Goals for 2009

I almost always make new goals each year. Like in 2005 I prayed for God to help us walk by faith AND for Michael and the girls to have a stronger spiritual walk. DANGIT! Did God make us walk by faith? Yes. Did He strengthen our spiritual walk? Yes. Did He answer my prayer? Absolutely! Or perhaps as I interpret Psalm 37:4, Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart, it means that when we dock ourselves into His station, He plants desires in our hearts that will lead us to our next spiritual destination. I THINK THAT'S COOL!

I have trouble with the word resolution because it is so cliche, for one. Secondly, the word resolve looks to me like re-solve and I don't want to keep giving a half-butt effort at solving the same problems again year to year. Which is what resolutions tend to be.

1) Study God's Word. I don't mean read it in a year. Our life group has been using the Lectura Divina method of Bible study which I dig. We digest a short scripture so we know it, we inhale it, we try to emulate it, rather than speed reading God's word with no comprehension.

Strategy: Pick up the Bible and study it.

Tactics: Make it a quiet; focus on getting absorbed, not on how much time it takes or doesn't; take notes; meditate.

2) Make Prayer a Priority. Self-Explanatory. I used to spend hours praying every day when i was a teenager. I need to be more like my mother and pray continually through the day. And to teach my children to pray from their hearts continually, too.

Strategy: Keep prayer journal steadily.

Tactics: Buy a pretty journal and pen; be deliberate in prayer; be consistent in praying for others; really mean it when I say I am praying for someone; watch God answer the prayers.

3) Memorize Scripture: Self-Explanatory. The girls and I were talking yesterday about the possibility of Bibles being outlawed one day. Do we hide enough of the Word in our hearts?

Strategy: Memorize one a week

Tactic: Develop a system somehow. Work on this!

4) Be Joyful. I've always said that joy is a decision, not a feeling. I realized last night I am not the joyful person I used to be. I've allowed my mind to be overtaken by negative thoughts and feelings. I need to remedy this.

Strategy: Develop pure, uplifting thinking patterns.

Tactic: Phillipians 4:8-9 Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

5) Be More Relational. I tend to be very detail oriented, very TASK oriented. Nothing makes me feel better than a clean and sanitized house, a completed checklist, a project completed. I lose myself in doing. I need to immerse myself in being loving, kind, and relational, especially toward my immediate family.

Strategy: Prioritize relationships with my family members

Tactics: Be there wtih them in heart, mind, body, and soul; Set aside time for tasks, and give most of my time to being available.

6) Be a Guide. I am a homeschool educator and early childhood teacher, which again can mean I am more of a educational director because of my task-orientation. I tend to make lesson plans and see the goal of the day as being getting the tasks done. "Did you get your work done?" I need to focus more on the learning, the discovery, the beautiful pictures drawn and the mastery, not whether things are completed or not completed.

Strategy: To focus on my children's discoveries, to walk along side and teach, rather than sitting at a desk dictating tasks.

Tactics: Find some way to hold myself accountable to this goal; Read a bit of Charlotte Mason's books every day without focusing on FINISHING THEM but rather gleaning from them; read more blogs of homeschoolers who have the right focus in their school so that it will inspire me; PRAY PRAY PRAY

7) Be More Fit. I'm 36. If I listen to the doctor, then I am old and decrepit and need to schedule my hip replacement. So I get it: it will get harder and harder each year to be fit. START GOOD HABITS NOW!

Strategy: Make it a priority each day to be fitness and health minded.

Tactics: Wii fit if we cannot exercise outside; look for ways to put more "oomph" in my daily chores; cool down on the dependence for caffeine; start drinking water, dummy; breathe deeply while I pray and meditate on God's word; cut my portions; stop eating a cup of Kix at 11pm and just don't eat after 7PM period; focus on good posture because I am stooping already.

8) Take Care of Myself. I need to be as healthy and rested as I can be so my family has the wife and mother they deserve.

Strategy: Make relaxation, rest, and good health a priority.

Tactics: Get treatment for psoriasis because it REALLY HURTS right now and I look like I have leporous ears, legs, elbows, and face; get some help for my hearing loss because it damages my ability to communicate with my family; take more baths; swing on the porch more often; everytime it rains, run outside to the porch swing and breath it in; keep taking Vitamin C; keep taking probiotics; stop eating sugar because it makes allergies/asthma worse; stop feeling embarrassed for having so many autoimmunte health issues...you didn't choose it; use your inhaler when you need it so you don't get a horrible headache and your kids don't have to say, "you are breathing funny, mom. Where's your inhaler?" In other words, STOP and make yourself a priority! And keep using the pedi-egg cuz your feet look FABULOUS!

9) Be More Patient. Be more patient. No, really. Impatience is very unbecoming.

Strategy: Be more patient.

Tactics: Count to 50; say the books of the Bible; think before you speak or just keep your pie hole shut; ask yourself if voicing annoyances is worth damaging the home climate; take deep breaths; realize people are not trying to walk slow, push their carts in the middle of the aisles, take 4 years to do a sink full of dishes, leaving their clothes on the floor, leaving cabinets open, having diarrhea in their beds, or getting jelly all in the inside of the fridge; It isn't on purpose so CHILL OUT!

I may have to add some others! Like maybe I will start reading my posts before I click "publish post" so I don't have so many typos! Wouldn't you all enjoy that? Sorry, it is a lack of patience that has been polluting my blog.