What Might You Do With a Paint Can and a Roller Brush?

Something random popped up this past week that had me recalling the years I spent as Dean of Women at Arizona Christian University. 

It shocks me to think I've been away from that position for as long as I held the job! 

(Am I really ten years older? Mirror check: YEP!)

I dearly loved my team, the students, and what I saw as ministry (foremost). 

As the women's dean, I spent a lot of my time with the girls in what I lovingly called "intense discipleship."

I wore many hats: 

Discipline / Accountability 😉

Leadership Training 

Hospital Runs

Chapel Speaking

Dress-code Monitoring 😳

Devotional Writing (in fact, this blog was birthed out of that aspect of my job); and, 

Pancake Flipping (generally at midnight).

However, the majority of my day was spent mentoring young women, which often felt like counseling (a rose by any other name...).

Funny, how this week, at the beginning of a new year, two of my gals reached out to me through social media to ask some questions that might help them with a "re-set."

I'm honored they thought of me...yet....

While I hold a master's degree in counseling, I still don't feel qualified, nor have I ever felt effective in that particular role.

I have other counselor-friends who are GREAT at this job. 

I'm not one, however, who seems to be able to guide others through the past messes in their lives and direct them in the present.

If that's what the girls needed, I generally sent them to someone else. 

The counseling / discipleship / mentoring I excelled in had little to do with looking backward, and had everything to do with looking forward. 

I wasn't the one who could help unravel the tangled up past, but I could point my girls to a pristine, clean-slate, fresh, untarnished, bright future. 

What a great way to use what they'd learned and allow God to redeem their past experiences, by starting anew with anticipation.

I recognized, pretty quickly, my "brand" of guidance looked much more like offering hope; and...

 HOPE CHANGES EVERYTHING!

Since, here we sit, still on the cusp of a brand new beginning, it seems like a perfect time to address this very thing; because that's what a New Year offers.

HOPE! 

We still have 361 more days of blank pages just waiting for us, and a new chapter in the book of our lives to be written. 

(Personally, I want to sit spellbound with the expectation that stirs in my heart!)

You and I, we get to determine how our tomorrows will play out - one step at a time, one decision at a time, one minute at a time...

Are we going to let the past define the future?

Is the current issue that seems to overwhelm holding us captive? 

Will we let the "taskmasters" in our heads continue to dictate what tomorrow will look like? One more depressing day after another...

We've been given a choice:

We can let our lives shrink to the size of our past and current problems, or we can look ahead to the HUGE, amazing journey God has set before us and live it to the fullest. 

It's no wonder that the Apostle Paul called his troubles "light and momentary;" he always set his face looking forward to his tomorrows, and the vast expanse of it all called him to make every moment count.

In comparison to all that the Lord has for us down the road, I totally understand those words "light and momentary" (even if they don't feel like it at the time).

This is why Jeremiah 29:11-12 is still a favorite passage:

God has a plan for us.

His plans are for our good. In fact, His GOOD SPIRIT leads us (Ps 143:10).

If we seek Him, wholeheartedly, through prayer on our life's journey, He promises us His presence; and...

In His presence is fulness of joy (Psalm 16:11b) in spite of the storms about us, and (one more thing)...

Ahead of us is NOTHING BUT HOPE.

In this regard, I take note the following verse that refers to the Saints of old, they all "looked forward with anticipation (Hebrews 11:9)..."

They didn't settle in the Land-That-Was; but, they focused on the Land-Beyond, where everything holds a completely different appeal.  Oh, that I / we would do the same...

I love this quote I read recently - it fits well with what I'd love for us to grasp in 2024:

"It's easy to let the hurts and slights of yesterday, like an unruly child coloring on the walls, mar all our days. What would happen if, instead, we let our future loose with a roller and a paint can?"

-Mark Buchanan-

So, go grab some paint (& pick a fun color)...

...then, let that roller loose as you live in the hope of your bright, unblemished tomorrow!

As I close, these words are a perfect commentary on the tomorrows ahead, and why it's so good to focus forward:

Our God has more to give us. He has more promises to keep. He has more of Himself to show us. He has more invitations for us to enjoy. He has more...  Anticipating more...

-Becky Dietz- 

He is the God of so much more!