Complicated Hope

First:  Scroll to bottom and turn on the music while you read!  Enjoy!

My Word for 2017 was Intentional.

2018 is Moments.

Moments come and go and are missed if we are not intentionally looking for them!  Ways to be Present.  To show Kindness.  Ways to be at Rest.  How to serve.  Where to love.  To do Good.

This morning is a quiet moment.  It’s Friday morning.  The sun is shining and the temperature is hovering around 0 degrees before we add the Illinois windchill.   Quiet music is playing and I’m at peace.

It’s the last quiet morning before Ashley leaves for school.  Our daughter will enter missions training on Sunday.  In the next 4 months she can only come home 2-3 times.  Mid-April through June she will be overseas serving others as only she can do.  Bringing peace to areas only she can bring.  Obeying Christ as only He can lead.

In two days our world will flip.  Again.  Kids have a way of doing that!  About the time you are comfortable in your rolls, relationships and routines, they change.  Their needs change.  Your needs change.

The roller coaster, we call it.  “Please seated with seatbelts fastened.  Keep your hands inside the vehicle at all times.”

It can be frustrating and exciting – all based upon your perspective.  I do not grieve the passsing of another season.  In fact, God has opened new doors for everyone!  Chris is marrying this summer and persuing new careers and opportunities even now while in college.  Ashley is joining YWAM and chasing God-sized dreams.  Jobs are changing and David and I are having new chances to serve together.  It’s amazing to see how God is using every moment of our past to create beautiful presents and futures.

I have often heard “the days are long but the years are short” when talking about the fleeting time with our chidlren.  This is true of life.    Some days, some heartaches, some pain seems to last forever.  And then the moments are gone.  Joy is the same way.  We laugh and celebrate and then the day is passed into another year.

We must be intentional in our time.  So this year I am practicing Moments.  The seasons of rest that come in brief intervals in a day.  I am intentionally present to hear God’s voice, to see God’s hand, to feel His presence and know his direction.

What is your Word for the Year?  Is there a specific characteristic or behavior you are cultivating in 2018?  How are you accomplishing that goal?

Music by Kristen diMarco, I Just Want to Worship