Happy New Year!

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**Since a few days before Christmas my life has been a whirlwind of busyness with family coming and going and keeping up on so many details. This is the first opportunity I've had to sit down and blog. The last of my family left this morning and I have not had time to think about a menu. Menu Monday will return next week.. In the meantime I wanted to welcome in the New Year! Crystal




Happy New Year!
A new day, a fresh start, a clean sheet of paper, a brand new year. There's something about the start of a new year that I really love. It seems to hold promise, excitement, and the desire in many of us to change things that bother us, to do things that push us just a bit, and to improve.

Some call this making resolutions or setting goals. I've always preferred to think of it in terms of goals but this year my son said something to me that gave me a completely different way of viewing this. It has to do with themes for the year and with vision.

How often are goals and resolutions made and forgotten? How often do we set out with a determined mindset to change just one thing in our life and then meet obstacles and call ourselves a failure and give up? As you get older you may even find that you have no desire to set new goals or resolutions anymore due to past experiences and so you don't even bother with it.

What if instead of targeting a specific thing you want to change or do, you set a theme for your year? I'll give you my New Year's theme as an example. Instead of say I want to lose weight, my theme for this year is, HEALTH. I have a vision to be a healthy person. And that entails more then just losing a little weight. It means for me to work on my diet as my desire it to eat a diet that is 75 to 80% plant based. It means being more active. Reminding myself to move in a positive way each day and that may be simple things like parking farther away from the store and walking extra steps or doing work out videos or getting out and taking walks (as soon as I am able). It means getting to the finish line with a couple health related issues that have been ongoing but I'm seeing the end in sight with them. There are so many various things I can focus on each day that are in keeping with my theme for the year. 

You can read my son Jacobs blog post HERE.  He explains themes and visions much better then I have.  :) 

Another theme I have is my 'word' for the year. Not sure how many of you participate in the word for your year. If you're not familiar with it you can read more about it HERE. I really struggled with my word this year and prayed a lot about it. I've been doing a word for the year for several years now and when I have that “word” that is for me, I know it beyond a doubt. This morning I found my word, an answer to my prayer. My word for 2018 is JOY. What a simple word but the theme and vision is huge. To focus on giving joy, being joyful, when negativity and discouragement come upon me it is my opportunity to find joy and turn that around. As I walk through this year no matter what obstacles I face I can remember, The joy of the Lord is my strength.

I'm looking forward to another wonderful year with you all and I pray that you have a blessed and joy filled 2018!

Crystal

Comments

  1. MonicaJanuary 2, 2018 at 10:17 AM

    A Theme sounds like a great idea. You are the second blog I read regularly that has JOY or JOYOUS as their Word for 2018. Mine is Trust. I really need to remember to TRUST HIM more. Hope you have a great 2018 Crystal!

    ReplyDelete
  2. R's RueJanuary 3, 2018 at 6:58 AM

    Beautiful.

    ReplyDelete

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