Reclaim

I'm trying to wrap my mind around 2011. I know, it's 10 days into 2012 already, but we're busy here, people! If I had to choose a word for last year, I think it would be reclaim. Deep awakening happened in my heart last year, and I allowed God to live in places that I had long kept locked away- some even without really knowing they were! I asked God to create margin, space in my days that already felt jam-packed, for him to come and talk to me. He started waking me up at 5 am. Once I got over the shock of really being up that early, for two months we met before the sky and littles awakened, and It. Was. Good. I learned to sit and listen. And I asked Him to open my eyes to sin in my life. Many of these nasty things were habits that I hadn't even identified as sin. But ugliness has a way of sometimes appearing as beauty, no? So I got naked, so to speak, with God. And in doing so, He reclaimed my heart in a way that I never dreamed.

Reclaim. 2011 was a year that I asked God to (again because I'm stubborn) tell me who He thinks I am, how He loves me, and I started believing it... truly allowing it to become my identity. I learned what His voice sounds like, through spending hour after very early hour listening to Him, and I realized after all these years that His voice does NOT sound the same as the ones whispering untruths into my ear. I walked with God.

In the last months of 2011, I also was revealed a clearer picture of how God has equipped and called me to serve. In my role as wife, mom, friend, and Child of God, I saw how He desires me to be a lifegiver. This was in huge part to the amazing book and class Lifegiving by Tammy Maltby. My home, which I formerly saw only as a sort-of sending-out place for ministry, I realized has a grand part to play in how God wants me to serve Him and others. Jesus ate with others, spent time with them around their tables. He knew the value of hospitality, and this is an enormous jumping off place for my own journey!

So as I tie a bow on the twelve months previous to this bright new chapter, I am deeply thankful. Many of these things aren't finished, but rather just dawning. It is such an exciting lead in to what's to come! 1 John 2:6 says "Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did." And I think that while I've said that as a goal for a long time, 2011 was a year that I started to get my feet moving and actually walk. God showed me that it's possible to live and breathe that, even if the walking just ends me right back at my own kitchen table.

I'm excited. Thrilled that you're here, and feeling very blessed that over the coming days I'll be sharing with you more about what He's doing in my life. I'm linking up tomorrow with The Nesting Place, as she's talking about Home Goals for the new year... this is a huge part of the direction I'm heading, and I can't wait to share more! I am praying that each of you lovelies will experience Him today like never before.