Every year, it has been my habit to pick a theme, verse, or word for my New Year’s motivation. I have done this for many years, long before it became a “thing” on blog’s or on Pinterest, but since it was my normal habit, I have incorporated it into my yearly blog posts. In the past, I have had themes such as “Study to be Quiet,” “Walk Worthy” and “Follow the Dream”.
This year, a lot had been going on in the final quarter of 2019, so I hadn’t given my 2020 theme idea much thought. It was a very clear response that came to me in the last couple days of last year, when I asked myself what should my 2020 theme be? (I do this prayerfully every year, asking God to lead me in a motivational theme for the upcoming new year!) The answer came to me immediately… Vision.
2020 Vision. That worked for me. It clicked! I knew it was a direct answer from God to my heart, and so that is what I am going with.
I don’t know if it’s an “original” thought, or if many people have put the idea together. I haven’t seen it anywhere, but to be honest, I haven’t looked either. It is original to me, as I know the thought came to me purely given as an answer to prayer, and it is a theme that my inner soul responds to for my personal faith walk.
For my family, 2019 was a year of changes. We’ve had a number of deaths in our family, especially in the last couple of months. My husband’s father just passed away this last week, and a month ago his step-father passed away. I’ve also lost a sweet friend a couple of months ago, and our family dog just before Christmas. Death, even when expected as all of these were, has a way of draining your soul.
There were also some positive changes that occurred in 2019 for our family. The most prominent one was that I took on a full time job that has directly impacted every area of my life. This new full time job has challenging responsibilities for me, different than I have ever experienced. I am enjoying learning new things and seeing what God is doing in my life in a new way, but it also takes up much of my time and energy, leaving me drained at the end of the day, and still working to find the balance in the different areas of my life. I also still have a part time job that I have been employed at for nearly 20 years, and with the regular responsibilities of family & home, the area that has suffered the most in my time schedule has been my blog, Shadowing Enoch.
(Since becoming a mother, 31 years ago, I have always had flexible jobs that allowed me to be a stay-at-home mom to my children. I did home day care for many years, and then became a church custodian as well as taking on other custodian / cleaning jobs that came my way over time. The original church I started cleaning nearly 20 years ago is the part time job I still keep. God has always allowed me to have this flexibility in my work schedule so I could live my dream of being a full time wife & stay at home mom.)
This time conundrum where Shadowing Enoch loses out is something that I want to change, and so one of the chief areas of my “2020 Vision” is where do I go from here on Shadowing Enoch. Truth be told, I really do love blogging, and want to be faithful at it, but I also know that it needs to be a flexible part of my life, not a rigid one. My 2020 Vision for Shadowing Enoch is to be faithful at blogging, not because I “have to” as the blogging community tells you for your site growth or stats or visibility, but because I truly want to share the good news about my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! I love the idea that faith blogging is my way of telling the world that I am a Christian and Jesus is my dearest friend! I am by nature a very shy, introverted person, extremely fearful of public speaking, but in blogging, I can shout my faith from the mountaintops, and share the Gospel with people across the world. It is in God’s hands who “hears” and that is just the way I like it! I pray that the person who needs to read my blog will read my blog, and even if only a handful are blessed each month, well, I am absolutely thrilled and extremely humbled by that. God’s word won’t return void, and that is my earnest Vision and prayer for my blog in 2020 and always.
I also have a growing vision for some other types of content I want to add to my blog. I am, sadly, extremely prone to procrastination, but the “vision” has been tugging at me for quite a while, so I do believe it is a prompting of the Holy Spirit, and I want to move forward in that direction this year.
Another personal 2020 vision I have is to become deeper in my prayer life. Maybe this is a vision you have for yourself too. I have always believed that prayer is the most important ministry we can have as Christians. It is largely underrated as a ministry, and yet nothing else that is done before God has as huge a potential impact as the ministry of prayer.
We have had a number of hard family situations going on in our lives this past year, and I know that the only “power” my husband and I have over these situations is in the power of prayer. God’s power that we tap into by praying for these loved ones. I have witnessed the power of prayer many times over in my life. It is not that we pray “powerful” prayers, but that we pray to an All-Powerful God, who wants to intervene and answer us with good gifts in sync with His will. Not talking about materialistic things here, although those needs are also answered by a loving Father, but really talking about the things with eternal value especially. A loved one giving their life to Christ, or surrendering to His Lordship over their life. These are my most important prayer subjects that I want to give more sincere and committed prayer time to in 2020.
Seeing changed lives by the Grace of our Loving God; that is what I have a Vision for in 2020. For my Jerusalem (my core ministry of family) to the outermost parts of the Earth… I want to be a prayer warrior in 2020! That is my ongoing Vision in my faith walk journey.
I have other 2020 Vision’s that are on the personal side, and perhaps you do too. My husband and I are preparing for our pending retirement years, (still a few years away!). Raising a family of 5 children, we never had the resources to set aside any money for retirement, or make any concrete plans, but now that we are full blown empty nesters, we are trying to set some financial and retirement goals for ourselves. nothing earth shattering, but for us… just practical plans. The biggest Vision I have concerning this is to be 100% out of debt by the time my husbands retirement comes in about 6 years. Hopefully sooner. This is a practical financial vision, but it is still worth mentioning as one of my goals for this year.
Another 2020 Vision I have personally is just to keep on learning, growing, and experiencing new things. Reading, crafting, exploring new places, learning new things… all of these and more are part of my vision for 2020 and beyond. I don’t ever want to stop learning new things. Seeing new places (we just love going to “little” places in our surrounding area, and discovering the local history and nuances of each place we go to. It doesn’t have to be the trip of a lifetime for us; just that every trip becomes a new learning experience in a small or big way. I also love reading, learning new crafts, and trying out new hobbies, and so does my husband. Just simply growing in our personal experiences and never stopping learning new things. This is an ongoing Vision I have.
There is probably more to my 2020 Vision idea that I haven’t even thought through yet. Its a year long theme, so I can add to it as I go! Your Vision for 2020 will be different than mine, or mostly so, but I think it is important to prayerfully envision our goals for the year ahead and beyond. “Where there is no vision, the people perish,” the Bible says. (Proverbs 29:18) So, having a Vision for your year (and beyond!) is Biblical, especially when God is the One giving you those dreams, visions, goals and plans!
Basically, I have a Vision for 2020 and beyond that I want to GROW! In every area of my life, I want to keep on keeping on! One of my all time favorite verses is 2 Peter 3:18 “but grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Another good verse is the one that tells us that “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.” (Luke 2:52) I want to continue to grow in that way also. (Maybe not the stature part anymore!) but definitely in wisdom, and in favor with God and man. These are all a part of my 2020 Vision for my life.
I hope this theme has given you thoughts to ponder. You may want to take all or part of it on for your years life goals. Be my guest! Make your own, or share some of mine, but have a God-given vision for what you want to accomplish in the year ahead.
The greatest Vision you could ever have is to have a personal relationship with Jesus. It is a vision that begins the moment you accept Him as your savior, and never ends throughout all eternity. And remember, God’s vision for you is far greater than any you could ever have for yourself. He loves you more than you could ever know, and wants what is absolutely best for you. The Savior who died on the cross for your sins wants to forgive you for all of them, but you need to ask and accept His forgiveness. Only through Jesus can you have a right relationship with the Father, and it is His vision that you have this, because He envisions a loving relationship with you for all eternity. But its up to you. Do you accept this free gift or not? The choice is up to you. If you have never asked Christ to forgive you and be your Savior, you can do that today. Here is a prayer that you can pray, or one like it.
Dear God,
I know that I am a sinner. I have sinned by being disobedient to you. I am not able to make that right on my own, but I know that your son Jesus died on the Cross and took the punishment that I deserve. He won the victory over sin and death when He rose again on the third day, defeating death and defeating the power of sin. Please forgive me for all of my sins, and for being a sinner. I trust Jesus as my Savior and accept His atonement for my sins. Thank you for forgiving me and thank you for saving me!
If you sincerely prayed that prayer, would you let me know so I can pray for you? You can contact me through my contact page on the blog, or on the Shadowing Enoch Facebook page. That is truly the greatest decision you can make, and it is one that benefits you for all eternity. That is my greatest Vision for anyone who reads this, that you belong to Jesus as I do.
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