Resolutions

“God is always good, and I am always loved” – 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp

It’s a new year and a time for resolutions.  I always struggle to make resolutions because they always seem to be the same old, mundane resolutions that I make a million times throughout the year – lose weight, spend more time with my family, become debt-free, etc.  But this year, I have been reading 1000 Gifts:  A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp.  Obviously, a dare given to me at this time of year has to be taken seriously!

Here’s the dare – write down 1,000 “gifts from God” that you see around you.  Live fully in each moment.  I was reading through one of the chapters, wondering how I could find joy in my ho-hum, stay-at-home-mom life when I came across the above quote.  Since we are studying James in our Ladies’ Bible Study, I already knew the part that “God is always good.”  The part that made me stop and read the sentence over and over again was, “I am always loved.”

That statement was just what I needed to seep into my soul.  As a middle child, I often feel unloved, ignored, unimportant.  Sometimes I feel like I don’t have a friend in the world.  So I need to speak this truth to myself – “I am always loved.”  How a gracious God could love someone like me, I don’t know.  But He does.  When I feel worn out from life’s tempests, when it seems like no one cares, when the finances just aren’t enough to cover all the bills, when my children will not obey, when I burn supper, when I feel the walls closing in on me, I am still loved.  He is always there and always will be!

So this year, I am resolved to find those gifts, to seek God in each moment, to feel the fullness of His love.  What are your resolutions this year?