I have always loved the New Year.  It's always been fun for me to get a new calendar (I'm an organiztional nut who loves organizing materials but isn't always very organized, can anyone relate?) and go through my old calendar to put in birthdays, anniversaries and remember all that I had done the previous year.  I also like the feeling of reflecting on the past year but starting fresh and making goals.

This year is no exception.  In reflecting on last year, I can see some very dark times but can also see God's sovereign plan and how He has used it to change me and mold me (Romans 8:28-28) in ways I really wouldn't have otherwise.  I am really learning to take the focus off myself and what I had wanted or planned for my life and truly placing my life into the Lord's hands.  I am so far from doing this perfectly but I have seen enough "glimpses" now at God in action that I trust that He knows far more about what is best for me and my family than I do. 

As far as New Year's resolutions go, I am committing to memorizing scripture and surrounding my family with God's Word in everything that I possibly can.  I have never been one for really focusing on this discipline in my Christian life.  I'd tell myself that I didn't have time or I wasn't good at memorizing or why memorize what I can just read.  But I have had enough instances in the recent past where I made a different choice or decision because God's Word was in my heart to instruct me and guide me that I really see it's value in a way I hadn't before.  This became even more powerful to me when I recently had the opportunity to counsel a friend in distress.  It was awesome to be able to quote God's promises to her and to pray for her using God's Word.  What a feeling of freedom that I didn't need to come up with something profound to comfort her on my own! 

I also just finished a wonderful book called Teach them Diligently: How to use the scriptures in child training by Lou Priolo.  He quoted a familiar scripture of Deut 6:6-9:  And these words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.  And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."  I had heard this verse so many times before but he pointed out that it says these words shall be on YOUR(MY) heart.  How can they be on my children's heart, how can I teach them to my children, if they are not on my heart first? 

One of the things that BW & I have learned, from seminary and from our own experiences, is a student usually will not grow or learn more than their teacher knows about a given topic.  BW noticed this as a public school math teacher.  Many public school elementary teachers he met hated math and never really understood it and often passed that on to their students.  (Have to admit I even see that trend in my homeschooling - thank God that there is a former math teacher in the family)  In the same way,  a church can only really learn and grow as much as the pastor has learned and grown.  Being at John MacArthur's church for the past year and a half, we met so many people who really have a seminary level knowledge of God's Word just from sitting under this man's(and many other well trained pastors) teaching over the years.  And likewise, my children(and any  "spiritual children" I/we may disciple in the future) will only be able to know as much about our Lord as I am able to impress on their heart from my own knowledge of God.  This has really convicted and motivated me to use this year to deepen my memorization and understanding of God's Word. 

My plan is to put my memory verses on 3X5 cards that I will refer to during my quiet time and then take along with me so that when if I am waiting somewhere I can flip through them.  I am also going to keep track of the verses that the kids have learned through Awana and our own family devotionals so that we can help them to continually refresh their own memories of God's Word. 

Now that I have one child who is able to actually read the Bible herself.  I am planning to help her learn how to start studying God's word by doing a weekly Bible study with her.  I will be using some of the ideas from Polished Cornerstones by Doorposts to go through Proverbs 31 and she can see how scriptures apply even to her own 7 year old life.  I also want to memorize scripture that can be used to correct my children so that they can see what the Bible says about their behavior and we can pray together for God to help them. 

My quiet time this year is going to be from The MacArthur Daily Bible  and I hope to be able to have come close to reading the Bible in 2007 though I will admit that I am going to be striving more for understanding than for quantity of reading so I may not.  This morning all of what I wrote above was confirmed once again when I read this psalm:

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.  But his delight is int he law of theLord, and in His law he meditates day and night.  He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper.   Ps 1:1-3 NKJV 

May God richly bless you in 2007!

-J