Challenging Thought for Today: It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23

In January, I decided, along with probably millions of others in the world, to do some things better this year. One of those things was posting regularly on this blog. If you follow me, you already know that my last post was in July of last year. And that was a re-post. I also decided that my word for this year would be “shift”. The goal was to immediately shift from posting haphazardly and sporadically to posting at least once a week and writing everyday in order to finish two books that I have literally been working on for years. I won’t say how many.

One meaning of the word shift is to move, change, or transfer something from one place, position, or person to another.  Proverbs 31 Devotion writer, Abby McDonald’s post, Letting God Lead us this Year, was very instrumental in choosing this particular path for 2026. Namely, shifting my focus from being too self dependent on my own desired moves to only moving if and when God leads.  So, this year blog will revolving around shifting perspectives and attitudes.  

This concept actually began Christmas Day last year, without me even realizing it.  Due to unforeseen circumstances, my husband and I had Christmas Dinner in a town four hours away from our intended destination (that’s a story for another post).   Because, I digress.

Anyway, on Christmas Day, there were barely any cars in the hotel parking lot and of course, many restaurants were closed.  But, the shift that I thought of was more obvious the next day.  There were more cars at the hotel, traffic had immediately picked up, and so many people had shifted to their post and pre-holiday mindset of business as usual.  

How often do we treat our relationship with Jesus like that? So close to him as we enter into and pray through rough seasons of our lives only to return to business as usual once God moves us into a better or more affluent season. Knowing full well, that we will go back to that “closeness” as soon as we face the next life challenge.  Before this post becomes too long, I challenge you to keep that relationship strong throughout the year and don’t become discouraged when you fall behind and end up on a “late” shift because you have either procrastinated on getting started or you got started with a bang and just slacked off. Just start from where you are.

I have had two and a half months to submit timely posts. And, seventy four days to spend at least one hour per day writing and editing my books. But, alas, I still haven’t done that. I started at least three different post and completed no more than zero of those. Some are further along than others but none of them were completed or posted. Until today.

Yes, we are well into the third month of the year, but we also have nine months to go. The year is still in full swing. I can choose to feel bad about the pace I’m moving toward my yearly goals and just give up on them (again) or I can shift my perspective and focus on the fact that I still have nine full months to work on those goals. I choose to do the latter.

You can, too.

Be blessed,

Shelia