Launching the New Year

Happy New Year everyone! Can you believe it's 2020? That doesn't seem possible for a girl who still remembers what Y2K was like. And if you don't know what that is Google it and read about how the world went crazy for a while, it's kind of hilarious.

Anyway, here we are in 2020 and I've been thinking about taking a little break from posting on here. I'm going to be honest with you guys, I love posting and connecting with all of you. I love praying for you and hearing about what God is teaching you or about how He used one of my posts to encourage you or bring you hope or just make you laugh. However, I'm also exhausted. 2019 brought a ton of changes and the end of the year launched me into a few new chapters in my life.

I've joined a new church that I'm getting involved in which is awesome but it also takes a lot of energy. I'm looking for a new job which is a whole different type of exhausting and is definitely teaching me more about trusting the Lord. And I'm trying to figure out how to navigate some other changes that are happening or upcoming in my little world.

I really believe that in order to pour out you need to be filled up yourself and lately I just feel like I'm running a little dry. So I'm going to take two months off. I'll still be praying for all of you, and those of you that I'm blessed enough to talk to offline I'll still connect with. The rest of you, I'll be thrilled to talk to again at the end of February or early March.

Until then I want to leave you with a thought. Or rather a quote that I heard today at Bible study.

"Comparison is the thief of joy."

I have a lot of trouble with comparing myself to people and it does steal my joy. Consistently. So in the next two months I'm going to work on not comparing myself.

See friends, God has made each of us in His own image. He made us unique and special and when we compare ourselves to others we tell Him that He didn't do a good enough job making us. I may struggle with who I am but I know God loves me and I want to work on being thankful for how He made me and who He made me, not throw it back in His face because I think someone else is cooler, prettier, smarter or whatever-er. Or going the opposite direction and thinking how much better I am then them. God made them too and even though we all have different strengths, I'm not better or worse then His other children.

The other thought I had is joy. Joy is not happiness. Happiness is contingent on circumstances and circumstances are often driven by people. Happiness is fleeting while joy, true joy, is found only in the Lord and can't be taken away. I want to have deep and abiding joy in my life. So while I'm learning to not compare myself to others I'm also going to try to have more joy in my life.

So there's my plan for the beginning of 2020. What's yours? Drop me a comment and I'll get back to you even while I'm on break. And I'll talk to you all again in a couple of months. Until then, enjoy your 2020 friends, and don't let comparison or anything else steal your joy.