comfort – Andonnia's Truth

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

(Insert Fireworks, Toasts, Prayers, Fasts, and New Bible/Book Study Here)

WE have entered a new year, thank you Lord, and it could not come with MORE uncertainty. With a new head of state, there are new changes in government. Whether you agree or not, things are changing. New years also signal new seasons for some. (My season actually began changing in December, not January 1st. ) Lots of people resolve to make these huge changes in order to evoke something new. I stop resolving years ago. The resolutions didn’t come to pass. I didn’t take the steps to transition from then to the resolved issue. So you see, it wasn’t the resolution that didn’t work, it was me.

As I mature, if I can say that without giggling with sarcasm, I create goals for myself. While I do have a few annual goals, I much prefer my quarterly milestones. These are check points in order to help me look back on this year and see the actual transition come to its point of completion. I realized while I was encouraging sisters on my facebook page (Seven Days More), I had not created a solid God sized goal for Annlettered (Annlettered Home ). Once I sat down and started putting the dream on paper, I realized the amount of commitment it would take. It also spurred research in areas that I am not well versed with yet. All of these are positives.

What isn’t positive: CLUTTER. Clutter will cause transitions to fail, schedules to be overbooked, and minds to ache. For example, if I pack my schedule to the brim with commitments, even if I mean well, I have no time for house cleaning, laundry, rest, and tasks that may seem mundane. Life doesn’t mandate that we become awesome in public and neglect the mundane. Once those mundane tasks become obtuse, you have now added more pressure to keep up outside of the home and inside which is in disarray. (This may not be your truth, add your specific situation here.) Just because you are awake 8-18 hours a day – which I often am, it doesn’t mean that you need to schedule every hour! One of my goals, which I didn’t accomplish last year, is to simplify. My schedule, responsibilities, house items, closet items (Can I get an amen here? Anyone clean their closet several times a year, but never see the relief?), and any other area where I feel I am just collecting things and not using them. We have become too loyal to clutter. Be like Elsa, “Let it Go”!

It is the time of transition. A new year. The first month of the year to start practices that can become habits. It requires discipline. It may not feel great in the beginning, but change doesn’t always come with butterflies. Do it now, enjoy it later.

Are there things you plan to change in 2017? I’d love to hear about them. Also, feel free to check out the links. 🙂

Ivy Out

There is a comforting place that can sprout out of discomfort when you know that you are in God’s hands. Things won’t always seem right, feel right, or feel comfortable. Comfort is actually a stagnant place. Comfort is where the dust settles and you’re ok. That is NOT a good thing. That means you aren’t growing, you are being tested – therefore you don’t know your strengths. Am I advocating a tumultuous life? Absolutely not! I do know that the life happens to us all, but God orders the steps of a righteous (wo)man.

Carved into every lesson, every new-ness, is labor pains. Thanks to some pesky fruit eating human beings (satirical truth), there is pain associated with birth. I have not given birth to children yet (as a wife, it would be on my “to do” list, lol), but I have heard many say that mothers forget or forgive the pain the first time they see their child. I have experienced this when something I’m assigned to do is difficult. You don’t enjoy the pain that is associated with carrying out a task, but once it’s done it’s an amazing feeling. I have planned events, worked projects with my hands, created new meals, set personal goals, worked with people (JESUS!), and worked with myself. Most all of these required a special measure of endurance which can only be accomplished by finishing until the end. In that, I find a place of comfort in the following words: God has all power. If God assigns me to do something, He has empowered me to complete that work.

If it’s beginning to look a lot like a storm in your life, put on your rain gear and gird yourself with a WHOLE HEAP of JESUS, and grow through it. That very storm maybe the deliverance testimony that someone on their way to your life will need. God is also awesome enough to send you not only the Holy Spirit to comfort you, but great friends. Friends who pray with you, stretch with you, and sometimes just hug you when words are too heavy to speak.

Daddy is good like that 😉

Ivy Out

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