My hubby gave me arguably one of the best gifts – 28 hours away kid-free in the peace + quiet to prepare for the year ahead.
By nature, I’m a goal-setter & dreamer – innate qualities that have been incredibly useful in marriage, work, and life. But for the first time ever, I didn’t desire to set goals. Not bc I don’t think they’re good or useful, but bc sometimes I’m afraid I can get stuck on my own goals or dreams and miss what God might be saying or making room for what He might do.
Looking back on my life, though everything I have now is from him, I wouldn’t have dreamt any of it up 20 years ago. I couldn’t have imagined this life, and if I had been so stuck on my own goals, I might have missed hearing his voice and being obedient to whatever he was asking me to do.
Instead, this year, I just want to be open-handed. I want to let him have all my minutes, my resources, and my money to do with what he wants.
As I was praying today, I was thinking that I didn’t have a word of the year, which doesn’t bother me – either one comes to me or it doesn’t. But then, literally 30 minutes later, when I was walking out in His beautiful creation, the word CONTENT came to me. And that’s my prayer for this year – for a content heart.
So often, as a dreamer and goal-setter, I want to grow and change and move on to the next thing. Instead, I feel he’s called me to be content, which is actually a really scary prayer because oftentimes, we’re forced to be content in hard situations.
I certainly am not praying for hard things, 😂 (though I have no doubt they will come bc that’s a part of life), but I do believe contentment is a goal in and of itself that I certainly can’t accomplish on my own strength. But perhaps contentment, no matter what God brings, also allows for openhandedness.
It could feel like coasting along, which is not what I feel called to. But it’s actually believing Him to do abundantly more than what I could ask or imagine. I have no idea what abundance will look like, but whatever it is, it will be for my good and His glory. ❤️
