Whatcha Gonna Do?

Every new year there's hype about resolution and goals and blah, blah, blah. I cringe. I think I feel my skin crawl with the force of self discipline, determination and perseverance. Scales are dusted off, water bottles filled, finances evaluated, self help books bought....and yet, statistics show us that most of us won't get through the month of January with our determination in tact.

I've been a casualty of new year goals. Most years I fail miserably. In fact....if I had kept all my goals over the years...I'd be 110 pounds, read thousands of books, drank the equivalent of the water held in Hoover Dam and become the exact woman spoken of in Proverbs 31. I'm a failure at keeping new year goals. But why?

I look back on last year and the only goal I achieved was my goal to be more intentional about giving thanks. Easy you say? Well maybe for you, but if you have a bad day, week or year, it's not quiet that easy. How did I keep it? And could these be keys to keeping other goals? Let's see:

1. Posted my thanks before I got out of bed in the morning.

2. Decided to give thanks even when it was hard.

3. Decided to be more lighthearted about looking at my life, instead of so serious.

4. Looked beyond circumstances.

5. Was encouraged and thankful for what God had done.

Oh wow....there it is....that might just be the key...5 simple steps...

1. Do something before you get out of bed...decide, pray, post...whatever...but think about your goals before your feet hit the ground.

2. Do something towards your goal even when it's hard.

3. Look at your goal through the eyes of humor and joy...sometimes we get too serious or too focused and sometimes we just need to laugh through the tough times.

4. Look beyond today.

5. See what God is doing. He's transforming you...He's helping you....be encouraged and give thanks!

Here's a few goals I'm setting for the new year....

* drink more water (get my water bottle in the fridge at night so I have it first thing in the morning!
* read more....for fun and for learning.
* write more thank you notes
* encourage more
* notice the good
* blog consistently

So whatcha gonna do this new year? Something big or small....doesn't really matter...just do something!

On the 2nd Day of New Years….

I've thought a lot about what I need to be resolving to do this year. Seems all over the blogs I read, the Facebook friends I follow, the tweets I read …even instagram is full of inspiring quotes and pledges to do everything from the mundane to the extraordinary. And yet, here I sit, not really sure what to say I'm pledging my motivation to. Maybe because it's when you resolve and you do your part, you expect good results…like dieting = lose weight or keeping organized = saved time or clipping coupons = saving money. But what happens when you do your part…you resolve…and follow through and things don't turn our like you think they should.

See…that's one of the lessons I've been learning the past year. Sometimes, you don't get to have control. Sometimes you can do the right things, you can follow God's plan as good as anyone and still things don't turn out like you think they should. Sometimes your resolve is not enough. Sometimes the chips fall where they may and you're left holding the dip (or whatever…cause I've never really understood that cliche').

By no means am I claiming perfection (just in case you've never seen me really mess up things and think that's what I was saying). But what I am saying is that sometimes as hard as I may try to obey God, follow His word, believe He has a greater plan…sometimes things look worse than when I didn't care.

Just ask Noah…I mean, how do you think he and the Mrs. must have felt as they climbed aboard the ark with their 3 sons and their wives…made one last plea for people to get on board and then heard God shut the door. Surely they knew then they had followed God's plan, but what about their hearts and humanity as they listened as those around them succumbed to the waves and water. Surely there wasn't great rejoicing because they had followed God's plan…surely they wondered if this wasn't a worse plan…a plan that couldn't possibly be right. A plan where people died and met eternity in an unbelieving state of heart.

Think of our own Jesus…a sweet baby…a manger…and yet 33 years later brutally beaten….hanging nearly naked, dead upon a cross…how could this possible be the resolved plan of God..the better way? Certainly the surge of pain through an earthly mother's heart begged to ask God….WHY? HOW COULD THIS BE THE BETTER WAY?

Sometimes the better way is messy. Sometimes our good resolutions don't always end up looking so good. Worth it??…oh yes….Just ask Noah or Jesus...but how it leaves us feeling, how it leaves us looking, how it leaves us wondering….is messy. And instead of feeling like you accomplished something wonderfully beautiful….you're left wishing you didn't have to feel anything at all.

But here's the catcher or the clincher or whatever…I'm not responsible for the end result…..that's up to the Lord. I'm responsible for the obedience to His voice, His word, His call. Sure it may look like a poor reflection of me and people may not understand or care and they may mock as Job's friends asked "Where's your God now?" But it doesn't matter…because He trumps every thing that man thinks. His plans are higher and deeper and wider and steeper. WE CANNOT FATHOM THEM! All we know is that after the trying and refining and purifying He promises we will come out of it as gold. Valuable, treasured, worth more than we could ever imagine, priceless….and truly there is nothing more than I want to resolved to be.

Now and Later

So, I took a very unplanned blogging hiatus over the last month. I should have seen it coming. My posts had become less and less over the last year and when I started teaching full time in September...well my goose was cooked. I never anticipated the amount of work teaching 18 first graders would be...and in the next breath I'll mention that I also didn't anticipate what a blessing they would be to me over the last four months.

I've pretty much been in survival mode and life's been living me instead of me living life - Not a mode I would recommend by the way. It just seems like between family, church, school and kid's activities there has been little to no time for me to think, process, meditate, pray, be still before the Lord. And then there was the fact that my father in law was diagnosed and died of lymphoma in just a matter of one month. It's been quite an overwhelming fall. So, as with most things in life, I've wondered exactly what God was up to, what should I be learning, what was the purpose for all this.

And it's not that I have all the answers, but God has showed me a few things that I'll be bringing into 2013.

I read and taught through Priscilla Shirer's Resolution for Women this fall. Resolution #5 I still haven't signed...mainly because I knew I couldn't or wouldn't be able to keep the resolution...

It reads: I resolve to devote the best of myself, my time, my talents to the primary roles God has entrusted me at this phase of my life. 

And after many a frustrated end of the day, feeling like I've cheated those closest to me, I've decided that 2013 is the year of my family. The family who deserves my best. The husband who deserves to be treated with the best of me instead of the half spent wife who is barely hanging on to her sanity. The kids who deserve a mother who has the energy and the time and the love to train them in the way they should go.

And all the while I hope to not intentionally cheat the others in my life that I love...so I'll be learning to say "no" and to modify my commitments so that I can get back to the basics. And I'll be praying that I accept the grace God gives me to do this and that others will give me the grace I need to do this. And maybe...just maybe by the end of 2013, I'll be able to sign resolution #5...having made this season of family life a priority.

A couple of things I need to do to devote myself, my time, my talents to the primary roles of wife and mother that God has entrusted to me at this phase of my life are:

- become a more organized housekeeper
- cook more
- teach my children basic housekeeping chores
- begin teaching my children basic cooking skills
- be a more wise time manager
- simplify home inventory
- set up local savings account for kids
- teach my children to spend money more responsibly
- serve together with my kids
- read missionary biographies with children
- keep better record of answered prayers with family

By no means do I want my family to be my "idol". But I can't stress to you the amount of conviction on my heart when I realize how great a need there is for godliness in this world, and how little I am doing to help model and plant that godliness into the next generation. I feel great responsibility and now it's time to put action to those feelings.

This phase of life won't last forever....that's kind of the harsh reality of it all. These moments will be replaced with empty nests and college tuitions and grandchildren. And then there will be all the time for all those ministry things, those job things, those hobbies, those women's groups...all those things that I may have a moment or two for now to give a little to.....Later there will be time for those to be the priority. And later will be here before you know it!

February: Something or Another's Update

Updates are in yellow. Many of the goals are continuous from month to month.

1. Revamp current filing system for bills and important papers. Clean out ones we don't need and keep up with the filing on a daily basis so it never gets out of hand.  Completed on January 2

2. Eat out less. Ate out 6 of 93 meals....that's drastically different from any month in the last year. 

3. Grow a container garden (yard gardening doesn't work for me since my yard is so shaded...been there, done that, wasted a ton of money...and was very sad). 

4. Weekly Random Acts of Kindness with my kids. Savannah took brownies to share with her friends at AWANA.

5. Read from the Jesus Storybook Bible every night with the kids. 

6. Find a hairstyle that I actually like. Don't laugh if you see me experimenting...LOL! Decided to perm my hair and I like it much better....we will see how long it lasts...the liking and the perm.

7. Pray for Bruce more.

8. Live more healthy...meaning make more decisions in the right direction than the wrong. Since January 2 I have not bought a 2 liter diet coke. I have had diet coke when we have eaten out at a restaurant and at school I have had some....overall a huge change of habit. The eating out less has helped with the Diet Coke addiction and with the healthier eating. Even most of the recipes I'm making are altered to be slightly more healthy than normal. Down 5 pounds. 

9. Keep track of and write my first 1000 gifts using the app on my iPhone UPDATE: I have my first 90 done

10. Visit the shut-ins from church more. 

Curly Sue

In an effort to fulfill one of my new year's something or another's...I got a kinda new look today at the hairdresser. As a throw back to the 80's or maybe 90's...or heck...I had a perm in 2000 too...I went curly again....for no other reason than I wanted change...and maybe to drive my very stylish friends crazy! We'll see how long it lasts...the perm, the style, the smell....most all of this will depend on how long it takes to fix in the morning!

Daily Resolutions

The last few years I haven’t made New Year’s Resolutions. For years I made the common resolutions – lose weight, read my Bible more, spend less, get more organized. – and each year, somewhere around January 15th, I fail. I beat myself up, did some pretty degrading self-talk and sometimes even tried again. But, with only a few exceptions, I would eventually give up. What a disappointment!

For a couple of years I conveniently ignored all the hype regarding resolutions and just opted for a resolve-free year. That was a commitment I could keep. That worked well, until I realized what God’s Word had to say about New Year’s Resolutions.

Paul knew the secret to successful New Year’s Resolutions. He said in I Corinthians 15:31b: I die daily. Paul knew in order to live in this fleshly life that we would have to take it a day at a time. That purposeful, driven, intentional decision, made daily, assured a greater success rate. That personal decision to die to myself each day hasn’t turned me into a perfect-professional-daily-resolution maker; instead God has tenderly uncovered those areas in true need for a make-over.

So this year, the resolutions will come, but in a different package. One that arrives daily, focused on the work God wants to do in my life. Less focus on what I think takes precedence and more attention focused on what He wants. It’s tough…and I am sure I will fail Him, but there’s a calm assurance knowing I’m able to approach Him daily. I don’t have to wait until next year.

VERSE: I die daily. I Corinthians 15:31b

Father, your steadfast love never ceases to amaze me and Your mercies are new everyday. Thank You for renewal and forgiveness. Thank You for daily directing my steps. Please help me to welcome those quiet moments with you, when I die to what my flesh wants and resolve to do Your will for my life. In Jesus precious name, Amen