Following along with Lara Casey's Goal Setting posts this week, I'm determined to grow from this. I've never followed through on projects; I always do it for a week and then lose interest and quit. I don't like this aspect of my social creative personality. I'm flaky. There I said it. If I can't do something perfectly, I don't want to do it all. I struggle so hard. I'm determined to use blogging to learn something about myself, to challenge myself, to share His story, and to love on others.
If you want to read Lara Casey's posts about Goal Setting in 2015, start here. I am on step 2 and you can read her post on that here.
Step 2 is all about admitting to yourself what didn't work for you last year. I started writing it in my notebook and separated it into categories so that I could go through each area of my life and remember what challenges I faced in these areas.
My faith.
I had a lot of fear this year. And that just really did NOT work for me. I'll be honest: we believe that we're in the final years of this earth. We believe that Jesus is coming for us soon. And as much as that fact should bring me joy, it also brings me fear. "But God, I haven't had a baby yet!" We are naturally selfish beings. God made us; He knows. And I fear that I'm not going to have enough time to be with my children, to raise them, to teach them how to see the world as temporary; all while there are hundreds of thousands of people living on this earth who are living in terror for their very lives and are yearning for their Savior. And I'm over here like "Hey, if we could wait until I meet my kid, that would be great." *Face palm* Fear is NOT of God. Fear is from the enemy. So, that didn't work for my heart this last year. I'm determined to have faith. I'm determined to trust God's will for my life.
When I found myself becoming overwhelmed, afraid, stressed, worried and I didn't stop, drop, and pray. That didn't work for me. Peace was only a few moments away from me at all times but I chose to live in those moments alone. It's silly, isn't it? Why wouldn't I call out to THE Lifeguard if I'm drowning? Pride? Yeah, that's no longer an option.
Not reading the word. Simple as that. My soul was hungry and thirsty and I denied myself that. For what? More sleep? More TV time? Social media? These faucets wont fill me up; they'll consume me.
Apparently, there's an awesome church here in our small town. I say "apparently" because I've never been there. Every single weekend, we've driven home to Amarillo and either, attended our beloved church there (we really love our church!) or sleep in and not go. I'm ready to have a church family. I'm ready to be apart of a community. So, avoiding this amazing church is a challenge I'm going to have to overcome. I know there are blessings waiting to happen!
My marriage.
Going to bed without praying out loud with my husband. We pray like maybe two or three nights a week together. That is so dumb. I've seen the enemy lurking in so many people's marriages, just waiting to divide and conquer. And the easiest way to prevent that is by praying out loud together, declaring promises over our lives, protection over our marriage, and God's guidance in our decisions. That should be a daily no-brainer.
Our biggest struggle and the main cause of our arguments last year was money and budgeting. I remember hearing that statistic a lot before we got married, and I'd think to myself "We'll never fight about that!" Yea, no. That was our main issue. But thankfully, we're already taking steps to fix it. We're signed up for a Dave Ramsey class in March. SO EXCITED! I will blog about this as we go through it.
Family relationships.
I didn't talk to my family enough last year by phone, by text, by email, by snail-mail. Not working.
I have unresolved issues with people close to me in my family that I've been avoiding and stressing about. It ate up a lot of my time last year worrying or having conversations in my head with them. Marcus would come home for lunch and I'd be spinning because I had been lecturing someone all morning. (We didn't have internet or cable). I gave a poor guy on the phone a piece of my mind one morning after someone from his business taped a flier to our brand new front door and when I pulled it off, it pulled off the paint. Marcus was like "honey, are you okay?" I immediately started bawling and told him that I had been having a hypothetical conversation in my head all morning. That poor man on the phone! It's time to release that and pray for peace. The only person it's hurting is me.
I didn't say thank you enough. I didn't express how grateful I am for what and who I have in my life.
If you want to read Lara Casey's posts about Goal Setting in 2015, start here. I am on step 2 and you can read her post on that here.
Step 2 is all about admitting to yourself what didn't work for you last year. I started writing it in my notebook and separated it into categories so that I could go through each area of my life and remember what challenges I faced in these areas.
My faith.
I had a lot of fear this year. And that just really did NOT work for me. I'll be honest: we believe that we're in the final years of this earth. We believe that Jesus is coming for us soon. And as much as that fact should bring me joy, it also brings me fear. "But God, I haven't had a baby yet!" We are naturally selfish beings. God made us; He knows. And I fear that I'm not going to have enough time to be with my children, to raise them, to teach them how to see the world as temporary; all while there are hundreds of thousands of people living on this earth who are living in terror for their very lives and are yearning for their Savior. And I'm over here like "Hey, if we could wait until I meet my kid, that would be great." *Face palm* Fear is NOT of God. Fear is from the enemy. So, that didn't work for my heart this last year. I'm determined to have faith. I'm determined to trust God's will for my life.
When I found myself becoming overwhelmed, afraid, stressed, worried and I didn't stop, drop, and pray. That didn't work for me. Peace was only a few moments away from me at all times but I chose to live in those moments alone. It's silly, isn't it? Why wouldn't I call out to THE Lifeguard if I'm drowning? Pride? Yeah, that's no longer an option.
Not reading the word. Simple as that. My soul was hungry and thirsty and I denied myself that. For what? More sleep? More TV time? Social media? These faucets wont fill me up; they'll consume me.
Apparently, there's an awesome church here in our small town. I say "apparently" because I've never been there. Every single weekend, we've driven home to Amarillo and either, attended our beloved church there (we really love our church!) or sleep in and not go. I'm ready to have a church family. I'm ready to be apart of a community. So, avoiding this amazing church is a challenge I'm going to have to overcome. I know there are blessings waiting to happen!
My marriage.
Going to bed without praying out loud with my husband. We pray like maybe two or three nights a week together. That is so dumb. I've seen the enemy lurking in so many people's marriages, just waiting to divide and conquer. And the easiest way to prevent that is by praying out loud together, declaring promises over our lives, protection over our marriage, and God's guidance in our decisions. That should be a daily no-brainer.
Our biggest struggle and the main cause of our arguments last year was money and budgeting. I remember hearing that statistic a lot before we got married, and I'd think to myself "We'll never fight about that!" Yea, no. That was our main issue. But thankfully, we're already taking steps to fix it. We're signed up for a Dave Ramsey class in March. SO EXCITED! I will blog about this as we go through it.
Family relationships.
I didn't talk to my family enough last year by phone, by text, by email, by snail-mail. Not working.
I have unresolved issues with people close to me in my family that I've been avoiding and stressing about. It ate up a lot of my time last year worrying or having conversations in my head with them. Marcus would come home for lunch and I'd be spinning because I had been lecturing someone all morning. (We didn't have internet or cable). I gave a poor guy on the phone a piece of my mind one morning after someone from his business taped a flier to our brand new front door and when I pulled it off, it pulled off the paint. Marcus was like "honey, are you okay?" I immediately started bawling and told him that I had been having a hypothetical conversation in my head all morning. That poor man on the phone! It's time to release that and pray for peace. The only person it's hurting is me.
I didn't say thank you enough. I didn't express how grateful I am for what and who I have in my life.
Friendships
Friends for a reason, friends for a season, friends for a lifetime.
I am a social person. I like to be around people and talk. It's a hobby that makes me happy. I was able to spend a lot of time with my lifelong friends last year and that made me a happy girl. This year, I would like to be better about talking to those friends about things that matter. About their heart. About their dreams. About their needs. About Jesus. "Let my words speak life, let my words speak truth. I don't want to say a word which doesn't point the world back to you." I hope that all my friendships are "lifetimers" but I know realistically, that's not possible. So, in case I don't always know the people I'm surrounded by now, I hope they know what my heart stands for, and that I'll always be there to pray for them or love on them in any way I can.
I have a friendship that was broken several years ago, and I need to mend it. I let it pass me by last year, and I'm determined to fix it or at least get some closure from it in 2015.
Health
Friends for a reason, friends for a season, friends for a lifetime.
I am a social person. I like to be around people and talk. It's a hobby that makes me happy. I was able to spend a lot of time with my lifelong friends last year and that made me a happy girl. This year, I would like to be better about talking to those friends about things that matter. About their heart. About their dreams. About their needs. About Jesus. "Let my words speak life, let my words speak truth. I don't want to say a word which doesn't point the world back to you." I hope that all my friendships are "lifetimers" but I know realistically, that's not possible. So, in case I don't always know the people I'm surrounded by now, I hope they know what my heart stands for, and that I'll always be there to pray for them or love on them in any way I can.
I have a friendship that was broken several years ago, and I need to mend it. I let it pass me by last year, and I'm determined to fix it or at least get some closure from it in 2015.
Health