Preparation For The Work

"Childhood scenes rushed back at me out of the night, strangely close and urgent. Today I know that such memories are the key not to the past, but to the future. I know that the experiences of our lives, when we let God use them, become the mysterious and perfect preparation for the work He will give us to do.
I didn't know it then-nor, indeed, that there was any new future to prepare for in a life as humdrum and predictable as mine. I only knew as I lay in my bed at the top of the house that certain moments from long ago stood out in focus against the blur of years. Oddly sharp and near they were, as though they were not yet finished, as though they had something more to say............."
~ Corrie ten Boom

We read from The Hiding Place aloud tonight...this ending to the first chapter hit me hard.

All the scenes of the past, all the heartache, all the joy, the tests, and the triumphs, the letdowns......all the memories.....if I can only surrender them to Him, they are the perfect, the only thing that can prepare me for the future He has planned.

Only God knows what 2014 will bring, but my prayer is that, by His grace, I will have learned from the memories, and can meet whatever comes with more love, more faith, more willingness to forgive, less fear, less self-protection, and more joy than I did in 2013.

Here's to a reckless 2014!!! For the Kingdom!