Resolutions vs. Revelations

Oh hey 2014...did we skip over 2013? Flew by me somehow.

I'm wondering what you think of when you hear people talking about New Years Resolutions. Do you shrink back in defeat? Feeling like you're setting yourself up for failure? Do you not even want to try? Or maybe you're one of those people who muster up all the resolve in the world to really, really accomplish your list this year.

Me? I'm kind of in the middle. I try my best not to beat myself up on the ones that didn't get accomplished. Or if any of them got accomplished at all. (yeah that happens more than I'd like to admit.) But I also find myself typically in a place where I want to better myself, I want to set some goals, I want to at least try. But not yet.

I urge you-as well as myself-before a single goal or resolution is set. Before you buy the gym membership or the fancy new Bible devotional book because this is the year you are going to read through the Bible in a year. Take it before God. Take some time out where you can get alone with God and seek His will over your year. What does He want you to accomplish, what areas is He asking you to lay down and completely surrender to Him, what things really need your focus and what things need to be set aside for awhile? Pray. Seek. Ask. I believe with my whole heart there is a place for goals or resolutions-but only after they've been revealed to you from your Heavenly Father.

Now after that-I wanted to share a way that I approached my 2013 goals because it was unlike any other year and I found it more effective. (Note: I didn't say perfect...I still didn't get everything accomplished. But I feel like I did make progress on many of them, and any progress is better than no progress right? Right.)
So after praying about different areas that God was leading me to work on this year, I grabbed a notebook and made a page for each "area" I was working on. Such as...

Page 1: Spiritual
Page 2: Marriage
Page 3: Home
Page 4: Business
Page 5: Personal
Page 6: Health

On each page I list different things I want to work on or goals I want to make in that area. Underneath that I list each month of the year with a couple of lines in between each one. That way each month I have a place to come back to jot down my progress. This was a really fun way to track how I was doing on my goals and see it broken down by month. At the end of each month I went back to this journal and wrote down how that "page" was going.

Each page has probably 4-5 different goals, and while most of them are very personal between just God and I, there are a few I'd love to share!!

Personal page-
*Read 10 new books...5 Fiction & 5 Non-Fiction (Taking suggestions on that one by the way!!!)
*Tell people on Facebook Happy Birthday more. (Seriously I know this one is ridiculous-but really, it's so simple and makes someone feels special! So why don't I ever do this?!)
*Create more-just for fun
Marriage page-
*Date my husband more.
Spiritual page-
*Memorize more scripture (I have a certain number I'm aiming for.)
*Read through my Daily Chronological Study Bible
Health-
*Drink more water!!
*Get in better shape overall
Home-
*Find a good cleaning schedule & stick with it!


Hope this helps!! Happy almost 2014!!!