A New Year, A New Me?

I get a couple of emails every day from sites like Girlfriends in God, and Encouragement for Each Day. I've been  pondering what I read in one of them. It was meant to be a help for the Holidays. To slow you down, and put your focus back on the birth of Jesus, but I think it has great potential for a New Year's resolution/priority change for me all year round.

This is what they said:

• Make time each day to be alone with God.
• Pour out your dreams and desperation to Him.
• Read Psalm 23 once a day. 
• Invest at least 15 minutes in solitude each day, allowing your soul to “catch up.”
• Make a list of the top five joy thieves in your life and make a plan to eliminate them. 
• Prayerfully choose five verses of Scripture about peace.  Write these verses on a 3X5 card and carry it with you through the holidays, referring to it while you wait in line, while you are stuck in traffic, at every meal, etc.  Consider doing the same as a family project. 
• After the holidays are over, evaluate the difference this preparation made in your holiday celebration.

I'm going to make these suggestions my New Year's resolution. I try really hard to have quiet time with God each day, but it ends up getting bumped too easily for other things-I'm going to really work on not letting other things bump my time with God this year! 

Instead of reading Psalm 23 every day for a year, I'm going to pick one Psalm per week to read and reflect on. I think I'll just start at the beginning and work my way through. Maybe 2 per week-I'll see how it goes.

I've never thought of pouring out my dreams to Him...I've poured out my desperation, and heartache in prayers for myself, my family and my friends, and for anyone who asks me to pray, but my dreams I've kept to myself.

Fifteen minutes a day of solitude sounds almost heavenly and actually very doable! I am going to consciously work very hard on this-to slow down, relax and rejuvenate. No TV, facebook, blog, texting, housework..."Come with my by yourselves  to a quiet place and get some rest." Mark 6:31 NIV.

I've been making a list in my head already of my top 5 joy thieves. I knew deep down that my joy was being zapped by some of them, but it never really made it to my thought process as something(s) I could eliminate or work on eliminating. This is very intriguing to me!

I LOVE the idea of finding 5 scripture verses on peace and carrying them with you! I'm also going to find 5 verses on Love, Joy, Patience, Kindness, Gentleness, Goodness, faithfulness and Self-control and print them out and carry them as well! 

I've ordered a couple of new Bible study books that will be here Wednesday, and they should keep me busy until the beginning of July. I am soo looking forward to doing this and refocusing my life!

I'll still be doing what I'm doing as far as sales, shops, adventures and the booth-just putting things in a better priority/focus for me. If you want to join me, I could use an accountability partner or partners! If not, no worries!

Happy New Year to you and your families! Best wishes to you all for a wonderful year, filled with lots of love, laughter and great memories!