Self-discipline — My Word for 2020

Self-discipline. At age 71, I should have this word nailed. I do not. Cancer was my wake-up-to-reality moment that life is short and could end at any time. Our days, hours, minutes, and seconds are counting down. 

Regrets. I don't want any. I remember thinking, I don't want to be 85 and wish I had written a book. So, I disciplined myself. I chose to, and sometimes forced myself to, sit, write, edit, and rewrite. Discipline is good for me, for my family, and for the Kingdom of God. Discipline brings happiness, productivity, health, and glory to God. So why don't I do it? Because satan tempts me to follow his spirit and not the Spirit of God. As I discipline myself to say no to the devil and yes to the Lord, I will live a powerful, loving, and disciplined life.

"For the Spirit God gives us 

does not make us timid,

 but gives us 

power, 

love, and 

self-discipline."

2 Timothy 1:7

God has given me the spirit of power, love, and self-discipline. I have it. It's mine! In 2020, I will seize that power and determine to live a more disciplined life. With God's power I will make good use of every minute of every day. Will you join me as I choose self-discipline in 2020?

I am asking God to reveal areas in my life where I need discipline. This list may grow, but as of today, here are my thoughts:

Discipline time for fun. I can be so work-obsessed and to-do list driven, that I neglect fun and relaxation. When I play hard and laugh loud, my head clears and I often hear God's whisper of approval. Solitary walks bring a communion with God I rarely sense at my computer desk. Fun helps me sleep better, love deeper, and live fuller. Fun and laughter are good medicines that cleanse my soul, so I will discipline myself to prioritize fun.

Discipline my eating. Oh, what I lose (years, health, energy,) thinking I am enjoying the gluttony. The price is too high and I must resist. Why, oh why, haven't I conquered my over-zealous love for food? Please Lord, I don't want to be a food snob or a diet guru. I enjoy the bounty you set before me. But, give me power to eat slowly, in moderation, for maximum enjoyment and health.

Discipline my eyes. I want the hours back that I've wasted watching television commercials, let alone less-than-stellar and non-affirming television shows. I guarantee on my death bed, I won't be saying,"I wish I had watched that TV show." Give me courage to get off the couch and use my eyes to read books and take on activities that glorify You.

Discipline my tongue. Oh the words I wish I could put back into my mouth and erase from the minds of the people I've hurt with words. With God's power I will grab hold of my tongue before I wag it. Use my tongue, Lord, as an instrument to edify and not to condemn or gossip or destroy.

Discipline my attitude. A day spent grumpy is a day I did not live. The day is wasted and gone and can never be retrieved. Life is too short for a negative attitude. Remind me of this, Holy Spirit, whenever I tend to go low.

Discipline my mind. I don't want to fritter my day thinking ungodly thoughts. There is no time for such wasted foolishness as gossip and worry and course joking.

Discipline my devotional life. My desire is to be all I can be for Christ. I don't want to go into old age or to Heaven never realizing all that Christ had for me spiritually. There's always room for deeper Bible study and prayer.

Discipline my time. Consecrate each day for the glory of God to do what God has me to do each hour. Visit a neighbor. Spend time with grandchildren. Go on a date with Dan. Clean the house. Write another book. Spend the day in prayer. All Godly endeavors take time. God gives me the time He planned for me as I trust in Him, His power, and His love.

". . . be hospitable, 

one who loves what is good, 

who is self-controlled, 

upright, 

holy, and 

disciplined."

Titus 1:8

This is my prayer for 2020. 

Do you have a word for 2020? Please share other ways we can live more disciplined lives. I covet your thoughts.

Blessings for a New Year and new decade filled with splashes of serenity,

When God Writes Your New Year's Resolutions

Weary of my list of New Year's resolutions broken year after year, I decided there must be a better way. Why not ask God to write my New Year's resolutions. And so, each January I pray and ask God for one word and one Bible verse He wants me to concentrate on throughout my year. A list seems impossible, but one word and one verse, you and I can do. Plus, we don't have to do it. God prepares us through the power of the Holy Spirit to grasp and conquer that one word and one verse.

My word for 2019 is (drum roll, please):

Eternity

My verse: 

" . . . set your hearts on things above . . . . 

Set your minds on things above, 

not on earthly things."

Colossians 3: 1-3 (NIV)

When cancer surprised me, my life changed in miraculous ways. 

I started to really live!

Every moment a precious gift. 

Each breath a thank offering. 

Never wishing for a day to pass quickly or the weekend to get here fast.

Refusing to be dragged down in the earthly dregs,

 Politics became unimportant, television stopped entertaining me. 

Feeling the wind in my hair and grass under my feet brought refreshing.

I loved deeper, lived fuller, laughed louder, sang sweeter and shined brighter!

The things of this world (the earthly things) seemed to blur 

as the heavenlies became clear.

We are commanded in Colossians 3 to set our hearts and minds on things above. In Hebrews 12, we are reminded to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. Wow! This is where our peace and joy reside. Not on this earth, but above. Seems this was God's intention when He promised believers an abundant and victorious life on earth and eternal life in Heaven.

This year I will focus on eternity. The eternal things are what matters. The earthly, well, those troubles just drag us down and keep our eyes from looking up. I'm not going there this year. My eyes and heart and mind are looking only to my Lord Jesus. I expect my best year ever living an abundant life on earth and anticipating one day (far in the future my doctors tell me) a glorious home in Heaven! 

Life and death is a win/win when your eyes, mind, and heart are fixed on things above!

What's your word and verse for 2019? Ask God. I'm sure he'll bring that word to mind.

Have a Splashes of Serenity 2019!

What Really Matters in 2018 — The Condition of My Heart

A peek into my journal lets the secret out. My New Year's Resolutions were different this year. Perhaps it's getting older, perhaps living with cancer, but when I sat to  reflect and write my 2018 resolutions, I chuckled realized my hopes had changed. Gone were my annual lose weight, get organized, exercise goals. Instead, God placed the following in my heart:

My 2018 Resolutions:

To glorify God.

To surrender to Him and His will.

To Trust in the Lord.

To keep my eyes on Jesus.

To die to self and live for Christ.

To be a soldier for Christ.

To share my faith.

To encourage others in their faith.

To live each day to the full.

To not waste time in earthly pursuits.

To praise Him continually.

To pray without ceasing.

To keep the wonder of a child.

To cling to the cross.

To be joyful in affliction.

To shine in the dark.

To hunger and thirst for righteousness.

To love unconditionally.

To live.

 To feel the wind on my face and the grass between my toes.

To not rush through life, but enjoy the expanse of moments.

To smile and bring joy.

To notice children and listen to them.

To love deeply.

To be all Christ created me to be.

To rest in His Arms.

To have no expectations that this world will ever satisfy me.

To live for Christ alone.

At the end of life neither God nor I will care if I lost weight, exercised, or ever got my house in shape. What will matter is the condition of my heart. May our resolutions reflect what God wants us to be instead of what the world entices us to become.

"The Lord does not look at the things people look at.

People look at the outward appearance,

but the LORD looks at the heart."

1 Samuel 16:7 (NLT)

May 2018 be filled with splashes of serenity as we live for Jesus!

Throw Away Your List of Resolutions and Choose One Word

Throw away that list of resolutions you've already broken because, after all, we are five days in to this new year of 2015.  Instead, choose one word. A list is harder to keep. A word can change your life.

In January I begin my search for a word or a scripture that I will concentrate on during the year.

Where do I find my word? Well, there's only One Who knows what 2015 holds for me. So, I ask Him. I Pray. I read the Bible and let the  Holy Spirit whisper to my heart one word or one scripture God knows I'll need this year.

God and I have had some laughs. I remember the year He told me to "examine yourself." Ouch. Really glad when that year ended. Little did I know. God continued to give  me "examine yourself" the next year and the year after that. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Obviously, this girl's heart needed some major work  and God wasn't going to let me find a new word until we worked together to conquer my sin of examining others.

I'm so tickled that God gave me a sweet word for 2015. He gave me the word "Delight!" At first, I thought this will be a breeze. Who doesn't love to "delight"? "Examine yourself," not so much. But, delight! Oh yes.

 It's not been five days and I realize "delight" isn't always so easy, but it's always better than discontent, disappointment, dislike, or dismay.  There are times I don't want to delight. Bad things happen in this world. Even in this, I will delight! How? Because I know God is in control and He will use it all for His glory. I know the end of the story and God wins. Delightful!

So, this year, I will sit back, smile, and rest assured that my only goal for 2015 is to delight!  I won't fret or complain or question or worry or get angry. I'll just delight! How lovely. I do hope God gives me that word again and again.

Please share the word or scripture God gave you this  year. We'd all be encouraged hearing the word God whispers to your heart.

Have a delightful splashes of serenity kind of a year!

My One New Year's Resolution



I'm tearing up my New Year's Resolution list this year because there is only one resolution I need to keep:

 "Be filled with the Spirit." Eph. 5:18. 

I love what Oswald Smith said about being filled with the Spirit:

"This is a command. As a matter of fact it is the most important commandment in the Bible, because when you obey it you automatically obey all the others. The fullness of the Spirit settles every problem. Why this command? Because God wants you to be filled. You are not to get more of the Holy Spirit; He is to get more, yea, all, of you. No longer are you to use Him; He is to use you." ~ Oswald Smith

So, Holy Spirit, get more of me, yea, get all of me! May 2013 be a year the filling of the Holy Spirit enables me to live as God commanded. Not by rules, but by freedom of living all love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, and self-control.

I learned about the filling of the Spirit last fall when I was asked to speak four times on the Holy Spirit at an Alliance Women retreat in Texas. With fear and trembling, I went away for a month of study, armed with the Bible and nine books by great authors explaining the who, what, where, when, why, and how of the Holy Spirit. Thirty days later I understood this "most important" commandment.

Studying and seeking and filling led me to believing the Holy Spirit is the missing link in me and in many Christians and in our churches.

If the church and God's people were filled with the Holy Spirit, we would overflow with the fruits of the Holy Spirit which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, self-control, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness. The world would run to us asking What is this joy and peace and faithfulness you have?  But people don't run to us and are not filling our churches. Perhaps because we are filled with the things of this world more than the Spirit of God.

If interested in doing your own study, the books I read which lead me to understanding this Third Person of the Trinity were: Lead Me, Holy Spirit by Stormie Omartian, The Spirit-Filled Life by Oswald J. Smith, How to be Filled with the Holy Spirit by A.W. Tozer, The Christ Life by A.B. Simpson, The Baptism with the Holy Spirit by R.A. Torrey, and By the Power of the Holy Spirit by David M. Howard. 

This New Year I hope all of us are making spiritual resolves to be filled daily with the Holy Spirit.

 This isn't a New Year's resolution to be broken. This is a spiritual mandate from God to us.

Get ready for the splashes of serenity the fullness of the Spirit brings to your life in 2013! A Spirit-filled New Year prayed for each of you! And for me too!

A New Verse for a New Year

Every January I ask God to give me a scripture verse. These annual verses have taught me valuable life lessons.

"Fix your eyes on Jesus" is my favorite verse. That year I took my eyes off myself and my plans and other people and their plans for me. Instead, I fixed my eyes on Jesus, His Will, and His Sovereignty. It was life changing. I haven't looked back. I just keep looking UP!

"Practice hospitality" brought a chuckle. That was the year I was in a cast for three months and learned to receive hospitality more than to practice it. God taught me that He has a sense of humor and that hospitality has little to do with a clean and welcoming house and much to do with a clean and welcoming heart.

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up" helped me through exhausting years of caring for little children. Don't grow weary, don't give up, I repeated on difficult days, trusting God for a great harvest. He delivered as He promised and I realized no matter how tiresome the day, this too will pass. Those babies grow up too fast to worry about being weary.

By far the most convicting verse was "Examine yourself." OUCH! I think I was afraid to ask God for another verse, so the following January and the one that followed that, and the one after that... I just kept examining myself. How often we examine everybody else, yet fail to examine ourselves. I'm still pulling the plank out of my eye and daily reminding myself that nowhere in the Bible does God say, examine your neighbor or worse, examine your husband.

This year, God gave me a new verse. I love it and I'll share it with you in a future post.

Have you asked God for a verse for 2011? I'd love to hear about it!

May 2011 be filled with Splashes of Serenity for each of us!

Elaine

I Resolve Not to Make New Year's Resolutions

I resolve not to make New Year's resolutions. Instead, I begin each year asking God to give me a verse He knows I need to master in my life. Just one verse a year--I figure I can resolve to do that. Right? Not always.

God gave me my first verse years ago: "Fix your eyes on Jesus..." (Hebrews 12:2) What a great scripture. So good, that I've kept it as my life verse. I can be miserable fixing my eyes on people who disappoint and circumstances that frustrate. But Jesus, well, He's the Man. I'll keep my eyes fixed on Him.

Another year God gave me "Practice hospitality." (Romans 12:13) I'm not great at inviting everyone in the world into my home for a gourmet meal with napkin rings and fresh flowers from my garden. Martha Stewart I am not. So, I welcomed this verse because I really did need to practice my hospitality. God surprised me though. That year I broke my foot, was in a cast for three months, and watched as my amazing church practiced their hospitality on me by descending on my home each night for ninety days with a fresh cooked meal. I learned then that hospitality begins with the word, "hospital" and while I recuperated I swallowed my need to give and learned to receive with grace. Jesus gave me a daily illustration of what it means to practice hospitality when a hot meal arrived promptly at 6:00 p.m. What a blessing.

The year He gave me, "Examine yourself"(2 Corinthians 13:5) hurt more than my broken foot. Ouch! I was great at examining others and examining my sweet hubby, but not at examining myself. "Examine your spouse" is not in the Bible, by the way. I looked. Shame on me, I needed so much work in this area that "Examine yourself" was the scripture God gave me year after year after year after year. I finally stopped asking Him for a verse and I just kept examining myself.

I don't know if God gave up on me or figured I needed to move forward, but on January 1, 2010 He gave me a new verse. It is January 6. I've given God five days to change His mind, but He keeps pressing me with the same thought. Oh dear, here I go. God's project for me this year is to "...be holy...." (Hebrews 12:14). Whoa, I'm thrilled and a bit frightened at what God wants to teach me over the next months. I hope to blog about my quest for holiness and I welcome your comments, your keeping me accountable, and your teaching me how I can better live a holy life. Of course, I would love your companionship on this holiness journey. Come on along!

So, if you want a splash of serenity in your New Year, I suggest you ditch the resolutions and ask God how He wants to transform you over the next 12 months. I'm in for the challenge. Are you?

A Blessed and Holy New Year,

Elaine