Where to start?

Last Day of 2010. Not a banner year all around still I am compelled to feel hopeful. Hope is a cornerstone of Faith for a Christian. It compels us to get up and start fresh each day and now to face a new year even after many trials and patterns that seemingly do not change.

How am I to effect change for 2010? Experience tells me that God will provide this answer. Change I believe is possible by first getting in touch with the source for all truth and all power God and his son, Jesus who though his life showed us how to persevere. Today, I share a winter image from Creighton University(A Catholic University) in Omaha. Found this by searching for Catholic readings and reflections and have found strength in the daily Bible Verses and relections available through its ministry site ...check it out if you want

http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/123109.html

Next, my goal is to remember that as a Christian God calls us/me to be light. This means that I cannot wallow in my troubles and that I must be strong...others are watching especially my children and although as the mother of testing and trying teens sometimes I wonder if I have done anything right or have any positive influence. Still I can hope that thru my words and actions I can somehow be a light to them on their own journey.

So how best for me to dwell in this light in 2010? Resolve to Grow. Keep in touch with my Faith. Start and find time each day for God's word and allow it to influence what I do and say. Count those blessings that I too often take for granted: a loving husband, my own health which I must nurture myself through healthy living, and allow God to direct my priorities..stop wasting time! And also very important Focus on that which I can do and stop worrying about that which I cannot directly control...others especially my children and their choices and also those things in life that are forever changed and beyond my control. Pray the Serenity Prayer and feel its transforming and freeing power!

So Resolutions for 2010 probably biting off more than I can chew but trying to remember that all journeys start with a single step

1. Remain in the truth
2. Remember that God calls us to be a light
3. Resolve to Grow...me!

Grow where you are planted...how am I to apply this to my life as it is now. Outside there are scenes of winter. We are far from Spring yet having seen the coming and going of the seasons over the years of my life I know that time and waiting will transform the landscape into the season where growth is once again present. It is curious to realize that the Bible only gives us glimpses of all but the last 3 years of our Lord's life. How did he live those ordinary years before his ministry began? Surely this was a time of waiting for him too.

Today I read a bible passage from 1John admonishing that we are not to love the World or the things of the World but here I find myself in the world surrounded by the pressures, trials, and tribulations within. How am I to put on blinders and to focus on those things that God would have me focus on? So much in the world that I have seen is beautiful mountains, the oceans, a newborn baby so these must be glimpses of Heaven. Help me to find each day those images that confirm what I know to be true. How can I spend this time of waiting in my life in a way that will allow me to grow and like Jesus be filled with wisdom?

What's in store for 2010

A new year. An opportunity for facing new challenges. Time to quit burrowing in the soil and waiting for the rain to come or something to squash me down. Reach inside. Get in touch with God and give my life to his care. Time to accept his leading and understand that managing many things is beyond my control. Time for taking stock of my blessings and not taking those simple things for granted.