Hi! My name is Chelsea Nelson. Sue and Linda have graced me with the opportunity to share with you all for a handful of weeks here at The Sublime Soiree! I have known Sue and Linda for almost 15 years. One of my greatest passions in my walk with Christ is to see generations of women discipling one another, and that is thanks to the beautiful example Sue has set as she has discipled me. I like to think of discipleship as a mother-daughter in Christ relationship, and if I were to draw out my discipleship family tree, Linda would be on a branch as my aunt. They have been a gift to me, and I love that they are multiplying that gift to so many others through The Sublime Soiree!
Now, since we will be spending so much time together I thought I’d share a little about myself before we dive into what God has been putting on my mind lately. I am a woman of many hats, including mothering, homemaking, farming, homeschooling, entrepreneurship, and most importantly– daughter of our heavenly Father, servant of the Lord and His church, and student of His word. I have four children who are creative, spunky, and absolutely precious (I’m 100% biased and unashamed of it). We live on a small farm that I endearingly call a “farmette”, where we raise pigs and chickens, give our best attempt at gardening, have continuous projects, and truly just have so much fun trying new things!
One of my greatest joys on the farm is being a self-proclaimed pig doula and seeing new life when piglets are born. Aside from those two very huge parts of my life, I love to be a part of our local church family. I love sharing what God is teaching me through Bible studies and discipleship and am blessed to see and be part of what God is doing in our church. I also would love to hear who is joining me here at The Sublime Soiree, so please say hi in the comments!
Now that we have been introduced, let’s chat! We are finally in February after what felt like an endless snowy January. Mid-February seems to be that time when the New Year’s resolutions we make either stand the test of time or die a quick death. I wonder how many of you make resolutions? Add that to your comments if you do, and tell me what they are! Resolutions are so intriguing to me. It wasn’t until the past several years that I have started making a habit of making New Year’s resolutions. For my husband and me, it became a good time of year to check in, plan, and dream about what the year ahead might hold for our family. As I experimented with making resolutions, I also recognized how good it was for me to reset and refocus on some spiritual disciplines. I’ve really enjoyed coming up with new and creative resolutions, and some of them have been the sweet refresh my heart needed.
As I shared recently with Sue about how God was using my New Year’s resolutions to encourage my soul, I realized I hadn’t fully thought about resolutions through a biblical perspective. I knew that there was nothing supernatural or scriptural about them, but I wanted to dig in more to assess what I was doing and why.
My research led me to Jonathan Edwards’ Resolutions. Jonathan Edwards was a brilliant pastor from New England and played a key role in the First Great Awakening – a series of revivals that swept Britain and its thirteen North American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. Prior to the Great Awakening, Edwards, at age 18, began writing what became 70 resolutions that he wanted to use to focus the trajectory of his life. I encourage you to take a few minutes to skim through them here. I think you’ll agree that Edwards’ faith at the age of 18 was incredibly mature, and his heart was fully invested in the Lord. I pray that my own sons will resolve to live in such a way when they leave the nest! It is never too late to change our trajectory, though, so I invite you to join me for the next several weeks as we take a look at these resolutions and glean from young Edwards’ wisdom to find encouragement for our own spiritual lives.
