Happy New Year!

Well, it’s 2017! Can you believe it?! 2016 seemed to fly by. It’s amazing how when you start measuring your years by the little ones in your life how quickly time passes! The general consensus on Facebook seems to be that 2016 was a very hard year for many people. It was a pretty average year for me and I believe it’s because I didn’t eat any black-eyed peas or any other superstitious New Year’s food at the start of 2016. So I continued with that solid decision and am excited to see what 2017 holds for me because I know Who holds 2017 in His hands (and no consumption of gross food is going to change the outcome of His will for me).

For those who know me, then you are aware of the fact that I pick a verse each year to base my life around. In the last few years, I have picked a word and a song to go along with that verse as well. The Lord led me to my verse for 2017 on November 28, 2016, at a Premier Jewelry party of all places! I was at my best friend’s house and looking through the catalog. My attention was captured by the mustard seed necklace. I was instantly transported back to when I was 8 years old and my daddy gave me my first “real” piece of jewelry. It was a gold necklace with a mustard seed encased in the center charm. He had purchased it at the Baptist Bookstore (now Lifeway) and told me that as long as I had faith as small as that mustard seed then there wasn’t anything the Lord couldn’t do through and for me. Needless to say, I bought the necklace and I knew right then that I wanted that verse to be my verse for 2017. It wasn’t until later that I realized Matthew 17:20 was my verse for 2017!

As I consider that verse, I have a holy tremble in my heart at what #mustardseedfaith could possibly look like this year but I know the Lord is calling me to increase my faith in Him. Above all, I want to be obedient in what exercising that faith will mean and look like. So I worked my New Year’s Resolutions or SOULutions. Because as Ann Voskamp writes, “Sometimes you don’t need New Year’s resolutions — like you need SOULutions — for a new you. I need to purpose in my heart & let prayer and perseverance meet, let there be a plan to purposely aim for, because if there’s nothing to aim for, you’ll get it every time.” I wrote out some SOULutions last year and had forgotten about them. But I was surprised when I met with a friend for coffee last week and he asked me what they were by how many I had actually met. So I decided right then and there to continue with this practice again for 2017.

This year I purpose to …

Embrace silence … by having at least 1 screen free night a week. (That night TBD. I’m thinking Wednesday. I’ll let you know.)

Engage others … look at them, talk to them, make sure they know they matter to me.

Be consistent … be a woman of my word. Yes means yes. No means no.

Believe big … #mustardseedfaith. Expect God to do the unexpected.

Break free … continue to work on breaking free of any strongholds in my life.

Daily die to self.

Do less … set boundaries for myself.

Let Go of negativity … stop carrying the stress of others around.

Learn how He loves.

Live present.

Give unfettered.

Grow gently … this isn’t a race but a process.

And I add a 13th one …

Go obediently … wherever He leads.

Finally, here’s my theme song for 2017. It’s by Christy Nockels and I know I have heard the song multiple times over the last few years but I never “heard” it until two weeks ago. It’s called “Into the Glorious.”

I was made for more
than this world could offer me
My heart to hold true mystery
My voice was made to fall
on holy ears.
My life to collide with majesty.

Out from the ordinary.
Into extraordinary.

This is a heart-cry, from my life.
To say I love You, God, I love You.
So take me deeper, oh.
I can hear You calling.
Inviting me in.
Into the glorious.

I was made me for rest,
in a world thats striving.
To lie down in the fields of green.
To set my feet upon this holy ground.
To build my life on the things unseen.

Out from the ordinary.
Into extraordinary.

This is a heart-cry, from my life.
To say I love You, God, I love You.
So take me deeper, oh.
I can hear You calling.
Inviting me in.
Into the glorious
Into the glorious

Happy New Year!

May the Lord be more real and precious to you than He was last year. May you serve Him with more fervor than ever before.

I love you all!!