Christmas was very, very low key this year. We normally go see family on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Night, but because of a lot of sickly folk (not us - our family has been pretty healthy of late), we stayed home for two solid days. It was very relaxing and I did, in fact, stay in my pj's all day on Christmas Day which was actually kind of fun. But...I miss pictures! If you know anything about me, I love to take pictures -- hundreds of them, actually -- and I missed being with extended family to do that this year. But it was a sweet Christmas just the same.
We took off the day after Christmas and went to Memphis to see an NBA game with the kids. It was a very quick trip, but the kids were excellent and we spent all of Saturday doing one of my favorite things...driving through small, obscure towns on our way back home. When you get off the beaten path you always see things in a different light and more times than not you see things that you hadn't seen before. Maybe there is a spiritual challenge there. Sometimes when I'm just opening up the Word to read a passage I am tempted to go back to the familiar. When I do that over and over again, I miss treasures that I haven't read in years or perhaps have never read. In 2009, I'm going to try and get off the beaten path in God's Word more.
We rang in the New Year in a similar fashion as we celebrated Christmas. We stayed home with the kids and played board games and Wii bowling. We popped popcorn (until I broke my brand new popcorn popper!) and ate pizza (Papa Murphy's - yummo). We were all a bit tired and were tempted to celebrate the New Year along with the Eastern Time Zone at 11:00 instead of midnight. But we rallied and somehow managed to watch the ball drop (again) at midnight in Tennessee.
And once again a new year began. I whispered to God in that moment, "You have been good." I wrote on a blog I contribute to that when I failed Him this past year, He proved Himself unfailing. When I doubted Him, He showed Himself to be believable. When I wavered, He was steady as The Rock. When I wanted to run at times, He pursued. So as the ball dropped in Times Square, I raised my Ebenezer and thanked God for leading me, thus far, one more time…one more year!
I'm participating in a scripture memory challenge over at Beth Moore's blog. She has challenged us to memorize at least 24 verses/passages over the next 12 months. A Jesus-year! That’s what Beth has challenged us to pursue this year by memorizing scripture. When she first asked if we were game to join her this year in memorizing 24 scriptures this year, God had already been putting something on my heart. It was through a bit of advice I had given my darling 7 year old daughter. I’m not sure I had ever said anything like it to her until then. I said to her one day, “Child, you are going to have to learn to not be so offended all the time!” Then Beth’s challenge came with the testimony that when she was having a particularly difficult time treading through the rough waters of a relationship challenge that had the potential for causing anxiety and bitterness, she clung to her scripture index cards. What she said next made me stop and pause and think about it. She said that when she memorized scripture and recalled God's Word as she walked through her circumstances that it calmed her and she kept her from acting how she felt all the time.
So I'm taking Beth's challenge in 2009! I’m not only going to memorize these scriptures just to have some more biblical knowledge in my head! I want these scriptures to consume every part of my inner being! I want to do as Psalm 40 says in The Message – I'm going to enter the mystery of complete abandonment to God and what He wants to teach me through His Word. I want to know how He wants me to act when I feel like doing it another way. I’ve stood outside the fray of the mystery for far too long. I am entering in. Care to join me??
The first passage God asked me to take to heart in January is Proverbs 2:1-6.
“My son (and daughter), if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom and from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.”
I don’t know about you, but if I am going to walk in the freedom of God’s Word and not be controlled by my wayward emotions and how I feel in any given situation, I’m going to need a whole lot of wisdom and ton of understanding. Good news! He is giving it out by the truckloads if we will just pursue it, cry out for it, look for it as hidden treasure!
Will you join me this year for a bit of a treasure hunt – that of a whole-heart, sold out, made up mind, crying out loud kind of Jesus-year by letting His Word not only be our textbook for victorious living, but will you join me and let His Word become our very life and breath -- our one desire, an all consuming holy fire? (Someone should put that in a song...he he!) Will you walk through this year with a made up mind that His voice is your life and you won’t take another step except in the direction that He is going?
I cannot tell you how excited I am for this ride of 2009! A made up mind in 2009 to make this a Jesus-year!
Have a great day, friends!
Blessings,
Dori
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