Do Not Be Afraid, I Bring Good News

I think it's always interesting when my son has a new saying. I always wonder where he gets them, most I can figure out and those I can't I will ask him about and I can usually decipher his answer. He's 3 so it doesn't take much for him to pick something up and repeat it over and over again. Which of course I have to remind myself of that every once in awhile.

So when he came up with his last saying I chalked it up to his Sunday School teachings, especially being that we just finished up the Christmas season, but anytime I asked him where he heard it, he would simply say "God".

Now our family has had a pretty rocky end of the year. One of my closest friends past away suddenly in November. This was especially hard for me because I have never lost anyone close to me. I didn't know what to feel or how to act, and I still don't really. I have been going over in my head for the last 2 months what I would have done differently if I had only known...but I didn't. She was a strong woman of faith and she was changing lives all around her, including my own. I have a lot to be thankful for because of her influence in my life. I miss her greatly and it's been super hard to focus on anything, especially my art. So instead I focused on nothing...not really a good thing to do with so much going on.

But a couple days ago everything finally clicked, I realized my son was giving me a message from God. A message I think we often forget especially this time of year.

DO NOT BE AFRAID, I BRING GOOD NEWS

There is always so much going on, but this time of year things seem to get more stressful more hurried, and the message that God is trying to remind us of gets lost. The GOOD NEWS doesn't seem to be the reason for the season anymore, and I think that was my struggle this past year. While others in my life worried about what "things" to get everyone and anyone, my thoughts were on Mary and the scene at the manger. I could not see how we went from celebrating the birth of Christ in a lonely meager manger to what it is now. I was sad for all these people running around me looking for presents instead of looking for Jesus. But my son got it. Now whether or not he actually heard it from God is a different story, but he at least got the message.

It took me a while but I finally got the message too and just sat amazed. Somehow my 3 year old has enough sense to listen when God was talking, but like so many others I struggle to sit still long enough to do this. So I decided to challenge myself this year for the first time. I sat down with a friend of mine and we made a list of things we want to accomplish this year, after sitting and listening to where I thought God was directing me (This way I had an accountability partner)

But I also wanted to share a few of them here with you...so here goes.

1. Find more venues to teach my Spiritual Art Journaling class.
(if you know of any please share, I would love to hear your ideas)

2. Write a book/journal and get it published.

3. Challenge myself and my art and push it to new levels.

So these are what I will be trying to focus on this year, of course things might change (I am always up for change) but I am really going to be trying to LISTEN to what God is wanting from me and right now I think these are the paths I am supposed to be on.

So what are your plans for the new year, where are you feeling lead? I would love to know what's on all of your plates.