Happy New Year!

Well, here it is - 2015! We're almost half way through another decade. As I look back over the past year, there were some great highlights. However, there were also some moments I don't want to re-live either. 2014, though, is in the can. We can't go back and re-do anything, we have to let it go.

As I go forward, I'm not going to mess up my new year with regrets of the past or even doom myself to failure by making promises I can't keep. I've never been a proponent of "new years resolutions." They are promises you make to yourself that you are going to break. That will only lead to shame and guilt and those are poor motivators for self-improvement.

A lot of my mental energy last year went toward counseling and helping to write a discipleship book. As I looked back to see how many times I posted on this blog page, it was only five times. Now, I'm not going to sit here and beat myself up, however tempting that might be! Nor am I going to promise to you or to myself that this year will be better. Greg Brezina, the founder of Christian Families Today, tells us to submit our wills to the Holy Spirit in everything. That is my desire for 2015. I only want to do what He wants to do, nothing more, nothing less.

So, having laid that foundation, I want to change how I even write for this blog page. In the past, I would wait for some great profound spiritual/theological/inspirational thought before I would write. (5 post doesn't indicate I only had 5 profound thoughts in 2014!) This year I want to write what is on my mind, whether it is a spiritual thought, or how to season cast iron. Living Life is about living. Living is done daily and it is done at home, at work, at church, at the grocery store, at the bank, at the beach, at the mountains, wherever I am, wherever you are.

The enemy is always tempting us to believe we are bad because we did something wrong or we didn't do something right! And, we make the mistake many times thinking this is the work of the Holy Spirit! He (the enemy) is a tricky one. The Holy Spirit wants us to remember how holy, righteous, and perfect we are. This truth hangs up in the throat of many a Christian because it sounds too good to be true.

So, for 2015, I want you and me to enjoy our freedom in Christ. Let's not spend our time being an instrument of the enemy beating our own selves. Let's listen to what the Holy Spirit says about us and be safe in His opinion of us. If we do this, it will be a banner year.