Resolutions

Back to school/work/normality today. 

New day. New year. God knows the plans he has for me and if I am wise, I will sit with him long enough to hear his whisper and run with him. Too often have I run away from him, following what I thought was my heart or was a better direction.

My ‘to do’ list is as complete a list of new year’s resolutions as I will make, but it is pretty comprehensive and daunting. I need to sit with him and hear his voice, following his advice on what to cross off my list and adding the things he suggests.

The great thing about our Father is that he loves us and wants to hang out with us. How unwise I am to follow my list slavishly rather than offering it to him for his advice. And it’s not all about ‘doing’ anyway...the sitting with him is such a breath of fresh air.

That’s the number one, the only, resolution I am making this year. To prioritise time with the Father.

I’ve got some Bible reading notes published in this quarter’s edition of Day by Day with God, from BRF. Sometimes it helps to have a guide as we navigate the Bible.

A Wise Woman

Proverbs 14:1 describes what a wise woman does. She builds her house.

That doesn’t necessarily mean a physical house, but may refer to her life. The second half of that verse says that a foolish woman tears hers down with her own hands.

I’ve been thinking about that. Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how you can change the physiology of your brain. I’ve been thinking about it in terms of the Bible, changing the paths of thought so the default is always Godly. There was a program on tv the other night which examined the same subject but without the God element – just showing the way that we can change our thinking through some deliberate exercises we undertake. We can change from being negative to positive in our thinking.

So back to the wise woman. The way to build my life on God is day by day, setting aside time to read and study Scripture and pray. Brick by brick, my life will become the life God wants me to live. That is a wise choice to make.

But many times I stray from that. I wouldn’t say I’m actually tearing down my house. I’m not reading dirty books or watching violence or pornography. But I’m not building. And that reminds me of Don’s building project at the back of our house.

It’s a ‘steading’ – ‘barn’ – which we have planning permission to transform into a self-catering flat upstairs, and Don’s workshop and store room downstairs. Only Don has been trying to do it himself for a decade, and the walls are not yet built as high as they need to go. He’s not been tearing it down, but it’s been static. 

We can’t rent it out. He can’t put his tools in there. The rain still pours in.

My life can easily become static. Half-finished. Which is no use to anyone. It’s not even attractive. 

Yesterday I decided to make a fresh attempt at building. Twenty minutes a day is all it takes, according to the tv program; twenty minutes of meditation (on the program it was meditating on your breathing, but I am meditating on a verse of the Bible) can change your mind. Transform your neurological pathways. Give you a new default mode.

Build you a new house. I’m going for it. Again. I hope to be faithful in keeping it up. Then I might almost be a wise woman. (...not ‘old’...)