Bring on the New Year!

It's that time of year again... the dreaded New Year's Resolution. (Can you believe it's 2010?!) I've never been good at these, mostly out of a significant lack of discipline. But every year, I think of ways I want to change, things I want to do differently. This year, I have a short list of... let's call them "goals". That is a much less daunting term than "resolution." I can work towards a goal; a resolution seems more like a statement, an absolute, than an action. But I digress.

1. I need the discipline to set a regular quiet time. I would appreciate your prayers as I seek out a good time to carve out of my schedule and invest in spiritual things. This is a challenge when I have a husband who has needs (don't we all? have needs, that is) that I am called to meet. I finally understand what the Apostle Paul is saying in I Corinthians 7:32-35... my interests are now divided. This, however, is not an excuse to neglect eternal things, and I am determined that spiritual growth is vital enough to ask Hubby for a little alone time on a regluar basis in order to foster that growth. I am blessed to be married to a man who values eternal things as well, so I don't anticipate this being a problem, apart from my own laziness.
   
2. I am in terrible shape, and I am not being a good steward of God's temple. My energy level is so low I barely have anything left at the end of the day to serve my husband, much less spend time in the Word. This goal is two-fold: eat healthier, and work out more. Hubby and I have signed up for a gym membership to play racquetball, which is a good cardio workout, and fun to boot. We haven't set a schedule yet, but we will. Not sure how I'm going to go about eating healthier; I will have to ponder that. It's hard when we're both tired, and fast food sounds good.
   
3. Carefully monitoring and managing spending will help us maintain the budget that we've crafted. God has blessed us with financial resources that are unusual in this economy, and we believe that He is asking us to serve Him with it. In order to stick to the budget we've laid out and give in the manner we are being asked, this requires that we not waste resources in other categories. It's hard to stick to it, but I believe we can do it. It will, however, take some discipline and micro-managing on both of our parts to stay on top of things. Convincing Hubby to do this will be the hard part.

God has been so good to us this past year. I have learned so much and have been so blessed. This makes me excited (and maybe a little sinfully apprehensive) about what the coming year holds for us.