My word for 2015 is content.

I struggle with contentment,

though I shouldn’t.

I have everything I need.

except I need a better car, a new blender, new sliding glass doors for the bedroom…

More than enough.

yes, I sure don’t need more junk; we don’t have room for what we have.

My cup runneth over.

yet still I yearn.

Not only for things

but for emotional peace

Not only for me

but for the people I love

Not only for this life —

I yearn for God.

In order to stop all this yearning, I’m keeping track of my blessings again this year. He has given me. So much.

2,015 blessings for 2015 = 167.9 blessings per month = 5.5 blessings per day = the practice of contentment for what I have been given.

January

1. A beautiful sunrise on the first day of 2015.
2. The ability to look at the sunrise from my bed, thank God for its beauty, and close my eyes again.
3. The one day of the year when we can lounge in bed with coffee and biscotti and not feel guilty.
4. First fire in the stove in the mudroom.
5. A delicious dinner of pork Bo-ssam lettuce wraps.
6. Starting and ending the first day of the new year in prayer.
7. Easy cookies to make from a jar — a Christmas present from my sister.
8. Time to work on my blog.
9. Time to get needed work accomplished.
10. Leftovers so I don’t have to cook.
11. Making arrangements to volunteer at a new place in a new year.
12. A thank you card from our sponsored child in Rancho Los Amigos. He’s handsome and growing up.
13. The money to spend on a sponsored child.
14. A warmish day, with dots of blue sky and No Snow!
15. A beautiful aura around a large, bright moon.

This is the beginning of my blessings project for 2015.  I’m only publicizing it  for encouragement. Your encouragement. I’ve been blessed (?) with a personality that is more pessimistic than optimistic, tending toward depression rather than enthusiasm — especially in the winter. This is my way of change — to express joy and contentment for the little everyday blessings.

I do want to encourage you to do your own “resolutions” or changes for God’s glory, not your own. Are you trying to lose weight? Do it for his glory, not yours. Are you trying to organize your life? Do it for his glory, not yours. Are you trying to work on your marriage? Improve your prayer life? Exercise more? Do it all for his glory, not yours, and …

…before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.” –Philippians 4:6-7 The Message.