Windchill!

So I was going to go for a walk this morning, but then I found out that with windchill it's about -39 outside, so I decided that going shopping with my mom would be a great alternative - walking indoors! Yeah, I remember last year when I was in Master's Commission, and I had to go on the bus for about 2 hours a day, and then I would have to transfer at Polo Park - so instead of freezing in the bus shelters, I would walk in the mall till my bus came. Oh yes, and I would talk to people, like grandma and grandpa people who would go to the mall everyday just to walk and get their exercise...and maybe do some window shopping!

But anyway, I actually wrote out my New Year's Resolutions yesterday, and I'm actually pretty pumped about keeping them. So my first one was to pray, I've finally been really realizing that hey, nothing really gets done without prayer...you can't have revival without prayer, can't become a Christian without prayer, you find God's direction, will and purpose for life through prayer...so many things, people are healed through prayer, raised from the dead, encouraged, lifted up, relationship is totally built through prayer, it draws people so much closer together when we actually open up and are real enough with each other to let others pray for us, and to pray for others ourselves. Prayer is really neat, because through it the Holy Spirit can speak through us into other people's lives, even if I might now know why in the world I'm praying this for that specific person, God knows, and He can use my words, your words to speak into other's lives and encourage them.

So anyway, that was number one, and that was the most important one on my list for this year, others are eating more healthily (is that a word?!) because I realized that if I don't start making changes in my life, like living a life of prayer, changing my eating habits, and exercising everyday, that kind of thing, when will I ever change them? When I was younger, I would just live my life and I'd be thinking, yeah when I'm older and graduated, then I'll be a missionary, then I'll read my Bible more, then I'll pray more - but hey, no! It has to start right now, living by the Spirit, like it talks about in Galatians 5:16-26, Right now I need to start everyday living my life only and all for God, like yesterday I was reading in Matthew 10, where Jesus is teaching His disciples and telling them that they will be persecuted, but that His strength is sufficient, so much good stuff in that chapter, but reading the Bible, actually reading it and allowing it to change my life and challenge me, wow that is powerful stuff. I would love to just walk around my house and read it out loud, then things become more real to me because then I can actually hear it. I wonder what would happen if someone just read scripture during the service at church one Sunday, in different translations...that always strikes me because so often I read stuff and forget what I read. But yeah, onto shopping, my mom and I are about to go grocery shopping, my new favorite hobby!

So have a super day and remember Matthew 10:29-31, "Not even a sparrow, worth only half a penny, can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are more valuable to him than a whole flock of sparrows."