New Projects for a New Year

I'm not a new years resolution person at all. I'm not a fan of making plans in December to change in January if the change should've been made in November. I do, though, like symmetry and organization and clean slates of a sort. So, I've decided to start a couple of projects that just happened to work best if started on January 1st.

The first is the most important. It's the Bible reading plan. I did really well last year, but I still didn't finish the whole Bible in a year. That's not a big deal to me. It's more important that I'm consistently reading it. It does help me, though, to have a plan to stick to for accountability purposes. I decided to do something a bit different this time around. I'm starting at the end and reading backwards. Day 1 will be Revelation 19-22, Day 2 will be 12-18, and so on. I have a few reasons for doing that, but one big one is something I heard from a friend several years ago. He told me how neat it was to read the fulfillment of prophecy before he got to the actual prophecy, as that made God's faithfulness stand out to him. I'm looking forward to that. I'm also eager to read the end and everything that leads up to it, before finally getting back to "in the beginning" at the end of the year. There's something about seeing the simple beginning when there was nothing after reading for a year about everything that came of that nothing. I had thoughts of using a Bible reading app (YouVersion has a really great one), but there's something weird to me about reading from a phone. I like my pink Bible with a few years of notes, and I enjoy adding to those. I'm opting for a different type of accountability. I have a notebook dedicated to this year of readings, and each page is going to hold a prayer or my own notes on the passage that day. I've gone through and written the readings in each page, so if I don't follow through, I'll waste one of my favorite journals. (That's me knowing myself and what motivates or pressures me :-)!) I have high hopes of the treasure this notebook should be to me someday.

Next project is a pinterest project. I have a notecard for each day of the year. At the end of the day, I will write down something I did that day that wasn't something I would do any other day. For example, today I wrote that we started a San Diego puzzle while watching a few episodes of Seinfeld. I'll do that every day, and then next year, I'll do the same thing on the same cards. In a few years, I can look back and see what I did on every January 12 for the past 10 years. I imagine that could get really fun when we have kids and I can document all of their firsts and such. Ryan hasn't quite bought in yet...he doesn't think our life is all that special! I think he will appreciate it eventually, though. I'm willing to try. :-)

As far as goals, I am planning to read more for fun this year. I have several books I've been wanting to read, and now that all of my cross stitch projects are done, I have some fun time back. My health goals are different than any year before. Since my body has rejected almost all food since July, weight loss has been an unexpected gift of 2011. Instead of that goal again this year, I'm hoping to eat a cheeseburger sometime in 2012. A real one...or at least one that's not been turned into a milk shake so that I can drink it. So gross. Along with that, I want to be a leader in joy this year. I've been a Debbie downer a lot in 2011, and the Lord has been working in my heart on that for a few weeks now.

I expect this year to bring a lot of changes. I would love to see my full health again. I'd love to be able to get pregnant sometime in the next 12 months. I long to have some clarity in where God has Ryan and I placed ministry-wise in the future. I'd like to make some close friends to enjoy life with. I need to grow in some relationships with those I am already close with... There are many things I'd like to see changed in 2012. But, there's only one thing that is sure not to change, and that's something that gives me peace in all of the other areas. My God isn't going to change. He is Who He is now and forever, and I don't want Him any other way.