2011 Journey

So after much prayer I have finally decided on my word for 2011.  Let me just be completely honest and say I wanted to pick something easy and fun.  I thought of so many, but every time I felt like the Lord kept bringing me back to one word.  I really didn't want this word.  I have prayed that God would give me a different word, but He hasn't.  So my word for 2011 is CHANGE.  YIKES.  Last year brought so many changes in my life and most were not positive.  As I look at most of them they were all decisions of someone else and most were somewhat out of my control.  So for 2011 I am focusing on me and what God wants to change in my life and how I live.  I just read in excerpt from a book quoting Emilie Barnes and her book where Emilie is righting a letter to the reader and it has wisdom for me and correlates with what I feel.  Here is her letter:
"My Dear Friend,
Are you at one of those points in life where you feel flattened, devastated, overwhelmed by grief and loss?  It might not feel very comforting right now to be told that you're a prime candidate for the Lord's restoration.  But you are.
Whether your losses are little or large, they are real and important.  It's all right to mourn the years the locusts are eating in your life.....Remember, love is a prerequisite for grief.  If you didn't love, you wouldn't really suffer from loss.  So your suffering in a time of loss is really evidence of your love, and love is always a good thing.
In the meantime, if you haven't already begun to see God's purposes at work in your stripping-down time, you might want to consider:  Is there something the Lord has for me to learn in this?  About humility?  About compassion?  About appreciation?  About letting go?
I urge you to consciously open yourself to his work.  Humble yourself to learn.  Open your heart to others.  Open your eyes.  Open your hands to release whatever it is you're gripping too tightly.  Let the locusts have the bitterness and the resentment; you can't afford the negative energy.  Focus instead on hope and possibilities."

So I begin 2011 ready for the journey.  A process of healing from the hurts of the past years.  An opportunity to become a new woman, the one Christ wants me to be.  One who has a great capacity and commitment to love outrageously and live contagiously.  I will learn to let God take care of others and their actions.  I will live to please Christ alone.  So if you have room on your prayer list add me to it and pray for the change & journey that 2011 will be for me.