2010 Resolutions and HIS hands...

Wow, how EASY it is to make all those New Years Resolutions---after all there are sooo many to choose from! Ha ha But then, that may just be 'me'...maybe you are much better at being perfecto than I am.

For years now....I join the whole nation in 'sharing' the same New Years Resolutions as the average American....eat right, healthy, lose weight, exercise more. This usually last for about a month and some maybe, even a week or so. ha ha

Oh, how pitiful. How 'not in control'. How unwise and oh, how I NEED MY SAVIOR. :-D

Well, that is all a wonderful goal...and again I claim it---but after a wonderful Holiday celebration for the whole month of December....as well as November with Christmas trips and tours....I have chosen to add one special goal to the above resolutions. LIVE SIMPLE....

The other night after all the celebrations were over and all families had returned to their own homes, also in their own joys of relaxations.... :-D .... our house and our rooms were suddenly quiet (well, if you don't count hubby's remote control in hand...ha ha)...the house seemed back to a relaxed peace of an aging couple...us.... and the joy & contentment of me and all three cats...all spread out on our king sized bed, mellowing down in the fluffy old bed comforter that we all like to 'bury up within'. Warm Snuggles.

As usual, I read my Bible and...this time... my favorite way...of just 'opening it up to WHATEVER GOD wants me to read for the moment'. That night it was a SIMPLE passage that seemingly I had read a jillion times. Psalms 13:6 "I will sing unto the Lord, for He is good to me".

Wow, that seemed to take on new meaning. after all----I love music, I love to sing, love my Lord and oh yes, HE IS SO GOOD TO ME. ---- It's just that simple! He loves me ....just like I am. Simple. Simple. Simple.

As I curled up....thinking....(you know...the 'be still and know' thing)....really LISTENING to God's whisperings in my heart, ear and soul. Yes, I suddenly realized.....that's my REAL RESOLUTION...to just.... LIVE SIMPLE.

His words were simple: "Don't be fearful....just be Faithful..."

Instantly, (because that's the way God is sometimes...)...I began to remember the Christmas Story: Mary, the sweet young innocent maiden.... so simple in her faith when it was a horrific, almost deadly situation for her. No wonder she 'feared"... Then there was Joseph...a simple man...facing a world that was ruled by 'judgemental MEN, his fellow friends...and yet secretly... his heart was fearful and broken... because of his deep love for an innocent young girl (Mary) who could be murdered for being pregnant and he wasn't the father--yet Joseph also, like Mary.... in blind Faith, they both listened to an angel (which in great likelihood... may have doubted even seeing an angel of God...much less followed in blind Faith, all the things that they both questioned/feared....as well as what they both KNEW... could happen.

They both chose to FEAR NOT...and follow.

Then my mind quickly went on to thoughts of the lowly Sheep herders, on the cold winter hillside far away from Bethlehem to 'leave their sheep to danger and follow a STAR" (how foolish is that? They also knew the world looked down upon them because of their smell and their jobs... (they likely even feared of being around people who judged them harshly by their sheep smell! No one likes to be rejected.)

Yet , daily and Nightly....with love, tenderness and innocence they tended to their flocks of messy smelly, sometimes stubborn sheep ---(just as did all of my childhood (300 at one point) and yes, I, too, remember their sheepy smell, poop, their awful birthing, bleating, death, freezing cold, the pitiful little orphans, attacks by wolves and wild dogs, blood, worms, suffering and pain... and yet I really loved taking care of them...because they WERE simple....innocent, needed my care. I too have been a Sheppard and so, it is easy for me to identify with stubborn, smelly, yet sweet/innocent sheep.... the Sheppard's lifestyle. Simple. Simple work. Simple kindness. Simple care taking.

So, the Sheppard's, just like Mary and Joseph...chose to 'Fear not...to go in blind Faith" following 'unbelievable angels voices'. They each followed in simple faith...to the Star of Bethlehem, to the Star of David, to the Star of of the whole Universe and Eternity! God.

That night as I lay on my warm, comfortable bed, listening to cold winds blowing harshly against the window panes....I began to totally FEEL God's presence and touch...as well as HEAR...Him whispering words of encouragement into my soul, my heart and trying erase FEAR that only the devil tried to place upon me. "God's word is SIMPLE"... "Simply BE YOU...be what I made you to be. LIVE SIMPLE----Faithful, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly....and LEAVE the rest to me---your GOD''

Could God be any plainer...(even to lowly sheep...who sometimes find it hard to understand the voice of the Sheppard.) Mercy..God KNEW that these are the very THINGS that I already LOVED to do, anyway! God simply told me in... no misunderstood words...."Be simple, be yourself, I love you. I died so that you could LIVE. Live simple. I created you...and I am GOD." .............

( So, can it get any better than THAT?)

And how about your world....could this message be helpful to anyone else? I don't know...but He does. :-D

The devil constantly tries to 'set our limits and place fear of the unknown in our hearts to defeat our moving forward and accomplishing what God has planned for our good. The choice is ours in 'whom we believe and whom we follow'. Lovingly and sometimes, silently, God constantly reminds us that....All we can do....is the best we can do...the rest is HIS.

Live Simple: Fear not. Be Faithful ...(like the examples of Mary, Joseph and the lowly Sheppard's) Join me in this SIMPLE resolution, in covering all the other desires of your heart.

Father, may you bless all who reads this 100 fold. "I will SING unto the Lord, for HE is good to me."