In 2017 - I get to.....

So, how is 2017 going?

I have felt so much stretching and growth in just the first 25 days!  It is such a powerful and beautiful thing.  Oh that my heart will remain open to what I need to learn.

As I have spent time in study and prayer I have noticed my perceptions changing.  In my journal I wrote about how I need to change my attitude toward certain things in my life because honestly I have been crabby.  

My life has felt like it is full of all these "have to's" - I have to make supper, I have to go to work each morning, I have to do laundry - you see where I am going with this?  To make me feel worse about myself I see all these shiny happy people on my social media feeds that seem like they are fully enjoying life.  Oh how I long for that feeling.  

As I sat with my journal I prayed for a changed heart and a new attitude toward my "have to's".  What if I changed my "have to" to a "get to"?  I get to make my family healthy suppers, I get to provide for my family by going to work each morning, I get to do laundry to take care of my family.

By looking at my life as a "get to" it has changed my perspective dramatically.  This is my time, this is my place, this is what I was created for.  Why would I question it?  Why would I look down on it?

Daily I began changing my "have to's" into "get to's".  Once I became aware it was incredible how many times a day I had to consciously correct my negative attitude.  

That Sunday in church in our pastor's sermon he talked about changing our burdens to blessings!  That was the lesson I had been learning all week - everything that I saw or interrupted as a burden in my life is a blessing.  A beautiful blessing that my Father has given to me, not anyone else - He chose me to wash my husband gross work clothes because he works so hard to provide for our family, I get to wash the uniforms from the school that our daughters attend that have built into them and encouraged them.  My family is a blessing.

I am learning to do this joyfully, I am learning to see the many blessings in my everyday.  

I love the story of Esther.  Her wise cousin Mordecai says such powerful words, at a time when so much was at stake.  There was no opportunity to be gentle with the words that Esther needed to hear. 

Don't think for a moment that because you are in the palace you will escape when all the other Jews are killed.  If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die.  Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this.  Esther 4:13 & 14

Oh dear friends, so often we hear the last part of this passage.  But please hear the cry of Mordecai - you are not safe just because of your position.  If you chose to be quiet you will die and someone else will rise to do what you chose not to do.

Seriously, does that not knock you to your knees.  I have been created for such a time as this, to serve my family, to serve my community, to serve my church family.  It is a choice that I make daily. whether it be a large or small tasks that I have been called to - I need to rise to that place and not remain quiet.  

Oh Father, may I be obedient to your call on my life.

Changing my burdens to blessings,