How Will This Year Be Different?

I shouldn't have done it.

I know how prone I am to regrets. Some people are addicted to carbs, I'm addicted to bemoaning past failures and shortcomings. I'm a weird one, I know. So I went back and read. Read all of January 2009's posts. All the hopes, all the letdowns, all the beginnings of a winter depression. I wanted to warn the January 1st me of what January 15th me would be feeling. I wanted to tell her that Winter doesn't last forever and get over yourself so that maybe the rest of the year might be salvaged. Don't make lofty goals without a plan to follow them. Don't get caught up in temptations that beset you every year. Don't have that all or nothing view of things. Mistakes, mishaps and circumstances beyond your control-- they will happen. Above all, don't give up. Don't give up like you did.



And that nagging voice taunts me, What makes you think this year will be different?



So I ask this of God, Will this year be any different than the last?



And you know what He says back to my thirsty, hopeful, regret laden soul?



{Trust and obey}



It takes me awhile to learn some things. Things like not wasting your time regretting the past. Like releasing the mistakes of last year so that you can embrace a new one yet unwritten. Trust and obey. Trust God with my present, trust Him with this year I can't see as clearly as posts from last January. Obey His word when it invades my thought processes on a Monday morning. Obey His still, quiet voice deep inside when it tells me do this or don't do that. Obey His word that His been written on my heart for half a lifetime.


This year will be different.... if I trust and obey.