This Year I will be a Warrior

by Tamika R | Faith Journaling, fear, Growing Closer to God, Spiritually Provoking, Trials, Trust

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Tamika R

I was born in Denver, Colorado. I moved to OKC after quitting my jobs as a teacher and YouthIntern to pursue the call into ministry. I started as a non traditional student at Oklahoma where I met my husband. He was a non traditional student working on a 2nd degree after moving from Poland to pursue a degree in Ministry. We dreamed together of serving the Lord in Europe. Now we are blessed to be witness to the awesome way that God works all over the world. We live in Vienna, Austria with our3 kids. We work with Eastern European Mission. We provide Bibles and ethics materials in native languages of Eastern Europe. That means we get to seeGod's hand and providence all over Europe. I am Publishing Assistant at EEM and a fitness trainer. I fill my days caring for my family, teaching gym classes and designing book covers and working on details to provide quality materials to those who need God's word. In my free time I paint, cook, make jewelry and run 2 blogs.

Latest posts by Tamika R (see all)

• Remember Them as if You Were One of Them - April 27, 2018
• When You Feel Too Overwhelmed to Pray - April 5, 2018
• Five Ways to Encourage a Missionary - February 20, 2018

A New Year. It is like a blank page, full of promise, opportunities, and potential. This past year was like a roller coaster for me. I had a good year personally, but so many times and events were lows that I struggled a great deal spiritually.

I am starting 2016 with a strong resolve to awaken the warrior inside of me. I noticed that the main reason for my spiritual lows was a matter of perspective. I got lazy. I sat down on the job. I stopped looking up, and was too caught up in what I saw as I looked around.

The last several months it has been easy to think about the many what-ifs in life. What if wolves sneak into our churches, countries, and neighborhoods disguised as lambs? What if my child’s teacher leads her astray? What if they don’t like me? What if I never feel settled, loved, accepted, respected? What if I stumble, what if I fall, fail, or someone figures out I am not perfect? I drowned in fear this year. That is very uncharacteristic of me. So I had to stop and look around. How did I lose my way?

I let urgency take the place of importance. Have you ever done that? Let the urgent things in life overshadow what really matters to the point that you forget what is actually worth fighting for?

Where I have been feeling helpless in regard to challenges at my daughter’s school, I noticed I had been complaining instead of petitioning God to help me see the things and people involved through his eyes. While watching Satan attack the Church repeatedly this year I begged him to make it stop. I should have asked him to teach me to fight his way. During the times that stress prevailed and peace seemed far from home, I felt hopeless, when I should have felt empowered because the Lord of hosts is the Lord of my home as well.

I ended the year by standing up to take my place in the Lord’s Army. I am taking the life God gave me back. I have a better perspective now. I have remembered whose side I am on and that we are fighting battles. The war is won. He is victorious. This year I will remember that I fight from a place of victory. I don’t need to fight to win. I need to fight to engage in the battles that the enemy places in our path to cause us to stumble.

How about you? Is there anything you would like to do differently this year? I would love to know about it!

May you be blessed in 2016.

May you know that whatever arrows come your way, the Lord stands by to give you the strength you need to hold up your shield against them.

May you focus on the way the rocky paths build your character.