Eager Expectations - A New Year's Reflection

Excerpted from an article I wrote for our local PWOC newsletter

My family teases me for having "calendar issues". At any given time I will have at LEAST five calendars in use at my home....two on the fridge, one in the bedroom, a desk top one beside the computer and a PDA in my purse. In addition to these calendars, I'm teaching two students how to use calendars (great way to learn so many things) and those daily lesson plans x5 can look suspiciously like a weekly calendar. No doubt about it, I like a well-thought out PLAN, and I probably do have calendar issues.

Are you a "first of the month" type of person? Do you love tearing off the old calendar page? With one mighty rip of the page, 30 days of past accomplishments, frustrations and, yes, failures are crumpled and left behind in the trash can. We get to move on! We get to START A NEW MONTH; a month with somewhat clean spaces and boxes. We get to choose how to fill those spots. We are faced with 30 days full of possibilities! Think of the awesome opportunity and responsibility of "tearing off" a whole year of months! May I challenge you to consider how God would have you fill some of those boxes? Would PWOC play a part in any of your plans?

Starting a new year can cause us a certain amount of uncertainty as well as excitement. We aren't sure what lies ahead in the upcoming year. There may be successes, failures, moves, deployments, joys, births and more that are unexpected as of 31 December 2005. BUT GOD knows the plans He has for you! Isn't that an awesome assurance? One of my all-time favorite verses is Jeremiah 29:11! "For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. (Oh, I can never stop with ONE verse )Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to ME, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find ME when you search for Me with all your heart (emphasis added) I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile." Jer. 29:11 - 14. Is your heart full of joy? Do you feel like you've been exiled? Regardless, the principle remains: God has a PLAN for you. It's a well-thought-out PLAN. It's a good PLAN, a PLAN for your welfare. God is not planning for your downfall - you can trust His PLAN - even if you can't see the purpose of all the details. God PLANS to give you a future and a hope!!!! Dear Sister, you are not hopeless! Are you searching for God with all your heart? He will be found. You can trust His mercy to walk with you along each step of the New Year; you can trust His loving-kindness to guide you. You can trust His strength to sustain you through any unexpected twists you may discover on your path in 2006. God wants to give you a future and a hope. A very basic definition for the Hebrew word translated hope is an "eager expectation". Are their areas of your life that you are clutching close to yourself? Why not consider handing them over to God and letting Him give you instead an eager expectation for the upcoming year? Do you sense an eager expectation in your heart? It's God's PLAN for you to have hope. It's God's plan for you to have an eager expectation for the things He will teach you and the ways He will guide you in 2006. If you find that you have no hope, will you make it a priority to spend time with your LORD today and ask Him for that hope which He promises those who seek Him?

Over 25 years ago I began to ask God to display His mighty miracle- power to turn me into a Proverbs 31 woman. May I leave one more exhortation with you? Proverbs 31:25 "Strength and dignity are her clothing and she smiles at the future." In the quietness of your heart will you honestly evaluate if you are smiling at the future? If not, God stands ready to calm your heart and to give you the grace to smile at the future...to even eagerly expect great things from Him for this year. Journals are great tools - you may want to take some time to write out a prayer to the LORD about those "eager expectations" He is impressing on YOUR heart for the year 2006.

As for those calendar issues, could it be that I'm subconsciously trying to find more time in the month?