Tethered to Him in 2013

Happy New Year!  2012 is over??  Seems impossible!  Everyone, everywhere is having New Year discussions of change, blank pages, resolutions, diets, and reorganization.  A new beginning...so fresh and clean!  Last year, I chose to pick a "word for the year" instead of making resolutions.  I think the Lord was chuckling when I chose the word CONSISTENCY for 2012.   http://pressonponderings.blogspot.com/2012/01/happy-new-year-2012.html.  It turned out to be a roller coaster of a year due to ruptured discs and a little girl.

 

Like the rest of you, I have so many changes and ideas for 2013.  I tossed around the idea for another "word for the year." However, after reading January 1 of my new devotion book, (you will probably be hearing frequently from my 2013 devotional!) I have decided to have a mental image for the year.  An image that is tucked away in my mind to help me as I attempt to reach new goals and plans. 

 

The following is part of the prayer in my book for January 1st...

 

Lord, I'm looking forward to this New Year.  It is full of promise and hope...challenges that will surely come...I know you have all the courage, strength, faithfulness, and love I need to meet each moment from a perspective of peace.  I just need to stay TETHERED to you in prayer.  Listening for your spirit to guide me...That's the key to a good day, a good year - a good life.

 

That word TETHERED jumped off of the page and took me wwwaayyy back to elementary school.  Our school playground was the typical late 70's playground.  A basketball hoop, dangerous monkey bars, swings, a cold metal slide, and squares painted on the pavement for the game of 4-square.  However, the favorite playground activity consisted of a pole mounted in the concrete with a rope attached to the top, and a yellow ball attached at the other end of the rope.  The tether ball.  We would anxiously await our turn for a chance to hit the ball to see if we could wrap it around the pole.  That poor ball took such a beating at times, especially from the bigger boys.  However, no matter how many times it was hit, smashed, or punched.  It never came loose from the rope. 

 

I need to stay tethered to the Lord in prayer in 2013.  Life might send me a hit and send me sailing off into the air. As long as I am tethered to Him, then my thoughts, actions and reactions will continually take me back to where I need to be. One definition of tethered is to be fastened so that you will stay in the set radius.  Tethered to God in prayer will keep me in the radius that God has set for me.  There is no place I'd rather be in the year 2013!  All of my plans, goals, and inspirations will be filtered and accomplished thru the connection that I keep to Him! 

 

"He who has learned to pray has learned

the greatest secret of a holy and happy life." 

William Law