Well, HELLO February! Now, that the clock has officially turned from January, I thought this was a great opportunity to share a little about preservation. Many of us jumped right into the new year excited about a fresh start and refocusing and if you missed my previous blog on refocusing, you can read that here. In late November, early December I started reading the book ‘Dream It, Pin It, Live It’ by Terri Savelle Foy. It was a book selected by the leader of a Facebook group I’m currently part of. It was an AWESOME selection and I was determined to finish the book by January 31st …MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

We all know about doing vision boards and going to vision board making parties and you may remember me sharing that I actually created a vision book. My first vision book was created for 2016 and so I decided that I would continue with it and do one for 2017 as well. I started working on my 2017 goals around October/November of 2016 and had them pretty much completed by mid-December. One of the tasks listed in Terry Savelle Foy’s book was to create 101 wants. I have to admit, that was initially VERY hard for me to do, as I tend to think of others first. However, this time I had an opportunity to be selfish and think of 101 things I want to achieve.

There were so many things I enjoyed about this book, but I must admit really sitting and telling God, “well, I always wanted to do this you know” was so relieving. I felt like I gave myself permission to live the scripture I’ve read a lot, “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart”, Psalm 37:4, NIV. Some of my 101 wants were desires I had tucked away for no good reason. For example, I always desired to make a custom leather handbag just for myself, but often thought “that’s to hard”. Or, “I want to go horseback riding for the heck of it”, but would think, “really, when would you find time for that”.

God has given us so much, his son Jesus died on the cross for us, “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners”, Romans 5:8, NLT. I have gifts and talentsgiven to me because of his mercy and YET, I would sit back and let some of the deepest desires of my heart just fade into the sunset. So, as we are embarking on the second month of this 2017, let’s preserve our branches: our gifts, talents, dreams, passions. How do we do this? By cultivating a deeper relationship with God, studying his word more closely. I myself have purposely started journaling right before I go to bed, I already journal throughout the day, but I feel like my journaling before bed in conjunction with prayer is a personal extended letter to God. You see, I also look over my goals for 2017 (that have been broken down by quarter) during this time and read them aloud and pray and ask God questions and pray for an open heart, mind and spirit to hear his response.

We have so much to be thankful for, and the more I realize this, I realize there is more that God has for me to do. So my prayer for you is that you allow God to prune the branches in your life that bear fruit and cut off every branch that doesn’t so that you can live out the plans God has for you and allow him to fulfill the desires of your heart.

Blessings To You!

“He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more” John 15:2, NLT