Welcome 2007!

New Years Meditations
Hosted By Laurel Wreath

I awoke earlier this morning than I expected after staying up past midnight. I am filled with excitement and anticipation of a New Year. Each week of my life I sit in a unique position. Most attend their church each week sitting next to their spouse or other loved ones hearing a message from their pastor. I on the other hand have known only one thing for most of my married life. To sit alone listening to my husband share the word of God or serve in some other area of ministry in the church. Now that my children are getting older I have the wonderful privilege of having one or two of them sitting along side me. I am often asked questions like, "is it hard to listen to your own husband each week', or "do you always know what he is going to share", and on occasion, "I bet you have heard all this before." and the answer to all those questions is, "No".

I have another unique privilege as well that so many other women who also walk in a similar place are allowed to experience. I know the man behind the words. I pray with him, listen to his heart, and share everyday life with him. So, what does this have to do with New Years Meditations, my hopes, dreams and goals. Well, yesterday my husband gave a message that was simple in nature, and oddly he had shared much with me this past week, and yet I walked out of service knowing with a fresh perspective that all my hopes for my family, my dreams for the year and the goals that I usually like to set for myself are nothing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING apart from God. I had a sense of new revelation about my life. Colossians 1:16 says,

For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.

The words, "all things, and "for him" have played over and over in my mind in the last 24 hours. One of the questions he asked was, "What's the reason for everything? It's all for God's Glory Romans 11:36 says,

For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.

As I look at my life, the season I am in, raising a teenager, toddler, and everything in between, the hopes and dreams I have for my home and family, the daily goals I have for myself to take better care of myself, to live a life that matters, and my own tendency to make plans and figure things out, I think of this statement made yesterday morning by my husband in the context of finding purpose and meaning in your life, "who cares who remembers me in this life 100 years from now....WILL GOD KNOW ME!

This is my hope, dream, and goal for 2007. To KNOW God! And everything else will find its right place. The only way to really know someone is through spending time with them and so I continue on with my "Life Journal". My daily devotion with the Lord. It has always been a priority...but for some reason it has a new vengeance. I don't' feel compelled to make the list of things to accomplish, my dreams, my plans, and so on but I find it almost too simple, as my husband shared, "seize the day" and Know God!

Thank you Lord, that I can go to your word and look for Your hopes, Your dreams, Your goals for my life, for my family, for my future, for ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING!

To read more New Year's Meditations go to Laurel Wreath