Hope is rising

Hope is rising.....
I sense it during the prayer services, during Sunday services, in our home, and also in my heart.

Looking back, 2016 was a difficult year. Not just for us, but for a lot of people we know.
Like most people, we had stress in our home, in our marriage, with our business, etc. Life is funny. Things can be rolling along, everything seems pretty okay, and then WHAM! something happens that knocks the wind out of you and you find yourself laying flat on your back, per se.

This year I'm hoping and praying that things will settle back down.....not so we can coast, but so we can focus....focus on our marriage, our girls, and what the Lord is calling us to do. When everything in sight feels like a big, stirred up dust cloud, it's hard for me to focus.

So, once again, I will place my hope in Jesus Christ and focus on Him. Not because our circumstances are perfect. I don't know if my hope was every really misplaced, it just wasn't laser-focused....so that when things got hard, my soul wasn't totally anchored down. I was more easily swayed by the present circumstances and my emotions, which impacted my decision-making. It's so easy for me to slip into 'flesh-mode', instead of 'spirit-mode' when I'm weary and run down.
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2/2/17
This post was started on 1/23/17. I intended to finish it...but that never happened. Life has gotten in the way, again......work, home, church responsibilities.
I will go ahead and post it, though.....which completely goes against my Type A personality....to have everything perfectly edited, cleaned up, thought out, etc. I am reminded again, this life is not my own. It rarely turns out how I expect or plan and there are not enough time management or planning tools out there to perfectly construct my day, 24/7. It just doesn't work that way.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.--Isaiah 55:8

I will focus on this verse and realize His plans for me are greater than anything I could possibly put on paper, in my iPhone notes, scribble on my calendar, highlight in my planner, etc. He is the Great I AM. And I trust Him.