Happy New Year, everyone! 

 

It’s that time again, when we all write down the goals we want to try to achieve in 2017… and then in the next four months forget about them. If you’re like me, that’s usually what happens. We tend to forget that actual goal we desperately wanted to achieve.

 

 

Recently I was asked, “When was the ‘inflection point’ in my life, when I was finally going to start really living life?”

 

 

To answer this question I’d like to take you back six years ago when I graduated from high school. I remember that summer, when I didn’t want to do anything because my legs had started hurting. So all I did was sleep late, watch TV, eat, and watch more TV. I was very LAZY, to say the least.

 

 

After learning why I was having horrible pain in my legs (it was because my bones were twisted in different directions), I had to have surgery to straighten the bones in my legs. This surgery allowed me to do more things with my life without walking in pain. I wrote more about this in the blog posts called “Day by Day (parts 1&2),” “Will You Walk On?” and “Everlasting Strength.”

 

 

After I woke up to reality in 2012, I realized I had to do something with my life instead of countless hours of watching TV during the day and in the evening. So, in March of 2012 I began my blog, entitled “Going Through Trials With God” (the blog is now entitled “Abiding With Joy In Christ”). At that time, I believe the Lord was wanting me to share my testimony and encourage others at the same time. It was a very daunting task to share personal stories with others I didn’t know. I didn’t even know if anyone besides my grandparents and parents would read a blog written by a 19-year-old girl. During that same time, the Lord gave me the desire to start painting again, and in September of that year He opened the door for me to start my own note card business, called Silent Inspirations I was finally secure in my life…or so I thought.

 

 

At a conference in July of 2013, however, I came to recognize that I wasn’t doing the simple things in my life to mature as a Christian. I had grown up attending church my whole life, I got saved when I was 7, listened to good music, had a job, a blog, and helped in a Sunday School class. Yet I had stopped doing the basics like reading my Bible and praying. I needed to wake up and smell the coffee and grow in the Word. I was also reminded that life is like a vapor, and we don’t know how long we have to be salt and light to a world that needs the Gospel.

 

 

Was it easy to change my lifestyle? No, not at first, but after a month or so I got into a healthier routine physically and spiritually. I don’t watch TV 24/7 like I used to do. I started getting in God’s Word again and started a prayer journal. When I get discouraged, I look back at how the Lord has answered so many of my requests.

 

 

This past week I heard this statement, “In our humanity we often get so caught up with the extraordinary events of our lives that we easily look over the ordinary moments in our lives.”

 

 

My friend, it’s in the ordinary, everyday moments when we must take time to dig into the truths of the Bible so that, when an extraordinary event comes along in our life, we can stand firm in His Promises.

 

 

First Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”

 

 

This year may have started for you with an unexpected event, or maybe you’re depressed about the way life is and you wish it would change. Or you’re still waiting on the right person to come along. Or you’re a single parent working 2 jobs so you can feed your kids. Or (you fill in the blank).

 

 

We all have desires we want to experience this year—some can happen immediately and others may take some time. Some may require intervention by other human beings, and others only God can control. In order to do our part in bringing about God’s glory, we must consistently remember to do the meaningful but sometimes mundane tasks of everyday life.

 

 

Remember, you’re valuable in the Lord’s eyes and in the right place where He can best use you.