Made for This

I had so much fun reading all your responses via Facebook yesterday in response to naming your year! Keep sharing! Facebook comments or comments here under the posts work great… I just love seeing the  excitement God is giving everyone for the year ahead. It's going to be a great 2014, my friends!

After a little more thought I've settled on a name for 2014. I'd like to call 2014 "Made for This". This is a concept that's been running through my mind often in the past few weeks. I'm currently 14 weeks along with our first baby and pregnancy brings a whole bunch of new thoughts, concerns, and, of course, joys with it. Fear sneaks in quickly so I've been learning the value of speaking faith over every one of those little thoughts that worry me. I like to remind myself that my body is made for this… made purposefully by God to nurture this strong and healthy little baby (and several babies after this one ;)) who will be such a blessing to the world and to our family. I am made for faith… not for fear. I'm made for this and more!

There's a verse in the book of Esther that has always been so interesting to me. Esther's cousin Mordecai encourages the new Queen Esther to speak on behalf of the Jews when the King agrees to destroy them. Check out the following 2 verses…

13 Mordecai sent this reply to Esther: “Don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all other Jews are killed. 14 If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?” - Esther 4:13-14 NLT emphasis added

By focusing on the "Made for This" concept, I'm reminded that God has created and empowered all of us to live passionately and actively in this time, in this place, and for this generation. It's not an accident that I was born in 1991 or that you were born when you were. It's not a mistake that Luke and I are living in Phoenixville for a couple years even when it's hard to be away from Gettysburg. We were made for this time… not to be victims but to overcome and influence for good! That encouragement helps me so much! I'd love to hear what you think about that. 

So from where I sit on the second day of 2014, it looks like this might be a year for conquering fears and beating excuses with faith declarations. I hope to try some new things that I thought my body was too weak for (I've got to try a 5k at some point) and take risks that I thought someone else was made for instead. 

Thanks for taking the time to read and also for sharing your thoughts with me! Hope you all had a wonderful January 2nd. 

Love, 

Bonnie

Want to read more about naming your year? I first read about this exercise on in these blog posts by Jeff Leake, Melodie Leake, and Brad Leach. (Click the names to find their posts!)