2018 Here We Come!

Isaiah 43:18-19 Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

Happy New Year!!!
Thank you thank you to all of you awesome people for bearing with me as I went MIA for such long stretches! :D What an amazing year 2017 has been. Looking in the archives on this post, where I looked back on 2016, and this one, where I set new goals for 2017, it is such a blessing to see all the ways God has worked. 

I want to quickly go through my goals from this past year, since a lot of you helped keep me accountable for them! ;) 

1. Learn Something New
Well, I definitely accomplished this one! I switched jobs, from the library (which I'd done for three years and knew well), to a Sew and Vac store, which is extremely different from anything I've ever done before. Every day I am finding new things I'm still ignorant about at work! ;P Also, I picked up watercolor painting as a hobby. I'm still at a super beginner level, but I love doing it! New mediums for hand lettering are always nice. ;)

2. Read through God's Word at least twice.
I sort of did this...I went through the whole Bible in 90 days, and I went through the New Testament at least 3 times, and the Psalms many times. So while I didn't get the whole Bible done twice, I definitely kept busy on it, which is always worthwhile. :)

3. Save money when I can.
I did ok with this one, but the missions trip made a large dent in my savings. ;) Which was absolutely 100% worth every cent, so I have no regrets. 

4. Maintain my weight.  
This stayed pretty consistent through the year, and I kept very active, so yay! :)

5. Pick up a new instrument. 
I didn't get around to this one, sadly. :( I couldn't find the right instrument for the right price. I still want to do this soon!

6. Build up my hope chest as I'm able.
This did not happen at all. :/

7. Pray much more. 
While I have SO far to go in this area, I definitely did grow in prayer this last year, with The Lord's help.

8. Write out my songs. 
This didn't happen either!! :'( Ugh...

9. Witness verbally more.
This went up and down...I did better sometimes, and other times I failed completely. Still working on it!

10. Start each day out with gratitude.
I didn't keep the gratitude jars going, but I kept on doing my daily journal of my favorite part of the day. :) God is so good!


This year I was able to fly across the globe to Fiji and Samoa, meeting so many precious friends through the miles. I also grew older relationships...Abby Geist and I spent the entire three weeks of the trip in each other's company 24/7--and didn't hate each other afterwards. ;D My awesome friend Kimberly left to live in Taiwan for 6 months, meaning that our communication was slowed considerably. :( That turned out with one happy consequence...Janan, a dear friend of Kimberly's that I hadn't gotten very close to yet, was able to talk with me a lot more, since neither of us could chat with K as much as normal! ;P As a result, our friendship grew greatly, and I am so very blessed by her. :) I was able to go to Jenny's graduation, which was awesome, as well as spend a day with her family at a lovely cabin in the woods, just before Christmas! I am deeply grateful to God for all of my sweet friends, too numerous to mention here, who love me for my weird crazy self, and don't judge me TOO harshly. ;D

Like I said above, I swapped jobs, which was a bit of a scary decision. I don't sew, and all I know about vacuums is that they suck. (Sorry, bad pun there. ;) However, I have some awesome coworkers who are so gracious to put up with me and teach me all the things I am confused on. Which is a lot. I'm enjoying learning a new line of work, though. :)

One exciting thing that has happened this year is that we have set up a plan for teaching a Bible institute in Jamaica! My dad is heading down there today, actually, and every other month someone from Bible Baptist will be heading down for a week to teach another seminar. We are thrilled that God has opened this opportunity! Jamaica is steeped in doctrinal confusion, and the churches there are in desperate need of good Biblical training. Please pray for these efforts!

My goals for the upcoming year overlap a bit with last year's goals, so I won't expound too much on them, but simply list them out as I wrote them on a slip of paper in the early morning on New Year's Day. :)

• Read God's Word at least 3 times.
• Memorize 12 chapters of Scripture-one per month, perhaps?
• Be very careful about saving money.
• Pray for at least 30 minutes per day, growing that throughout the year. If I don't set specific goals on this, it tends to slip, sadly. :'(
• Write for at least 20 minutes a day.
• Learn a new skill (trying again with the instrument idea, but it might end up being a language or something. ;)
• Spend less time on my phone.
• Cook on a much more regular basis. I bake ALL the time, but I don't make "actual food" as much as I should. ;P

I am praying that God will grow me throughout this year, prepare me for whatever comes next in my life, and teach me to live to the fullest every day that He gifts me with. Praise The Lord that He gives second (and third and fourth and fiftieth) chances, because I am so flawed! I know I'm going to mess up and miss some of these goals, but God willing I will strive towards them! :) 

What are some of your goals for this year? Do you like setting goals at all? Let me know in the comments, and as always...THANK YOU for taking the time to read my humble little blog!! :) You all mean so much to me. God bless you!

Mykaela

My 2017 Goals

Lamentations 3:22-24 It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

I always love the feeling of a new year beginning. It is a fresh start, a time to reevaluate priorities, and to set new ones. It's a time to begin different "traditions", so to speak, or new daily habits and routines. 

I personally don't like using the term "New Year's Resolution" at all, however...simply because it brings up negative thoughts to me. ;) I think of that term, and it means a temporary commitment that people make, and fizzle out on by the time February 1st or so rolls around. 

For me, as I start this new year, I do have goals that I'd like to strive towards, but they are just that--goals. Targets. I know that I'm going to miss the targets sometimes, and that's ok. I'll start again in the morning. :) That's how The Lord works in His mercies to us...they are new every morning! And that's how I hope to be as well. On January 1st, I spent an hour or so alone in my room, just thinking and praying about what I would like to accomplish this year, both spiritually and generally. Since I now have an answer on the full time work I applied for, (I didn't get it), I still have a very flexible job. And I don't want to squander the opportunities that creates. God is so good to give clear direction on stuff like that! Without further ado, here are some of my "targets" for 2017. (Not in any particular order.)

• Learn something new. Be it a skill, like rock climbing, (something I really want to learn), or an area of knowledge I haven't previously studied out...I want to keep learning new things, even though I'm not in school anymore!
• Read through God's Word at least twice. After doing it in 30 days, 6 months is nothing! ;)
• Save money when I can. I do plan on having some bigger output this year as far as missions giving, travel expenses, etc., but I want to be careful of how often I get a piece of clothing I don't really need, or grab a breve at the coffee shop. ;)
• Maintain my weight. While it's been a bit difficult lately due to the holidays, and some health issues I've had, I do want to continue to be mindful about this. By the middle of this past year, I was able to reach my goal weight, and while I have gained some since then, I really would love to stay close to that point by thinking about what I eat and staying active. (Both great things to do anyway, weight management or not! ;)
• Pick up a new instrument. I haven't learned a new instrument for several years now. I miss it. :) I want to watch Craigslist and see what treasure I can get. Nothing fancy, I'd just like to learn something new in the way of music! (See first point.)
• Build up my hope chest as I am able.
•  Pray. A lot. As in, about 10 times the amount I'm doing now. I need to make it a constant, daily habit!
• Work on holding my tongue. I just need to shut up for more of the time! ;P
• Write out my songs. I have a hard time staying motivated and on top of this...it's one thing I really tend to procrastinate on. However, I do need to get at least lead sheets done. 
• Witness verbally more. I have already started working on this in the past couple of weeks!
• Start each day with gratitude. I'm writing out a little paper each morning with just one thing I am thanking God for. I'm putting them in a jar, so I can look back on them whenever I want to. :) Today's was "cozy clothes". Not life changing, but when there are 11 inches of snow outside, I am thankful for soft sweaters and fuzzy socks!!

A couple things I would like to do this year, but they are not goals, more like dreams....

• See a new country. Possible, since I may be going on a survey trip to the Pacific Islands with some church members...
• Go to a concert of Dan Forrest's music. Jubilate Deo in particular!!! 
• See some of my faraway friends and family. Grandma McDowell, Kimberly, cousins... :)
• Record an album. Certain people keep breathing down my neck about this. :/ ;P

There you have it! I know some of them are kind of ambitious, some would maybe say unattainable. But hey! Again, I'm just working on them! I don't expect to achieve every single thing on the list, I just want to reach for each one of them in some way this year. :) 

Today I went sledding and probably messed myself up internally (I literally got like 2 feet of air. On a disc sled. On a hill packed into a sheet of ice. That impact can't be good for my spine. :'D). But what does that matter when you're having a great time with your family, right?? ;) How is your winter going? Do you make goals at New Year's? I'd love to hear from you in the comments! :) Have a wonderful week,

Mykaela

Sunday Snippets: A Farewell to 2016!

Psalm 65:11 Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness.

Psalm 68:19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah.

Here we are, by the grace of God, at the close of another year. And what a year it has been! As the verse says, God crowns each year with His goodness. Today I'll be doing a recap of my year, both with this blog, and personally. I hope this year was a blessed and growth-rich time for each of you as well!

First off, I have some sad news and glad news. The sad news is that this will be my last "Sunday Snippet", as such. Don't worry, though! Lord willing I am going to be doing posts a couple times a week still, with at least one of them being basically what Sunday Snippets has been--a post based on a thought or idea from a passage of Scripture, and how it has encouraged me. :) I am not sure exactly what kind of posts I will be replacing them with, or if I will do a specific weekly post? I'm still working out blog plans for the New Year, based on the feedback I got from my recent survey. (Thank you so much to all who completed that! :)

This year's most popular posts were kind of a surprise to me as far as their order. I had several wonderful guest posts this year, that were towards the top in popularity! If you see one you missed before, you can check them out by clicking the titles:

5. Facing Crossroads

I think this topic is pretty near and dear to people's hearts. Everyone has had to make a tough decision before!

4. Through The Word in 30 Days

My journey through the Bible in a month.

3. In The Right Place at the Right Time

A wonderful guest post by Elizabeth.

2. Boredom is Illegal!

Another wonderful guest post by Kimberly.

And the number one post for 2016 was....

A Faithful Servant!

Like I said, that one really surprised me that it was number one, because it was a very short post about a good quote I found on Pinterest. Nothing huge. But you guys liked it. ;) I'm thinking about doing more of this type of post this next year.

January 1, 2017 is the one year anniversary of when Making Music for the Master was started. I was so clueless about blogging at that time; actually I kind of still am...but to those of you who still read my poorly formatted, not-too-well-written posts, and continued to encourage me in growing this blog, thank you so, so much. You are each such a blessing to me!

Besides starting the blog, in 2016 I have moved 2 hours south of where I used to live, thus not having to drive two hours to church every week. ;) How awesome is that?! Also, I love living in a bigger city...once I got used to driving in traffic. I transferred my job, so I now work at a huge four-story library instead of a one-level, quite small one. 

I took a trip to Oklahoma to see Kimberly, and had quite a number of firsts on that trip! ;) My first roller coaster. My first earthquake. My first time eating gravy over fries over a burger over Texas toast. My first time spending 30 minutes laughing at a set of magnets. (inside joke. I promise it was funny. ;) My first time ziplining. My first time going through a cave, 50 stories underground. It was a good trip. 

I turned 20...crazy stuff. My thoughts on that here.

I helped host a group of 20 from Alaska who came to help out with a mass outreach here. A highlight of my year, honestly: those few days were so, so special and fun! The day after they left, my dad, Mercy, and I went on a 10 day trip to Wyoming--another highlight. (It's been a good year with lots of highlights, what can I say?? ;P) Then we went to the missions conference at my home church. Always a blessing.

This holiday season I have applied for a full time job, spent a day in the hospital, got my wisdom teeth removed and laughed at my craziness afterwards, went to visit family in Oregon, and worked as a receptionist at the library headquarters. 

God has been so good this year! I think one of the biggest areas I have grown in is that of prayer. It has become more of a habit for me to pray throughout the day as I work on different tasks, etc. An area I want to grow in this next year is that of patience with my siblings. Some of them can be hard to get along with...who knew?! ;) 

My top favorites from this year?

Songs:

Mary Did You Know. Never a favorite before, but this arrangement...wow!

Jubilate Deo by Dan Forrest. Especially this movement.

Though You Slay Me. So pretty!!

Books:

Land of Silence by Tessa Afshar.

The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare.

In the Field of Grace by Tessa Afshar...can you tell she is one of my favorite authors? ;P

Movies:

(Not endorsing everything in every movie. Or book, either. Obviously.)

Finding Dory. I don't care that everyone hates on the Disney sequels. I loved this! And I loved Cars 2, and I loved Monsters U, and yeah, just get over it. ;)

War Room. While I don't love everything about this movie, it was a really good encouragement. 

Ben Hur. I'm only putting this on because of how pleasantly surprised I was by this movie. I always thought that the Charlton Heston classic had spoiled me for enjoying any other Ben Hur. And while this version completely slaughtered the original storyline, as a movie I did enjoy it! There was a surprising lack of garbage in it.

As we ring in the New Year, let's not forget to take time to reflect on the old one, ok? Take some time to plan for how this coming year can be one of spiritual growth, most of all. I love New Years, because it is a time of gratefulness for what is past, and hopefulness for what is to come. Isn't it good to know that God is in control of your life this year? :) I love you all, and thank you once again for an amazing year with this blog. I hope to continue making music with you for as long as The Lord allows!

365 new days. 365 new chances to serve The King!

Love,

Mykaela