy trying to make them go away), but God knows they are exactly what our soul needs in order to produce the sweet blossoms that represent Him changing a life.

 

Life exists under the mess. It's there for a reason. It's the mess that provides the nutrients for our growth. 

 

So keep calm and bloom on.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

new (in)courage Community Groups forming today!

 

 

Happy Monday! And, for being a Monday, this is one is filled with fun news!

 

 The awesome online "beach house" for women, (in)courage, is having registration for their new and existing small groups today. You won't want to miss being a part of one of these online communities - they are resources of encouragement and discipleship like no other. 

 

 There is a group for almost any taste and talent- you can check out the complete listing of what's available here. Click on over and sign up for one!

 

The lovely Jennifer Frisbie and I are co-leading a group called

(in)couraged to Explore the Writing Life.  I am honored and blessed to be a part of this group; it's taking me outside of my comfort zone and it will connect me to other great women writers who share the passion of using their gifts and talents for Him. I desire to be an encourager for these women, and to learn from them as well as we share our lives and stories.

 

No matter what you love to do or are passionate about - they've got a group for it.  And after you head on over there and sign up, I'd love if you came back and left a comment telling me which group you registered for so I can be the first to cheer you ON!

 

Now go on, get out of here and head over to (in)courage, and have a great Monday!

plans and priorities

Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.

Proverbs 19:21

 

 

This is so true.  I get up in the morning with So. Many. Plans.

 

Plans in my calendar.  Plans on my mind.  More scribbled on paper.

 

Plans I alone have made, yet before God I can't help but acknowledge that only He knows my day.  He has it planned.  And His plans could very well not be mine.

 

Sometimes the sheer volume of tasks on My List overwhelms me and I think, "How will I get this all done?"  I can feel my heart race and panic set in. 

 

Truth is, often there really aren't enough hours in the day - for my plans.

 

The best advice I've read on priorities comes from the book Lies Women Believe and the Truth that Sets Them Free by Nancy Leigh DeMoss.  In it she writes, " The Truth is all I have to do is the work God assigns to me.  What a freedom it has been for me to accept that there is time for me to do everything that is on God's 'to do' list for my day, my week and my life!"  I love that concept.

 

I'm betting that God's to-do list for me looks way different than mine.  Think Mary vs. Martha.  Yeah. That.

 

Plans. Lists.  Pressures. Commitments. They all threaten to manipulate my day and thrust me headlong into my next 24 hours before I'm even ready. Why am I letting them dictate my schedule? Where is my priority? When will I remember that simply sitting at Jesus' feet with my Bible, a journal and some quiet time is not a waste of time, but lifeblood for my soul?  I cannot think of a better investment in my day than to give Him a part of it.  The moments I give Him are necessary in order to get those other things done.  (cue My List.)

 

Breathe soul, breathe.  There is time enough in this day to do what God wants me to do.  And the only way I'm going to figure out what those things are is

 

to ask Him.

 

to listen to Him.

 

to spend time with Him.

 

Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you as well.....

 

Sounds like a plan to me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



waiting for perfect

I'm not sure what I've been waiting for, but I do know that I've been waiting for something to be perfect before I write on this blog. 

Maybe it's the topic. 

Or the words.

It could be my mood that I'd like to be just right, but then again, maybe it's my hair. (which is far from perfect even though I just got a 60$ haircut. Don't ask. That's another blog post entirely.)

At any rate, I decided to break the silence and stop waiting for perfect and just write. If I wait for perfect to arrive, the world is going to slip by without me because it's broken and in no way can manifest perfection.

Sounds bleak, doesn't it?

Believe it or not, there is good news for all of us in all of this.

The good news is that God doesn't wait for you to be perfect, doesn't wait for me to be perfect. He wants us just as we are, with our imperfect hearts, lives and souls. He's already made us perfect through Jesus.  No more waiting. It's done. It's so simple, really. And it doesn't get much perfect-er than that.

So go ahead.  Jump into whatever it is that's calling your name long before perfect comes down the pike.  Long before you've got your ducks in a row, planets aligned, checkbook balanced.  Tomorrow those things won't be.  Because, you see, in this world perfect never comes and stays.

Yet perfect, in Jesus Christ, is already here.  And will last forever.

What are you waiting for?

one Saturday morning

All my life, I’ve struggled with knowing what I want to be or what I want to do.  It was never really a problem until recently, due to being on the other side of child rearing and “the busy years”.  My search for significance is turning up empty a good bit of the time.  Things come along occasionally in my life and I think , “Is this it?” or a month later, “Is THIS it?”  I’m tired of asking that question and having “it” never turn out to be “IT”.

This all came to a head Saturday morning when I was reading a devotional and it warned against letting the emptiness in my soul, heart and mind be filled with these three things- self pity, self preoccupation, or giving up.  That described me to a "t". Giving up is exactly what I’ve wanted to do when it comes to the area of writing.

I have such a struggle in this area.  The more I strive to be a writer, the less I feel like writing.  In comparing myself to other women writers- which is strictly taboo, I know, but happens all the time- I feel instant defeat.  I read a wonderful blog the other day, delightfully written, and the author wrote  - “when I write, it’s fairly easy.”  That makes me wonder about my own ability, because I often don’t feel like that. I sit here and imagine words just flowing out of her fingertips and it being effortless for her many times over.  I’m sure this probably isn’t true.  Reading her blog really put me over the edge, probably because she writes just like I’d like to write.  And gets noticed for it. Ugh.

Comparison is a bear.

Reading that devotional, I realized I was all about self pity, self preoccupation and giving up, which is a place I never thought I would be.  I cried my heart out to God.  I told him I felt dried up, useless, and like I had nothing left to say, and that I’d been feeling like that for a long time.  It wasn’t really a pity party, it was more of a cleaning out of my soul.  I needed to say all these things to Him, because He is the only one who truly understands me and would clearly see the mess in my brain that I was trying to sort out.  It unearthed some real deep seated feelings of never, ever really knowing what I wanted to do in life, from after college on.  I graduated with a teaching degree with no desire to teach.  And it just kept going from there.

So now when I think I’ve hit on “it” and then the “it” loses its appeal and seems to shrivel up and blow away, it makes me crazy.  I unclenched my tight fists, held open my hands and said, “God, I give it all to you.”  And I felt Him saying, “Beth, I want you.  I want your heart.  I don’t care if you write or play basketball or crochet for Me; I want YOU first and foremost.”

And I realized that is what I was lacking.  My tears stopped and dried.  I felt a much lighter load inside- in fact, no load at all.  Only joy.   My heart now had an answer – that He wanted to love me more if I would only let Him.  He showed me that I was not spending the time with Him that I used to- when words flowed more easily and I always had a story to tell on my blog and when I was thrilled with my writing even if no one else was.  I've recently complained that I’m dry for material, but I’m not spending any time in His word or really praying for Him to use me.

I think that may have something to do with it....

After having that meeting with God,  as I was hanging up laundry, the beginning lines of this blog post came fast and furious into my head and I knew I had to go write them down.  Like, right that minute.  Primarily so that I wouldn't forget them, but also, because I sensed they were the beginnings of a story to tell.  I practically ran to my laptop like I haven’t in months or maybe a year and started this raw writing, and poured out words without even thinking about it.  It just all drained out of my fingertips, from my head, through my heart and onto the page.

I have discovered this - My connection with writing is directly proportional to my connection with God.   (click to tweet this)

I had never thought of that way before.   But it makes total sense to me now.

This still doesn’t mean fame, fortune, recognition, a book deal or any attention whatsoever.  But the way I was driven to write this piece is the way I want to feel again.   It's actually the passion that I was missing more than the writing.   What I was longing for was the desire to write –  that's what I so desperately wanted to return.

And I believe it has, because I've recognized its source.

Thank you, God  of the universe, for meeting me exactly where I was one Saturday morning, and speaking to my very need.   You have shown me some incredible things that only you could have known I needed.

It's all about You.

 

easy trust

Trust was easy...when there was nothing going on.

When I began this trust journey in earnest, the mid-winter snowy doldrum days went by at a leisurely pace.  At any moment, I could take inventory and come up with everything being just as I liked it -all grown children accounted for and in their proper spots in life, good jobs all around, great health and a warm, cozy home for the myriad of snowbound, cabin fever kinds of days.

It's quite simple to trust when everything is going my way.

But now the changes have started to come, and I realize my heart is anxious today because there are - and will continue to be - decisions and deadlines and calendar dates I won't have any control over, and the planning towards them puts my stomach in a knot because I must, I MUST, see that these things work out perfectly or someone's life is going to be ruined.

Gee, you'd think I'm God, wouldn't you?  Repeat after me - All control is only an illusion....

So here's my chance. I want to do things differently this trip on the worry-go-round.  I want to put my trust in God into action and watch Him work, as opposed to fretting over all these circumstances and manipulating people and things to get details crossed off my list.  I want to give over to Him all the things that are running through my mind at a constant exhausting pace, and watch Him produce the results.

The giving over is easy; it's the not-taking-back that's hard.

When the deadline looming on the calendar sends me into a panic and decisions have to be made with no one making them and when I feel that wrong paths may be taken unless I step in and make it all right again, I am telling myself right now that I will need to spend more-than-usual time in prayer so that I can gain His perspective, experience His peace and be comforted by His presence.

This is a growth opportunity for me, if I'll only take it.

I want to get it right so that this trust thing becomes easier next time around.

And the time after that, and the time after that....

she's here!

No, I did not just give birth. 

Thank goodness.

But...a delightful little girl and three musical bears did get released on the Amazon and Barnes & Noble scene just this past weekend, so may I introduce -

What fun!

Seeing it on the bookshelves at B&N this past weekend was pretty much a thrill; being nestled between a Berenstain Bear's book and Eric Carle was the icing on the cake.

I started this blog with the intention of it being the record of my journey toward picture book publication.  That was February of 2009.  Here I sit, exactly 5 years later to the month, with a picture of the cover of my published picture book.

It kind of blows me away.

This was a dream of mine that I didn't even realize existed.  Not until I started working in the elementary school library in February of 2008 and became inundated and surrounded by picture books did my love of them surface completely to the point where I felt I needed to write one.  At first I thought it was just me following a familiar pattern; typically, I have a hard time sitting back and just observing or enjoying things that I come across.  If it's out there and possible, I either want to teach it, sing it, lead it, write it, or speak about it.  I'm a front row and on stage kind of gal that usually bites off more than she can chew and gets rather ahead of herself and overcommitted. 

So, I figured this could be more of the same.  It's not enough for me to just enjoy picture books; no, I need to write one.

And for whatever reason, this time it took.  Things began to happen that I couldn't possibly have orchestrated or predicted.  The key element was that I met Corey Rosen Schwartz online and her generous offer of collaboration worked for both of us and here we are.

I have spent time recently focusing on dreams of mine that haven't worked out.  The frustration comes, the questioning, the wondering why.  Then I come and sit down and write about this and see the uncanny timing, the way God put me exactly where I needed to be when I needed to be there (without any help from me; He's really quite talented, you know), and the direction the past 5 years have taken, and I think "wow".  Why am I lamenting what hasn't happened when this has?

I am thankful that this event is a part of the story of my life.  I am thankful that it happened.  And many thanks to you, too, for your continual encouragement and support that I felt all along the way.

Onward and upward....

compassion

                                                (photo credit - Jeff Goins' blog post)

My life is so simple here.

I just read Jeff Goin's post from Uganda.  What an amazing story, what an amazing place.  And here I sit in my lovely heated home, with electricity that is always on, water that always runs, toilets that always flush (I hope), and a closet full of clothes to choose from.  I am so blessed.

As a matter of fact, yesterday, my arm hurt from carrying too many groceries at once up the front steps.

Talk about a First World problem.  Sheesh.

Jeff's post transported me to another part of the world where life is hard.  I've been over there- past Africa, all the way to India.  Conditions are similar; cultures are vastly different.  Everyone should have to take a trip like that at one point in their life, because it's good to get "out there" and see some of the rest of the world.   By the same token, it's hard to know how to live differently when we come "back here" and are forced back into our comfortable lives, struggling to know how to make a difference.  Prayer, of course, always helps and works and is best.  God is in control of the entire world, every nation and country, so certainly speaking to Him about what we've seen and encountered when we've been far from home is a pretty good idea.

Contributing financially is also an option. The trip that Jeff is on is connected with Compassion International, and you can sponsor a child through that organization.  That might be the best human option, because our monthly contribution can translate directly to helping a child.  As he wrote,

"Despite how small $38/month may seem, it makes a tremendous difference in the life of a child. I saw the evidence today in the lives of slum children who now have school uniforms and books and a hope that defies circumstances."

I believe the key is to provide what we can now for the children, for they are that country's adults of tomorrow.

It stands to reason that by reaching the children, we are reaching the future.

(photo credit - Jeff Goins' blog post)

Trusting Tuesdays

I'm linking up today to Trusting Tuesdays at The Messy Middle, part of the OneWord365 project. 

A very smart gal named Amy Young gathered those of us with the word "trust" as our One Word for 2014 and invited us to join her the Third Tuesday of every month with our posts.   This way we can see how we're doing with being faithful to the word we chose.....good move, Amy!

I find it interesting that even though I've walked the trust road for only 21 days, God has gradually turned up the heat in areas where I need to trust Him.  In the beginning, it was similar to using flash cards; He and I went through the easy ones first.  I started out simply trusting Him with a person, a situation, or a relationship.  Common, ordinary, everyday scenarios where I just take a moment, breathe out a prayer of "I trust you God with so-and-so," inhale deeply with renewed resolve and press on.  Granted, it feels good to leave those things and people at His feet and let Him carry the burden. There were times I had to remind myself not to take back the burden for my so-and-so's; they were now God's to handle.  I like this trust thing, I thought;  it's working for me.  And it was.  It is.  I have experienced a newfound freedom.

And God must have said, "Good!", because right after that little victory, we moved swiftly along.

As a matter of fact, I think we jumped directly to the back of the flash cards. To the hard ones.

Let me set the scene for you.  I'm rarely sick.  Hardly a cold, nary a cough, and I only use the occasional tissue.  I'm not a plow-through-I'll-just-go-to-work-anyway-but-I'm-really-sick kind of person.  Not at all.  I just don't usually pick up germs that have me down for more than a few hours or a day.

But this past week has had me daily running through a strange array of physical symptoms; none of them life threatening or scary, all of them annoying and mind-consuming.  Like, "I can't stop focusing on them" consuming.

God knew where I needed direct training in the area of trusting Him.  And He brought it.

The cherry on top came yesterday when I was faced with a new symptom.  And this one brought pain.  I was more wondering what to do than I was concerned; sometimes the questioning of whether you're a hypochondriac or not is what's actually the most disconcerting.  Do I call the doctor again?  Or do I wait it out and hope to get better unaided, even when a snowstorm is coming and if I don't get an appointment today it's going to be a while?  The not-knowing-my-next-move was making me crazy.  I hadn't been to the doctor's office in over a year, and here I was looking at making my second appointment in a week.

So I called.  And I received a healthy recommendation to stay put, eat more yogurt and buy a costly over the counter product.

My gut told me that was not going to do a blooming thing for how I was feeling.

But wasn't I supposed to trust the doctor?  Was it right for me to tell her she was wrong? And where did trusting God in all this come into play?

After an hour or so, the nagging in my brain (God....is that You?) told me I had to take action.  Again I dialed the now familiar number and this time made an appointment asking to be seen (thereby disregarding the doctor's  phoned-in advice). It was the right thing to do; I knew it immediately. I had taken a step and listened to my body, mind and soul and what they were telling me to do.

And I realized in so doing, I had listened to God. 

This was new.  This was trust with a twist.  It wasn't a simple, "God, I give you this situation/person/relationship" and then walking away.  This time, trusting God meant listening to His voice in the midst of my confusion, and realizing He was leading me if only I'd stop long enough to notice.

Good thing I went to the doctor's.  I did in fact need to be seen, and the snow did in fact come. A lot of it.

And in it all I learned a new way to trust - by being quiet and listening.  And then stepping out in obedience to what He's telling me to do.

Next flash card.....

trust issues

I'm having trust issues.

I thought I had it all solved the other night when I had a situation on my mind and I whispered a "Yes God, I'll trust you..." as I dozed off. 

There.  I had trusted.  Once and done; good to go.

No one told me I'd have to sign up for this daily, hourly.

Another opportunity to trust came to visit about midnight last night.  This time it involved a slight medical issue. Very slight, mind you, but when it's happening to you in the middle of a Saturday night with doctor's offices closed on Sundays and the thoughts of " How am I going to deal with this until Monday", it seems rather ominous and concerning.

And does not easily invite sleep, but is quite conducive to tossing and turning.

After my 2 hour nap this afternoon because of my lack of any meaningful rest last night, the deeper content to what had actually transpired became clear to me.  I had been given another opportunity to trust and instead of actually doing that, I took to fretting and worrying and the only prayer I had uttered was just to be delivered from how I was feeling so that I could once again wake up to my rose-y uninterrupted life where things didn't usually go awry.

The farthest thing from my mind at midnight last night was trust; it was more akin to fear.

Trust of course doesn't mean that God will fix things they way I think they should be fixed.  It doesn't mean He'll remove discomfort or uncertainty so that I never have to deal with something unpleasant.  It certainly isn't a guarantee that things will go my way.

It's a certainty that He knows best and is doing that best in my life, no matter what "best" looks like to me.

Things happen and I see my life through a microscope, but God sees with binoculars.

I may not know all the answers, but I can have all the trust. 

That's all He asks of me.

already

Seven days into my word "trust" for 2014, and I've got a situation already.  Gee, that didn't take long.

Throughout yesterday nagging bits of worry tugged at my brain, but with busy-ness going on around me I ignored the catcalls of what was on my mind. 

The trouble with that is eventually every day gets quiet.

Last night as I tried to fall asleep, I found myself staring into darkened space, my heart heavy. I was plagued by sadness for the situation that was threatening to overtake and plunge me into concern.

And then I heard it.  Inside my head.  A simple question that challenged. 

"Is this what trusting looks like?"

I paused. The moment was here.  Already.  I thought I had until at least March 1 before I was going to have to really do this.  

I had a choice to make.  Was I going to trust, like I said I would when I had nothing pressing that I needed to trust God with, or was I going to lay here and lament my poor estate and hope that lack of sleep would solve everything?

The room was still dark.  The air was still silent.  The question still loud.

Was this what trusting looked like?

My answer came quicker than I might have liked, because I knew the answer all too well.

No.  This isn't what trusting looks like.  Not even a little bit.  

So I did what I said I would do.  I took a moment in the dark and prayed, "Okay God.  I trust that You have this, even this..... something that I'd rather worry about take care of myself.  You take it and handle it; I trust you."  And with that, the burden shifted.  It was out of my hands and into His.  Nothing had changed about the situation, but my responsibility for solving it was gone.

Trust - it sounds easy to do, but it's hard to pry away the gripping fingers that hold onto things we'd rather keep in our care.   Trust is a choice, as are most things in life.  If I choose it, trust brings freedom instead of weightiness, liberation instead of bondage, release instead of restriction.

Sounds like the right choice to me. 

snow

Snow came softly last night.  It was beautiful to wake up this morning not only to find the storm over, but the sun shining.

Lucy was pleased as punch to tag along with my husband to clear all manner of snow- from cars, driveway, sidewalks and patio.  She never left his side, and was a faithful companion.

 

Meanwhile, with schools closed and the rest of the house still asleep, I found myself again with the gift of time.  Time to photograph, time to putter, time to write, time to think.  That seems to be a recurring gift to me from God so far in 2014.  During a stressful and wrung-out December, at one point I distinctly remember feeling that I never had the opportunity to retreat; I was never alone.  I never had any time to simply gather my thoughts, run mentally through my plans, organize the chaos in my head or, just think for any extended period of time. 

 

I was exhausted.

 

Ever since that little epiphany (you know - that wonderful feeling you get when you finally put your finger exactly on the problem), it was as if God heard me loud and clear, and while He knew my problem all along, He was waiting for me to realize it so that I could see how desperately I need downtime and alone-time in my life.  And more than that, time with Him - to refresh and refill my weary soul.

 

Where does that time come from in a busy life?  How do I make sure days don't go by where the time slithers so easily away?  The answer is that minutes, hours, must be carved out, planned for, penciled in the calendar if necessary.  On the other hand, an opportunity may come surprisingly, quietly, like snow cold covering frozen ground in the night.  I need to be watchful for and seek out those times - like this morning- that are nudges from Him saying, "Here is my love gift to you.  Take it.  Spend time with Me."

 

I am not of use, service, or refreshment to others if my well-soul is dry.  I cannot give what I do not have.  Filling my own cavernous need for Him is something that needs to be a priority.  I have to have something to give if I want God to use me.

 

There'll be a change in my life moving forward.  It will be about taking the time.  About letting God fill me.  It'll be looking for His gifts and absorbing His love.

 

It will be time well spent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trust

A new year, mentally, provides such a clean slate.  There's certainly nothing wrong with that; it's contagious, healthy and human nature.  I believe we need this once every 365 days.

Interestingly enough, I don't feel this way every time a new month rolls around. I rarely get this determined and organized on March's Eve or August 31st.  Kind of wish I did....

I enjoy choosing one word that will be the focus idea of the days ahead.  Recently, when I was walking the dog and my stomach was in knots over many complex situations we have going on and I was wondering how I was going to handle everything, neon lights went on in my head that simply spelled out, "Trust God." 

I was surprised that immediately the thought relaxed me.  My stomach literally loosened and my fear took a downturn, right then and there while the dog was still walking.

Is it really that simple? I thought.  Just trusting God with all the giants in my life that compete for my attention and drain my mind and soul?

I couldn't answer that question with whole hearted definitiveness at that moment, but the way my body physically reacted to the thought of placing everything in His hands was something I couldn't deny.  Mentally I just needed to catch up.

That became my word for 2014.  Trust.  (Note - The antonym for that word being Control, of which I have none but like to think I do.)

Trusting is so much harder, because it means I need to put more in God's hands and work out less on my own.  It means I will have to wait more.  It means I'll need to be patient.  It means things probably will not won't go as I have planned.

It means I can relax.  He's got whatever it is that comes my way.  Trusting God is about my faith growing, because as I see Him work, I only long to trust Him more.

Looking forward to a 2014 filled with trust in a heavenly Father who always has my back, and is always there for me.