Another Year!

I love birthdays and I think I appreciate them more the older I get (strange, I know)!

The truth is that I'm always happy to chalk another year up to this life that God has blessed me with and I use this day each year to stop and be grateful for the journey that I've walked since the last year's milestone. I also tend to set new goals for myself to accomplish during the next trip around the sun and I usually associate a verse or song or something with what I want my life to look like. Yes, it's kind of like getting New Years twice a year! I'm silly that way!

Just to share, this is the verse that I'm drawn to for this coming year:
Let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God's life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness.
~ 1 Peter 1:15

I love this verse and it's what I really desire my life to look like! A woman shaped by God's life and character and presence. A life lived wide open to the will of God and facing the future with hope and joy and faith! That's what I want to be!

Also, for those of you who know me, music is one of my big passions and sometimes a song just comes along that I really identify with. I recently heard a song that just jumped out at me as one that spoke so much of where I find myself. It reminded me of my weaknesses and how even with them, my primary desire is to live completely surrendered to God. I look forward to God taking my life and doing with it what He desires. Refining is not easy but I want to walk through it that I might better glorify Him with the time He gives!

Thanks for reading along and I hope to challenge and encourage you in the days to come!

For now, enjoy this great song!

Here I Am
By: Downhere

Sometimes your calling, comes in dream
Sometimes it comes in the Spirit's breeze,
You reach for the deepest hope in me,
And call out for the things of eternity.

But I'm a man, of dust and stains,
You move in me, so I can say,

CHORUS:
Here I am, Lord send me,
All of my life, I make an offering,
Here I am, Lord send me,
Somehow my story, Is part of your plan,
Here I am

When setbacks and failures, and upset plans,
Test my faith and leave me with empty hands,
Are you not the closest when it's hardest to stand?
I know that you will finish what you began.

These broken parts you redeem,
Become the song, that I can sing
(chorus)

Overwhelmed by the thought of my weakness,
And the fear that I'll fail you in the end,
In this mess, I'm just one of the pieces,
I can't put this together but you can.