The new year, so far good

 

2 Corinthians 4:16: "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day".

So.....How is 2026 going so far for you? About the same for me. Up and down. Have you already messed up your new year resolution? Well, don't be too hard on yourself, pick yourself up by the bootstraps and keep going. I don't make them, because I just disappoint myself, I KNOW I won't keep it! But I have been doing a 21 day fast from sugar, candy, sweets....things like that. Today is day 18 of the fast....I feel it.

How is this going, you ask? Well, I do want my ice cream! I have developed a habit of eating a small bowl of ice cream in the evening. Something I want to credit to my papaw because as I was growing up, he did this. So I guess I can say it is in my genes! I do have to confess though. I did mess up one day, about 8 days in. I was at work and one of my co-workers brought in some cranberry/lemon type bars. It is a desert like a cake but it's not. It's just yummy sugar! It's hard to explain, but without thinking, I just took one off the plate and ate it. Then as I was swallowing, one of the gals I work with asks me, "I thought you were on a sugar/candy fast?"  Well, gotta love that accountability! So, that made me realize how much I do without thinking. I just pulled myself up by my bootstraps and started again. But, ohhh, that little bite of cake tasted soooooo good.

I have been thinking about my word of the year I chose or should I say, it was assigned to me, the word  LESS. Have you given some thought to your word? If you don't have one yet, no worries. You will get one. God will give you a word and it won't be one that you probably think you would choose. I would have never thought of this word for me, but somehow God placed it on me and helped me understand why. Sometimes we just need less, and just more of him. This 21 day fast has helped me see that. I don't need to have immediate satisfaction and I am learning I can control those urges to have it. I don't need stuff, but I still put stuff in my online shopping cart, I just don't buy it! I know, I am weird. So just like my picture of this tree with it limbs trimmed (finally!), I must look at my low hanging limbs and trim those in my life. And I started with sugar. Ya know, I could have picked something a little easier but I didn't. 

My advice: slow down, listen, and don't be so hard on yourself. We are human, we WILL make mistakes and fall. But God.....He is always there, full of Grace, love and forgiveness. He will be there to help pick us up as he has done for me many times. So now, grab onto your bootstraps and....PULL!

2 Timothy 1:7: "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind". 

Love to all,