My New Years Resolution - took me 23 days to start!

I'm not someone to believe in New Year's resolutions, mainly because the 1st January is just another day. It's never too early or too late to make a change in your life. That said, 1st January is, like any other day, a perfect day to ask God "what do you have in store for me, and is there something you want to speak to me in order to prepare me for this?"

This year my team was encouraged to pray and ask God for a word or verse for the year, so I did. The word I got was to be still. The verse I got was to give thanks. Funnily, these two things are the things that I struggle with the most! So I made my New Year's resolution: Be still in thankfulness. Today, as I came back from our team meeting, and since I have some time alone while Eliyah sleeps (Noom is away for a few days in a neighbouring country), I decided that yeah - maybe I should start doing what I said I would. I wasn't feeling extremely thankful, but WOW, once I began writing things down I realised I have the WORLD to be thankful for! In other words…I couldn't stop writing things I'm thankful for.

Here's a selection, although I think most of them are more like confessions from your everyday missionary!!…

Thank you for giving. Thank you for this season. Thank you that you are good and this never changes no matter how I'm feeling. Thank you that the love I search for can be found in you. Thank you for busy work and teams. Thank you for family and friends. Thank you that although I feel like I have lost so much since leaving Australia, I've found it here, in you. Thank you for your grace and mercy. Thank you for being in control, even when I wish I was. Thank you for last-minute provisions, and your continued provision even at times when I can't see it. Thank you for being like the air, that although there are times when I feel you're not there, You are indeed there and it's You that's keeping me alive. Thank you that there is an oasis in every desert. Thank you for organisation that keeps me sane in busy times and restful times that leave me longing for those busy times to come back! Thank you for needing me to be a Mary and not a Martha. Thank you for the problems that rise up in our car, house, team and personal lives - because they remind me that I HAVE a car, house, team, and that I am sharing my life with others - and these were all answers to prayers. Thank you for your promises that never fail to show themselves as true as pure gold refined seven times over. Thank you for letting me be me. Thank you for the gifts of love and joy and faith. Thank you for your Son which has made possible all of these things that I am thankful for!

So that's my list for today. Those are my confessions for today! May God receive the glory and may we all learn together how we can be thankful for the things He is doing for us every moment of every day.

May we once again be like little children who get excited and thankful about something as small as the water moving with the wind.