Over the last few months I have had a goal of living life with as little stress as possible and Trusting God in everything. It seems so easy when you say it, but then when you just finished cleaning your house and your wonderful sons track mud through the entire place and company is supposed to arrive in the next 15 minutes! That is when your stress level is really tested.

This past holiday season has been truly enjoyable, and by choosing to go with the flow, I have been afforded the ability to truly enjoy the moment we are in. For me the year of 2011 has been about gaining a greater understanding of the fact I cannot control anything, and God must do everything through me. It truly is a good place to be and I am blessed God would care enough to help me come to this resolve in every area of my life.

In accepting things as they are and understanding my inability to control everything I have also learned to accept the way God has created me. I do not have to compare myself to other “super” moms or the next door neighbor. I do not have to try to stroke my ego with comparisons or feel guilty that I am not “good” enough. I can rest assured that I am created in His image and He has given me everything I need to go through life in a peaceful and successful way. Ultimately for me it boils down to accepting and Trusting God is in control of my life as I have surrendered that control to Him.

In September of Last year we were able to be at Global Family Fellowship in Tampa Florida, where Pastor Nick Panico was sharing. The message was about thinking outside the box… And that if we want to be used by God sometimes we must think differently. He gave a riddle that went like this “There are three people at a bus stop and its pouring of rain: An old frail lady, your best-friend, and the girl/boy of your dreams, but you only have a 2 seater car. Who would you pick up?” Many people called out various options, including throwing a person in the trunk. I am sure the passenger would love that :) The final answer to the riddle was to give the keys to your best friend and let him take the older woman home and jump out of the car and go grab a coffee with the boy/girl of your dreams.

I have to admit upon hearing the message that Sunday I thought very little of it. I have heard similar messages before “think outside of the box”, the funny thing is that I was not thinking outside the box or re thinking things at all and simply dismissing the message, thinking I already do that. However the words have echoed in my mind for months now, and I realized it is far more than just “thinking”. God has shown me that I must shift my perspective as to how I think things should play out. So often God ministers something to our hearts, but then we immediately create an idea of how we think His prompting will play out, and we often close our minds to other options. For example with Six+ONE I felt we should register as a non-profit, raise funds via newsletters, have a board with xyz members… The reason I thought this is because this is the example I have seen done. God spoke to Sun and my heart to begin the Six+ONE ministry, but after the fact I feel I neglected to pursue His guidance on how we would go towards that goal and just made assumptions that I have been taught from YWAM and other various ministries in the US… Then slowly things did not work out, the board was not coming together, the finances for pursing the non-profit was not coming in… I began to question God, what are you doing??? But the Holy Spirit just kept telling me to Trust Him, so I left it alone and chose to trust God knows best.

In the last few months God has begun to make Himself more clear. Now with hind’s sight I can see so blatantly things that were not working out the way I thought they should, would have been huge mistakes. So for me the changing our perspective on how problems are solved and not having expectations, but trusting the Lord in all things has been key for a more peaceful life. Because of our culture influences, our education, and expectations of others in our life it becomes easy to have an “idea” of how things should play out and we often lack the ability to think another way and allow God to move freely as He chooses in our lives. Pastor Nicks message echos in my mind daily now as I am learning to Trust the Holy Spirit in ALL things and not lean on my understanding. The scripture has so much more meaning for me now; “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; Proverbs 3:4-6“.

So for 2012 I pray that we can all allow God to change our perspectives, how we view things and rely not on our understanding.

Blessings,

Kristina