December 26, 2006 @ 6:17 pm | Filed under: Family

Christmas weekend was a whirlwind of activity - family dinners, the Wilder (the whole bunch of ‘em) Chinese gift exchange, last-minute wrapping, and lots of hugs all the way around.

One of my favorite moments, though, was during the Christmas Eve church service. For a few minutes, all the flurry of activity and all the busyness of the season came to a total stand-still in my heart. I grew still and allowed His peace to flood my soul.

As I think back over this year and all the events that have culminated to form 2006, I am very much aware of how blessed I am. In highs and lows, in sickness and in health — it’s all good. God’s handiwork is written all across my life and I feel very much indebted to Him tonight as I write these words. The people that criss-cross my world and the love and laughter they bring to me are gifts that keep giving all year long, and not just during this hectic holiday season.

I just went back and reviewed the word (or in this case, the phrase) that I chose for myself for 2006. Immediately my mind went to many occasions when I could have done so much better in utilizing that phrase. I fell sadly short but, oddly enough, as I read that post my heart did a little jump as it does every year about this time.

The new year is not really a time of new beginnings. Life can’t really be started with a clean slate, complete with erased mistakes and peppered with forgotten wrongs. But the evaluation that pulses through me is vital to me - this I know for sure. Every resolution kept, every goal attained, every dream reached - they all begin with the power of positive thought. That and prayer.

It’s an unbeatable combination.

So as I ponder what my word for 2007 will be, I’ll try to capture more of those quiet moments. I’ll grow still and let Him whisper His plans for me and I’ll do my best to let my own inadequacies and my own shortcomings move to the backburner of my mind.

In Elisabeth Elliott’s words, this prayer is reverberating through me tonight with sweetness and with longing:

May I offer to Him my feeling of the dislocation of reality and my ideals–that great chasm which separates the person I long to be, the work I long to do for Him, the family I struggle to perfect for His glory–from the actuality?