My Lord and Me 2014

I always have a day of prayer at the end of the year to evaluate it and set some goals for the next year. 

Nine of us met at Tri-Delta Sorority at 9 am on December 31, 2014. Teala is the house mom there, and we think we have done this for eighteen year now (with two years off in 1997-98 because we were in Malaysia).  Kim, Katherine, Joanne, George, Jordan, Jamie, and Nancy joined us with everyone but Kim, Katherine, and Nancy staying to the end. We had a nice time of evaluation with a theme of God being KING and us being His prince and princesses. Pretty cool when we gathered to talk about our time.

God had given me Matthew 6:33-34 a couple of days before the time, it was confirmed when I got up to read and review Matthew 6 in the Bible Book Club:

But seek first 

His kingdom

and

His righteousness;

and all these things shall be added to you.

Therefore, do not be anxious 

for tomorrow;

for tomorrow will care for itself

each day has enough trouble of its own.

When I reviewed 2014 Days of Prayer (Nine - two partial days; two 48 hour; and five full days) and into the prior year, I found some great themes. Matthew 6 had popped up on March 7, 2014 in The Message version:

STEEP your life in God-reality (God's present kingdom), 

God-initiative, God-provisions, 

Don't worry about missing out. 

You'll find all  your everyday human concerns will be met. 

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, 

and don't get worked up 

about what may or may not happen tomorrow. 

God will help you deal with whatever 

hard things come up when the time comes. 

STEEPing tea is the vision that Amanda had of me when we were listening to God for each other in February 2014 (I guess I could count that as a 48 hour retreat, but it was ;mostly group prayer). She did not even know I loved tea! Her words were "tea steeping, longer steeping, leaves soaking, strength from steeping, waiting, training.

So this "King's daughter who is all glorious within" (Psalm 45) will "Seek FIRST" His kingdom this year.

I developed a detailed "SEEK FIRST 2015 FIFTEEN"

HEART (well-adjusted emotions)

1. FUN with the LORD (take pictures of His creation, write)

2. FUN with my family (Yellowstone, France and Camino de Santiago for George and I)

3. FUN with faithful friends

SOUL (well-watered spiritual life)

4. Soak in the LIFE of Jesus - What did He say and do? (Jan-Easter)

5. Worship, World, and Weaver Prayer Walks (3x day) Seek God for the City 2015 for Lent

6. "LOW" - Listen and Obey God and WRITE it down (LOW journal?) Found this quote from a previous day of prayer, but I am not sure where I found it. I was in the Upper Room in Salem at the time:

"This world does not change because you do not change. But the world can change if you change. 

How can you change? 

By listening to God. For God is always speaking, just as the sun is always shining. In the morning before distractions and problems of the day, you can listen to God 

How can you listen? 

Here is the answers: you write it down. Write it down so that you can listen better, and you can remember His words." Father Gratry 

Being a notoriously forgetful person, writing down what God tells me has been a great thing this year! The shower/tub crayon has been a boon to my existence (and probably a pain to my housecleaner!).

MIND (well-educated intellect)

7. Willard Writings - Living in Christ's Presence and The Great Omission
8. Tolstoy - Christian writings including Resurrection
9.  Read 52 books and post reviews on my blog

STRENGTH (well-tuned body)

10. 1000 Cal deficit until my injury weight is off (5-9 pounds?)
11.  2400 Cal burn with 5-15 of VIGOROUS cardio, 5x a week
12. Strength and Stretching daily

LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF

13. TOAG/Listening Leaders Discipleship - weekly TOAG time and every other week with various members
14. BBC: Jesus January - April 5. Disciples April 5 to end
15. Creation to Christ studies and storying with seekers

I also evaluated my highs and lows:

LOWS  (in order of "lowness")

1) Boldness backfiring into a conflict (August)
2) Husband of #4 blasting me and feeling very scared (August)
3) Miscommunication with two ladies (September - sleepless nights, but ended up with a really healthy resolution! Sort of a high then! )
4) Woman I had invested in all year filing for divorce (September)
5) Possible skin cancer (December) 

HIGHS
1) Grand European River Cruise (May-June) - "The Hiding Place" in the Ten Boom house, Passau bike ride along Danube into Austria, Vienna Mozart and Stauss Concert, Dancing on the Danube in Regensburg:



And  arriving in Budapest at night:




2) Fabulous Fall Reboot of TOAG that resulted in WOW Women! (glad we postponed since August and September ended up containing most of my "lows"!)

3) Studying Creation, Adam, Noah, and Abraham with my friend (Summer)

4) Listening prayer breakthroughs (all year)

5) Healing of friends (September on) 

6) Jon Thurlow Soothing Worship times

At 1 pm, I went for a 8.1 mile walk (I lost track because I was deep in prayer and worship of God's beauty all around me - what a way to end the year!!), and I evaluated and prayed through my #1 Low of the year for the first 2.5 miles! This Low related to #2/4 because I had shared how emotionally devastating it was for the husband to be so rude to me on the phone, but it was not even acknowledged. It was enlightening, and I did what I felt was a healthy thing living out my "boldly beloved" destiny, being honest about how my feelings had been hurt. I was fearful to do it, and it came across as angry (which has happened to me in the past, but it had not happened for several years). 

In evaluating, I realized I did not "listen and obey"! Whether I forgot or was too afraid to obey, when I reviewed my day of prayer from August 14, God had specifically told me to say, "No" to this friend (cannot go into the details of what that was about). I did not do that, and it ended up coming to a head 10 days later with my feelings being hurt.

The problem would have been avoided had I just obeyed that! I should have LISTENED AND OBEYED! She just was not in a position to give anything to me emotionally when I really needed it, and in the subsequent conflict resolution, it came to be all my responsibility to "tell her when I am feeling pressured/controlled by her. I had a responsibility to simply say, "No" up front. Then there would have been no room for pressure or control. I felt like if I had just obeyed in the first place, the conflict would not have happened. I cannot expect anything in the way of emotional support when I am down (which is pretty rare). So, she cannot be one of my "go to" girls when the chips are down. I have others who can fill that place. That is why we have more than one friend! Good evaluation time! 

Thankfully the 2.5 miles of struggling through that was followed by 5.5 miles of adoring the beautiful, sunny day and praying for others God brought to mind. Then I prayed in Kelly Engineering building on campus (home of my son's major and the major of many of the seekers I am investing in!)

I came back to wrap up my day of prayer in joy. What a great day!

There are more verses I feel that will guide the year: I feel like God gave me some nice words:

Psalm 92:12-15 - His promise of a fruitful, long life
Mark 6:31 - "If you do not 'come apart', you will 'come apart'" (quote form the Trappist Abbey pamphlet on private retreats)
Mark 12:30-31 (that is above in this blog)

My 2015 FRUITFUL FIVE

1) WORSHIP/WORLD WALK and WORD WRITING 
2) WONDERFUL WEAVERS life and home investment
3) WOW WOMEN (Launch them in LOVE!)
4) WICKEDNESS WAKE UP AND WALK AWAY (Ps 91:14-16)
5. WILLARD AND WRITERS

Well there were words for people I need to give, but that is all for now!

One last thing, I realized I would be 55 years, 5 months, and 5 days old today! LOL!

TA TA!