A New Year

Well, that time just flew by...

Bad news first: I got so behind in my blogging! I also got behind in my reading, but I have almost caught up! (Oops, I just gave away my good news.) I am going to give you a pretty good excuse for the belated blog posts... CHRISTMAS! Yay. :) I had a wonderful time with family and friends. Now that we are in 2015, my crazy holiday schedule is starting to slow down. Our puppies are almost 8 weeks old and will be heading to their new homes soon (this requires both a happy and a sad face, so here you go. :(: You decide.) So that will lessen a little craziness as well.

Good news: I am almost on track! (Yeah, I know, you already read that, but it's a pretty huge accomplishment for me this season.) Thankfully, although I haven't been blogging much I have still been reading and listening. I'm now only about 3 days behind in my reading, which isn't too bad since I was 6 days behind as of last week!

For the first week and a half I was pretty good about reading and taking notes on what stuck out to me and what applied to what I was learning right then. I've sort of stopped taking notes because I am trying to get a better continuity. So, I read or listen to a session and make a note about the thing that stuck with me to the end of that reading time. I think this works better for me because I am able to actually pick a bigger point and not have so many little notes. I would definitely like to try to read through the Bible again this year at a slower pace with more note taking. Reading through quickly and getting the big picture seems to be the point of this schedule though.

I finished Kings 1 & 2 the other day, so I think I will share my big impression of those books today.

Sin.

Escapable, but we don't live without it.

Grace.

Abounding, and we can't live without it.

Parents.

Can't live with em', can't live without em'.

I'm serious about that last one! (Get it? We can't be born without parents, but our lives are inherently effected by what they teach us and what we observe in them.)

Take the Kings for instance.

1 Kings 15:3 "And he walked in all the sins that his father did before him, and xhis heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father."

1 Kings 15:11 "And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as David his father had done."

1 Kings 15:26 "He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord gand walked in the way of his father, and in his sin hwhich he made Israel to sin."

1 Kings 15:34 "He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord mand walked in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin which he made Israel to sin."

And that's just chapter 15...

We learn from our parents: good and bad. We can be negatively effected by decisions they make, and they also make decisions that are positive for us.

We need to discern when to follow in their footsteps and when to forge our own path.

Just because our parents lead Christian lives and shepherd our hearts does not mean we will end up being Christians, or leading lives honoring to God. And praise God that someone who was raised in a non-Christian home can also come to Christ to be cleansed!

I guess my analogy would be this: everyone is a seedling that will grow. We might have a grand start in a greenhouse where we are watered daily and given nutrients we need. We might be a windblown seed planted in the ground, struggling against nature and bigger plants. In either case, at some point, we either give up and stop growing or we grow and blossom and fulfil our purpose.

Each one of the kings either had a good or a bad example in their father, but when they became king they had a choice to follow in the good foot steps or to run away from the bad and cleanse the kingdom. In many cases it was a choice to leave things as they were, even if they were bad, because it pleased themselves or the people.

Each new year people try to be better people, whether it be eating better, exercising more, reading the Bible each day, or going to church every Sunday. We have the ability to do better each day, but this time of year always feels like a fresh start.

Sorry for a rather disjointed post, but I hope it encourages you to follow a new and better path this year.

P.S. Reading over this again makes me cringe slightly, but I'm going to post it anyways because that was exactly how my thought process worked and what I felt I got out of 1 and 2 Kings.