One year ago today was my first entry to Journeytothehills.com. This is the 53rd post, one post a week, with a little more than 9,000 views, over 5,000 visitors in over 46 countries. That is a MIGHTY and BIG GOD reaching His people He passionately LOVES!  I stand in AWE! I had no idea that a year ago saying YES to God would lead to this. What a journey it has been.

As I reflect back over the past 365 days, what I love the most out of each of the entries that have been written is the legacy that it is leaving behind AND the difference it is making for His Kingdom in the HERE and NOW. When we say the Lord’s prayer we say, Your Kingdom Come thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. I think it’s fascinating that the Creator of the World allows us to play a small part of bringing His Kingdom to earth. This is LEGACY LIVING. I think too often we think that our legacy is what we leave behind but it is also about the here and now. I have enjoyed pointing to the Savior of the World who came to redeem His children and bring them into eternal life. I want to reach others for Christ! That’s my purpose in this life. If I can reach just one new soul with the message that Jesus LOVES them, forgives them and has a beautiful future for them then this is worth it.

I will continue to be vulnerable and share some of my biggest hurts and hang ups as well as some of my biggest victories in 2016 as long as God continues to lead. My time with Him is the most precious of each of my days. If you don’t have a time set aside for just you and Him let me encourage you to find it and let that be your goal for 2016. Make it a sacred space and place where you go and meet Him each new day that He gives. I promise you it will be more fulfilling than any gym membership or diet plan that is out there. These words of Jesus blow me away:

“I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will NEVER drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose NONE of all that he has given me, but RAISE them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that EVERYONE who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6: 35-40

This is my favorite picture from 2015…PURE JOY! Jesus FULFILLS me! He listens to me, comforts me, forgives me, speaks to me and adores me like no one on this earth. I am completely SOLD out in serving Him. It’s really weird to most to put your biggest secrets and hurts out for all the world to see.  It’s straight up WEIRD. I get it. It’s totally worth it if one more sister or brother joins me in Heaven on that day that He comes to take us home. This year is going to FLY by…we will blink and it will be over just like 2015. Our time on this earth is so short in comparison to our eternal home that awaits us. How are you investing in your FOREVER home? Are you storing up treasures there or keeping them here where rust and moths destroy? What will you do TODAY to invest in your FOREVER?  How will 2016 bring you closer to our Lord who created us in His image? I don’t know about you, but I am certainly going to try to grow closer to Him. I am going to try to leave a legacy that not only honors my family and teaches my great great grandchildren that their Great Great Grandmother LOVED GOD with all of her heart, soul, mind and strength but also brought so much GLORY to His Holy name.  That is my goal for today, tomorrow, and into my FOREVER!

My family gave me the sweetest Christmas gift ever! A new tire cover to put on the back of my red wrangler jeep. They believe in me, they believe in helping me share the good news with others. On Christmas Eve at our Christmas Eve service we passed out candles like most churches do. At the end of the service our Pastor called up three of the children to help light the candles, our Catherine was one of them.  Then he announced that we were going to break tradition this year. Instead of singing “Silent Night” we sang, “Go Tell It On the Mountain.” He said the church has been silent too long! So as we passed each candle and lit up the church we sang loudly and proudly that Jesus Christ is BORN and we WILL GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN over the HILLS and EVERYWHERE!!!  I look forward to telling many more stories that point to our Savior!  I hope they richly bless you in your own journey through 2016, but more importantly I pray you find your own intimacy with HIM. There really is nothing better.

Happy New Year!!!

I saw this video just yesterday and it went right along with the message He placed on my heart.  I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.  Let’s start investing into our FOREVER and do some LEGACY LIVING!!!  #GLORYUP