New Year, New Goals, and finding God's New Mercies Everyday

It is eight days into the New Year, it seems as a person gets older the faster time seems to go.  A lot of people make New Year's resolutions this time of year, but I like to set goals instead of "resolutions", goals seem more achievable to me I guess.  As my husband and I were driving back from the mountains of West Virginia this past weekend I began making my list of goals for this year.  While I was listing my goals in my head I began thinking what the "criteria" should be.  What I mean by this is that I wanted to make them realistic and meaningful.  Here is the list of my criteria:  1. they had to be attainable, it couldn't be a goal that where I am setting myself up to fail and not reachable 2. they needed to have meaning, there needs to be a valid reason as to why I am setting these goals 3. not a long list, which I guess could go in the criteria of being attainable.
With those thoughts of my goals here is what I came up with:
1. Take better or should I say, take care of myself.  This includes: my physical health - no more soda (only as a treat on occasion), no more artificial sweeteners, cutting down on my caffeine intake, switching our groceries to organic foods (I'll write more on this later), getting more sleep, and walking about everyday even if just for a few minutes, it's amazing what fresh air can do for someone.  my mental/emotional/spiritual health - not just reading my Bible everyday but memorizing more scripture, blogging weekly, and growing more in my prayer life.  Something that has been really hitting me hard that I have been observing/learning at our church is the power of prayer and how I need it like I need to breathe every second of every day.  Our church is soaked and absorbed in prayer and it has humbled me greatly.

2. Graduate this May 2012 with my master's in Middle Childhood Education!!! I am so excited to achieve this goal! I have to write my thesis and pass three licensure tests and I'll be done!

3. Back off my gadgets - Aka - i phone/i-pad during meal time with my family, bedtime with my children, and any special times with my family - I will put these things away.

4. Find a hobby - something that I enjoy doing for me that is separate from being a wife/mom - not sure what this will be yet...

5. Invest and take risks with friendships - getting to know people is something I love but is extremely hard for me to do past the "small talk" stage.  I do not like to be vulnerable, I like to keep my feelings safe.  However, God wants us to be open and develop meaningful relationships, that can not happen if you are not willing to take a risk, and open up.

I think those are the 5 main ones I came up with, although the first one has many in that one, but I feel as if these are all attainable and necessary changes I need to make in my life.  I believe that 2013 will be a better year, even if awful circumstances happen as they did last year, I believe that my faith is much stronger which will in turn mean my reactions to circumstances will be different.  I feel as if I have a lot more to write, for this blog I will end with this, since I struggle with joy, struggle with having enough faith to endure hard times, our pastor at church said this during one of his sermons, it encouraged me so much that I grabbed my i-phone and put it in my post it note app it says, " When life is hard, respond with faith that God is up to something."  I truly believe that and am wanting to live that out.