Fresh Focus
New Year, New you. Clean page in a new chapter. First day of the rest of your life. There are so many cliches that surround the new year. The concept being that we get to step away from our past and start new, change things. What I have never understood is how a change of calendar year suddenly seems to make a big difference in how we do things. The truth is any day you decide things change from here on out, it can. I have spent the last 9 months working on changing my perspectives on life and trusting in God. I felt a leading to do it so I did. No need for a major event or day to wait and make it happen. On the flip side, the new year does allow us a vital opportunity to look back and evaluate our life, choices, priorities, and find room for growth and change. So while we take this opportunity now, remember you can do it again in 4 months too.
More or less since I was old enough to make resolutions I have hated the idea. Grand life changes that we declare we will make but we rarely take the time to map out a workable plan to them. A goal needs a plan or there is no structure to help you succeed. A recent trend has been to find a word of the year. I like this a lot better, find where you feel you need to put focus on the year. Last year I took a quiz that said my word would be brave. Now I don't put any stock in those things other than the fact someone programmed it to read what was already in my heart. Where God was already leading. This year that same quiz read courage. Really 2 sides of the same coin in my opinion. Just a continuation of the bravery that I am already learning. One of my favorite quotes on courage is "Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgement that something is more important than fear." That pretty much sums up my desire to follow God into whatever he is leading me to these days. I am still fearful, even if it is minimal compared to what it used to be, but what God has called me to is more important. While I think Courage is definately something I am working on I feel like there is more that I need to focus on this year.
For Christmas my husband and I were putting together wish lists for some family, in doing so I went through and rediscovered a book he had talked about wanting to read. I ended up coming back to this book over and over again till I finally ordered it. The focus of the book is Loving others, even the unlovable ones. This led me to look for a book we owned that I never got around to reading on Love and even finding another book on love by the other author's wife. Love has been something I have been working on a lot and through all of this I feel like that is "my word" God is calling me to focus on for the year, or at least the foreseeable parts of it.
Sunday our pastor shared that he is making a list of goals by the month rather than a year. I can handle attainable goals for a month. Challenging yet doable. so here's what I am going to focus on in the month of January.
So this year rather than lofty year long goals I will struggle to work on for more than a few months, I am going to attempt to make monthly goals, find a group to share them with, and seek out Love. Whatever that means or however it looks.
As we start this year where is God leading you to focus? What can you do in the next 30 days to work towards that? Who will you share it with to help you stay on track?
A new year, a new page. What will you write?
More or less since I was old enough to make resolutions I have hated the idea. Grand life changes that we declare we will make but we rarely take the time to map out a workable plan to them. A goal needs a plan or there is no structure to help you succeed. A recent trend has been to find a word of the year. I like this a lot better, find where you feel you need to put focus on the year. Last year I took a quiz that said my word would be brave. Now I don't put any stock in those things other than the fact someone programmed it to read what was already in my heart. Where God was already leading. This year that same quiz read courage. Really 2 sides of the same coin in my opinion. Just a continuation of the bravery that I am already learning. One of my favorite quotes on courage is "Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgement that something is more important than fear." That pretty much sums up my desire to follow God into whatever he is leading me to these days. I am still fearful, even if it is minimal compared to what it used to be, but what God has called me to is more important. While I think Courage is definately something I am working on I feel like there is more that I need to focus on this year.
For Christmas my husband and I were putting together wish lists for some family, in doing so I went through and rediscovered a book he had talked about wanting to read. I ended up coming back to this book over and over again till I finally ordered it. The focus of the book is Loving others, even the unlovable ones. This led me to look for a book we owned that I never got around to reading on Love and even finding another book on love by the other author's wife. Love has been something I have been working on a lot and through all of this I feel like that is "my word" God is calling me to focus on for the year, or at least the foreseeable parts of it.
Sunday our pastor shared that he is making a list of goals by the month rather than a year. I can handle attainable goals for a month. Challenging yet doable. so here's what I am going to focus on in the month of January.
- Track how much time I spend on my phone. I can't decrease the time wisely until I know how I am spending it, even though I know I need to make some changes to the amount of time spent on my phone.
- Spend one on one time(at least 2 hrs) with one female friend I have not had the chance to connect with recently. There is a list of people I want to make more time for, but I don't. I want to be intentional about this. I already know the friend I want to reach out to in January.
- read "Love does" by Bob Goff. It has been on my to read list for years, it's time to do it.
- Take steps to eliminate one thing from my "responsibilities" list that is not a passionate place God is leading me to serve. I want to work on finding the best way to use my time and energy.
- One "date night" with just my husband during the month. I want to be intentional about time connecting with him and being on the same page, not just lost in the shuffle of life.
- Learn\recognize one new thing about each of my children. Whether that is a skill, interest, goal, like, etc. It doesn't matter. I need to look more closely at who each of my children is in this moment of their life and not let them get lost in the hustle and bustle.
- Take at least one load of "stuff" to be trashed or donated. Rather than spending more time organizing stuff I want to eliminate unneeded items in wise ways.
So this year rather than lofty year long goals I will struggle to work on for more than a few months, I am going to attempt to make monthly goals, find a group to share them with, and seek out Love. Whatever that means or however it looks.
As we start this year where is God leading you to focus? What can you do in the next 30 days to work towards that? Who will you share it with to help you stay on track?
A new year, a new page. What will you write?
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