Last Week of 2009

The last week of 2009 is upon us... time to look back at the year behind us and look forward to the new one ahead. When I wrote our family Christmas letter to accompany our cards, I took down our wall calendar and skimmed through it for the major events of the year. Writing this blog was even mentioned in our letter since it was something new that I attempted.

I've never been a New Year's Day goal setter and do not consider January 1 as some kind of "magical" day to begin something new. I am a planner by nature and Mondays work well for me to do that, to ponder what to do in the coming days. I want to keep on track with my daily walking (5x a week) which I did this morning, as well as continue to build up my eBay business. This blog is helping me to journal about daily life as well as what the Lord is teaching me each day as well. I want to encourage my sons and husband to do their best using whatever gifts God has given them and enhance some of my musical skills with some more challenging music to practice. Saving money and being a good steward is always a goal so that will definitely continue into the new year. For the last several years I have read through the Bible using a specific 365 day Bible (NIV). Those little booklets with the schedule don't work for me. It's much easier to have a Bible that is divided into daily readings.

Our church had a guest speaker on Sunday morning, an old friend of ours who has been a missionary to Japan and is now in the U.S. for a season preparing to hopefully, return there. As soon as his sermon is uploaded I'll put the link here for you to listen to. It was really quite excellent about evaluating your relationship with the Lord and determining what your idols are as we begin the new year. One point he made was that even good things can be idols and that asking yourself what gives me the greatest joy is an easy to tell what they are. For me, that was easy--my children. This will be a year of removing them from that pedestal. What good thing are you settling for instead of the Best thing--enjoying God?

Why wait until tomorrow (or 4 days from now) to begin what you could begin today? Start thinking now about what you have in mind for 2010 before January 1 arrives on Friday.

Ecclesiastess 3:1

There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—