Lessons for the New Year

I have to say I am glad to see 2011 go.  It's been a rough year.  I'm reading Priscilla Shirer's book Life Interrupted.  She calls interruptions anything that happens in your life that makes you change your path.  I've definitely had some interruptions this year.  She says in the first chapter that if she knew then, what she knows now, maybe, just maybe she would've had a better attitude during the interruption.  She says it best: "Maybe then I would've recognized God's unforeseen hand in all of it and would've met the frustration or disappointment with a wink and a smirk, knowing He was behind it all, that this interruption was merely His way of laying a foundation for better things. Maybe then I wouldn't have tried so hard to control it or hurry through it but would've yielded to it and embraced what the Lord allowed."  I've prayed and prayed for God to move us out of this interruption.  But I've realized that if I keep praying to  move on to the next season of life, I might miss what God wants to do in this current season of life.  I don't want to hurry through what God is doing in my life.  Priscilla says, "Interruptions are often his way of doing something better."  


I've also learned this year that I don't want to be defined by the interruption.  I don't want my heartbreak and the miscarriages define and lead my steps everyday.  God is still right beside me.  He is in the interruption.  I want to continue to walk with Him.  To quote Priscilla one more time, this is my prayer for this New Year: 

"I want my life to radiate what happens when God has a person's heart at His full control, when every event or circumstance is simply another avenue to know Him better and show forth his glory."