A New Year

Can you believe it's 2008 already? My goodness where does the time go! I have been so busy the last few months that this blog is turning into once a month instead of once a week. Please forgive me. I hope to do better.

I don't know about you, but I'm no good at keeping my New Year's resolutions. I make them every year and I have yet to follow through on any of them. I've never written my goals down before, so this year I've decided to put them on paper and I hope it sticks. My list goes a little like this:

1. Lose weight
2. Exercise
3. Strive to be a better wife and mother
4. Strive to be a better friend
5. Draw closer to God

Yes, that's part of my list. It could actually go on for days. Then I got to noticing what I'd written and where I had placed the priorities. Don't get me wrong. I don't think I actually put losing weight ahead of my family, because if I did...well, I wouldn't need to lose it! My concern was where I put my relationship with God. It was on the bottom of my list. Shouldn't it be at the top? After all, I'm at the top of His.

Then, I thought over just this past year. Did I forget just what He has done for me, in this year alone? My family is healthy and they are here with me. Not every one has that pleasure. How selfish of me! I was given the opportunity to stay home with my children. Have I already forgotten what a blessing it has been? The Lord has brought us through several family illnesses. He has spared lives and given hope. He has been with me every step of the way. I have a future thanks to Jesus. How can I forget the sacrifice He made for me? And yet, I put Him at the bottom of my list. That doesn't say anything great about me as a child of God, does it? If I had taken the time to think about my list, I would have realized that if I put God at the top, then everything else on my list would be more attainable. That doesn't necessarily mean my life will be a cake walk. It does mean that I'll never walk alone. Forgive me Lord, for my selfishness, my forgetfulness, and my ungrateful attitude.

So if you, like me, made your New Year's list and found it lacking, let's make a new one. However, let it be our Life List...and let's put our relationship with God at the top. There will never be anything in this life that will give us more contentment, more hope, or more courage than being close to God. He is so good and so faithful!

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you...James 4:8 NKJV

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