A Mid-Year Celebration! {Your Names for 2014}

Today four of my friends are sharing their stories about life in 2014 so far. At the beginning of the year, I joined with a bunch of you as we "named our years" - we decided what it was that we wanted to see happen in the year ahead as we partnered with God. I named my year "Made for this" and it has transformed the way I view my life and challenges. I was so touched and powerfully encouraged by their stories… I think you will be, too! 

"At the end of 2013 and the turn of the new year, I was thinking of all the things I would like the Lord to do in my life in the coming year...There has been so many changes in our family in the past few years. I heard of a few friends giving their "new year" a name. I decided to claim my new year the year of "restoration"..... Now, seven months later, I was challenged to review my year and see how God has worked in our lives so far this year....It says in Joel 2:25-26 - "And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you." In the past two years, our hearts have been torn apart from pain from the death of one of our sons, and several other things that the enemy has been throwing our way.... I am asking God to "restore" healed hearts within our lives...to restore family members that have alienated themselves within our families.. As I think back on how "I WANTED GOD TO WORK", I am reminded that my ways are not always His ways, and my time is not always HIS time. So with that said, God did not bring to pass what I wanted Him to do yet, BUT, my sister who has pretty much closed her ears and eyes to the things of God the past 15 years, is on the verge of recommitting her life to Him again. She is praying and starting to proclaim her love for Him once again. She is getting involved in some church activities. It is so refreshing to once again share those "Godly conversations" that we did for so very many years. So, I will rest in Him, knowing that He sees the "finished picture", and I will not get discouraged when He answers in a way that is different to the way that I want Him answer... I will hold on the the promise in John 14:1 - "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me." I CHOOSE to take God at His word. I choose to stand on Matthew 6:33 "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." I choose to walk in "joy" as he makes me more like Him. I will believe Romans 15:13.... "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." I will continue to praise Him for who He is, and I will still believe that the restoration for my family will come in His time.

PS... there are STILL 5 months till the end of this year…"

"Thinking back to the beginning of the year, I thought "a year of opportunities" would be a great title for my new year. honestly I haven't thought about it too much over the past few months, however thinking about it now, I've learned that it's a perfect title. God has given Brian and I so many opportunities this year. It's been a lot of small ones but they all grow into a big one. We still have our jobs, 2 sets of our best friends became great parents to beautiful daughters that I love calling my nieces, I'm assisting two worship leaders, I've moved into a new area of creative and media works, and Brian and I have been teaching more. There may be more opportunities with ministry callings at school as well. This is only some of what God is doing in the past 7 months and I can't wait to see what he has in store for the rest of the year!"

"Focusing on embracing everything that comes my way has made such a huge difference in my year so far! Moving 3000 miles from home and getting married has been both wonderful and challenging. Whilst some of the difficult aspects would've shaken me in the past, remembering the name that I had for 2014 has made these obstacles much easier to face. Trying to figure out finances has been quite stressful as I'm not yet able to get a job since I'm still waiting for my work permit but every month since I've been here, everything has come together for us and we know that we can only thank God for that. Embracing this season of unemployment by getting to know my new friends better by spending that time with them rather than stay home and panicking constantly about money has been so liberating. It's also really helped me to put down some strong roots here and despite missing my friends in the UK, I'm incredibly thankful for the new ones that I'm making here too."

"This year has been a roller coaster of emotions, hurt, and pain followed by God using that brokenness to restore me and the people around me. At the beginning of this year I committed to seek out intentional relationships and ways to encourage the people around me in Christ's love. Needless to say God answered that pray with practical ways to practice this, and these were ways that were beyond what I expected. Because of God's grace and my desire to have intentional, meaningful relationships I was able to have a different perspective on what was going on around me. I restored some broken relationships, encouraged friends around me to seek Christ in the midst of trials and suffering, and I strengthened relationships I never imagined would last. With God's guidance, and a lot of prayer, I have grown so much in the past six months just by trying to see people as God sees them and love them like Christ loves me. Relationships are a precious gift from God and I'm glad to have been able to experience all that God had planned. I cannot wait to see where God leads me in this next chapter of life as a college graduate, starting my first job, and getting to form relationships with beautiful families who the world views as broken and hopeless but I know God loves. The remainder of the year I will prayerfully seek to be a vessel of God's love to those around me who appear broken, defeated, and hopeless."
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*bold/italic emphasis mine

It's not too late to name the rest of your year! What are your wildest dream for the last months of 2014? What would you name your year? I'd love to hear from you!

Love,
Bonnie

Want to read a little more about naming your year? I love this exercise of faith!

Read my original post on "Naming Your Year" by clicking here.

Read my post on why I named my year "Made For This" by clicking here.