See, in what traversed ways,
What backward Fate delays
The hopes we used to know;
Where are our old desires?--
Ah, where those vanished fires?
Time goes, you say?--ah no!
How far, how far, O Sweet,
The past behind our feet
Lies in the even-glow!
Now, on the forward way,
Let us fold hands, and pray;
Alas, Time stays,--we go!
Austin Dobson (1840-1921)
Is it just me or is it really strange that it's already 2009? I mean, I just started college, like, yesterday, and now I'm finished and so moved on that I can't imagine actually being back. Well, ok, that isn't exactly true - I can imagine...but not going back, just moving forward.
And that's what this New Year is all about for me - moving forward. I've always been too retrospective...it's always been too hard to put the past behind me. In 2009 I want to make plans, fulfill those plans, and become the owner of a life of which I can be thoroughly proud.
So, in light of the New Year, and because it is generally expected, here are a few resolutions that this year, I actually intend to keep:
1. Love God every second of every day.
2. Live life to the fullest, because every moment should be treasured.
3. Get in shape (this resolution has obviously made such a difference in the past...)
4. Break that annoying habit of biting my bottom lip when I get frustrated.
5. Take better care of my passport.
6. Take life's little lessons to heart.
7. Smile more often, because it blesses other people, and me!
8. Regain my old optimism for living.
9. Take every advantage that I can to laugh, laugh, laugh.
I was thinking about something today that I thought might be worth sharing...
Life moves so quickly. Yesterday I was a child. Tomorrow I will be old. But life just keeps moving on. Years pass, faces obtain new wrinkles, hair turns gray (and at only 23, even I have found one or two gray hairs). No matter what we want or how we wish the years would slow down, this age still moves on. But I don't have to worry about my life ending. In 2009, my life won't get older...it will only get better, because it is eternal. Not just after I die, but now, as well. It's a beauty of God and His amazing plan of redemption. I don't fear Death. I fear not living. Not living my eternal life, right now.
So let me add one more resolution to my list:
10. Live every day knowing that I'm actually living for eternity, not just for myself. I just want to be a better person.
Time stays, we go...but some of us know that we only go to a better place. And we also know that while we go, we can help others go with us.
Peace and Love, Readers,
That girl in Switzerland
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j'aime votre blog !
ReplyDelete(j'aime également ces petits programmes de traduction)
=)
Merci beaucoup, Ike!
ReplyDeleteIls sont très bons. Je les aime beaucoup aussi. Ils m'aident à apprendre le français beaucoup plus vite.
:-P
Your passport does need taken care of... I vote a short visit to America. That would make it feel so much better. So useful and cheery it would feel.
ReplyDeleteAmen! Very good! Glad you have a blog!!!
ReplyDeleteGood thoughts, Heather. I've been thinking about that very thing lately (about God, not passports). I thought I'd share with you a moment.
ReplyDeleteThe preacher said something very profound on Sunday. It was such a duh kind of thing, but it startled me with it's truth. He said, "I don't have enough time to serve the devil. I don't even have enough time to serve myself. I only have just enough time to serve God."
His sermon was about how life is a vapor and we make plans that may or may not ever be fulfilled, but if our plans do not concern God, they are not important. He said that he'd been thinking about the realm of "Christian service" versus "secular work". He says that he'd been broadening his perspective on what constituted Christian service. He said that he thought, "Well, I guess teachers are touching lives, so that could be Christian service. Funeral home directors are there for people in their time of grief, so that could be Christian service too. Even a lawyer could be in Christian service if they are standing up for people who cannot stand up for themselves, but what about an assembly line worker who is just turning this bolt, turning this bolt, turning this bolt all day and never talks to anyone? What about a farmer out in his field fixing barbed wire and hardly even seeing anyone?" He went on to say that his father was a farmer, and as far as he knew, his father didn't know many people, let alone influence many people. However, at his father's funeral, the church was so packed that people were standing. It was clear that his father influenced more people than he'd ever known.
He said that any life lived for God is Christian service. You may not be able to see how that farmer fixing that one particular string of barbed wire is serving God in that act, but somehow, that is how God has ordained it to work. If that farmer stringing that barbed wire is living every moment for God, he is in Christian service, and who knows but what he may influence more people than a pastor or missionary or evangelist could. We don't have time to serve the devil. We don't even have enough time to serve ourselves. We only have just enough time to serve God.
"Therefore, whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God."
Jessica B.