This is Your Life...Are You Who You Want to Be?

New Year's Day. The day in which everyone makes New Year's resolutions.....

Resolutions that start out with good intentions but often time fade off into ancient history by the middle of February....

Personally, I have made many different New Year's resolutions in the past. Sometimes I accomplish my goal. But mostly my well-intended goal becomes something I forget about after a few months.

So this year I am not making New Year's resolutions. Nope. No New Year's resolutions for me. Instead, I am going to give myself some "This is My Life...Am I Who I Want to Be" goals. These aren't just trivial things that I am going to forget about. This isn't a list of 49 different things that I will easily forget I even wrote down. These are things that will truly change my life. These are things that I have seen in my life that I want to change...things that will make me a better person.

I got this idea from two things. First of all, I love the song by Switchfoot called "This is Your Life". Secondly, I recently was talking to my daughter about the jewelry she likes. She made the comment that she loved this pair of earrings so much but she could never wear them. Why I asked why not, she said it was because she never wore earrings like that. Right away I responded with, "Why don't you change that?" I use to never wear bracelets or big earrings. I just didn't like how they looked on me. I liked how they looked on others though. But one day (several years back) I just decided to break out of my mold and change my pattern. And guess what? To this day I wear bracelets and big earrings!!!

That got me thinking...what else about my life do I want to change? What other things have I just been doing over and over again....things that could be changed...things that could be improved? Sometimes we get stuck in a rut and forget that we have the ability to get ourselves out of our rut!!!

So here it goes.....here are my "This is My Life...Am I Who I Want to Be Goals"....not the complete list...just some that I have jotted down for now.....(in no particular order)...

1) Draw closer to God....not just in a "temporary..last 2 weeks" burst of passion. I want a true passion that consumes my life and becomes the very foundation of my life...my reason for living...the thing I base EVERYTHING in my life on....a relentless love.

2) Take care of the body that God has given me. This goal means I need to get back to my goal weight. In the last 2 years I have lost a lot of weight, but I have become lazy in maintaining my goal weight. This goal will involve both exercising AND eating healthier.

3) Beat my 5k time and participate in longer races. In 2011, I participated in my first ever 5k race...and I LOVED IT! The whole process of racing made me prepare by taking care of my body and becoming a healthier person overall. It was scary to run my first race, but it truly took me out of my comfort zone and into something that stretched me. I don't run races to finish in the top...I know that I run too slow for that. Instead, my goal is to continue racing and to continually better my personal best time.

4) Better myself musically. I will admit...in the past I have been so busy that I failed to practice music and my instruments faithfully. God has put a renewed passion...a fire...inside me for music. I want to flourish musically and nurture these talents that He has put inside of me. They shouldn't go to waste...and they shouldn't go by the wayside and be something that I don't give attention to.

5) Spend more time in worship....and prayer....and Bible reading. These are the foundation of my relationship with God. I will draw closer to God naturally with more time spent with Him. This goal means turning off the TV, computer, etc...and purposefully spending time with God.

6) Become a better wife. Yes, my husband and I have a great relationship now...but I know it can get even deeper. He is my best friend...but I want to get even closer to him.

7) Become a better mother. My kids are growing up soooo incredibly fast! This goal is about becoming closer to my kids and doing more with them...spending more time....being a better role model.

8) Become a better pastor's wife/friend to those around me. I want to be the best friend I can be to those around me. I want to be the best pastor's wife I can be. But none of this is possible without God's help.

9) Become a true "woman of God"....one that God is proud of. I want to get rid of any areas of my life that are hindering my walk with God.

10) Get back to writing. Yes...I am writing on my blog more already. But I have failed to work at getting my writing published over the past year. I want to nurture this talent!

11) Learn to make deviled eggs. You may laugh at this one. But this is more than just being about eggs. This goal involves all those things that I previously thought I couldn't do. Deviled eggs aren't hard to make. I just have never succeeded with it! But why stop trying???? Why not keep trying until I succeed???

So there you have it....11 of my "This is My Life...Am I Who I Want to Be" goals. This list will continually change and grow as the year continues...and as the rest of my life continues. But the basic point of this is that we don't have to stay the way we are. We have the ability, with God's help, to change who we are...to better ourselves.

Think about this....This is YOUR life...are you who you want to be?