Putting On and Putting Off

Update:
I've chosen my 3 New Habits this year and I'm blessed to walk the journey knowing God brought to me at the right time those habits He planned for me. 
1. Colossians in a Year (here)
2. Praying for my husband (prayer found here)
3. Praying for my children (prayer found here)
________________________________________
I had written earlier that I would be prayerfully considering what 3 new habits I would put on this year, a New, Fresh, year (all the while putting off some habits so the new might fill the spaces of the old).  I've been meditating and praying in my heart about where God would want me to be. It is not an easy task as I feel one can only put on so many things before being weighted down.  I want the habits of our life to be simple.

As I continue to reflect upon what Ann said about nuns who where habits and habits being the "clothes" that cover us in life.  We wear them just as skin.  I ponder her statements concerning Jesus' habit, his robe, seamless and in one piece.

It was Jewish tradition, what all Jewish mothers give to their sons when they left home: a robe without seams.  A one-piece. No fragmenting. No tearing. No seams.
It’s what Jesus wore to the cross:

“Now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece. They said therefore to one another, ‘Let us not tear it…’ (Jn 19:23).

The habit of Christ was the holiness of Christ, a life with no seams between secular and sacred. The habit Christ wore was a one-piece life —- all is hallowed and for God.

What will I wear this year and for years to come as my habit?   Can I possibly do this with no seams  What do I and we need to put OFF in order to put ON these new habits?  What does a One-Piece life look like? between secular and sacred? Can I instill this in my children?

As I meditate upon what God is calling me to put on and take off I wonder, deeply, how?

How will I go about building this new habit?

Will 100 Days be enough to put a new one on, like clothes, make it a part of me?

How will daily life allow for these new habits?  (through the piles of love built by laundry, the laughter over a meal, the coos of a tiny boy growing on mommy's milk?)

I read this,  

“Daughter, you don’t have to be enough or have a lot. Only offer all you are, all you have, to Me. I will turn that into abundance beyond all you can imagine. All things are possible with Me.”  (remembering what Jesus did with the Fish and Loaves found here)

Not only do I what to Put On and Put Off but to do so with joy. Dallas Willard says, "We do well to note, however, that love is the foundation of the spiritual life and joy is a key component in the Christ life. Joy is not pleasure, a mere sensation, but a pervasive and constant sense of well-being. Hope in the goodness of God is joy's indispensable support."

I want this.  Joy to be my constant sense of well-being.

"Jesus taught us to abide in God's love “that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” (John 15: 10-11, NASB). Our joy is full when there is no room for more. Abiding in God's love provides the unshakable source of joy, which is in turn the source of peace. All is based in the reality of God's grace and goodness.

Faith, hope, love, joy, and peace—the “magnificent five”—are inseparable from one another and reciprocally support each other." Willard

 

My prayer is that while I continue to meditate and ask YHWH to make clear to me those habits I need to Put on I will consider His Power, Love, and Strength, not my own, placing the habits into His hands. Those hands that broke the bread and multiplied the fish, carried the cross in his One-Piece robe, and laid his hands upon the cross to be pierced for me.

Y = yod — Hand

H = heh — window of breath, Behold

W = vav — Nail

H = heh — window of breath, Behold