My friend Mrs. R has a family theme. Last year it was "Come what may, and love it" and this year is "Hold thy peace." Mrs. R is a truly inspiring women. Following her example, Nic and I have chosen a family theme: "Trust God and believe in good things to come."
The last four months of 2010 were hard ( *insert Michael Scott joke* ). We had to make big changes in our life. Changes Nic accepted more than I did. I'm a stubborn, hard-headed individual. I tend to want things my way. And though my life experiences have taught me that this isn't how it works, I always tend to forget that the Lord is over all. I can't even begin to count how many times I have personally felt the Lords hand in my life, but yet I still struggle to let go and have things not go MY way. One day I'll learn (hopefully!).
With these big changes in our life have come adjustments and more struggles. But through all of it, one thing has remained true: I have felt the Lord guiding us. Because we have humbled ourselves and given Him our trust and faith, He has guided us. He has given us those small reminders of His love. He has answered prayers through friends and inspiration.
When things were hardest for me, I came across a Mormon messages video that featured Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. To this day the video (still) makes me cry. The message at the end is so powerful: "There is help and happiness ahead. Some blessings come soon. Some come late. And some don't come until heaven. . .it will be alright in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come."
Nic and I both know, and feel, that 2011 is going to be filled with new and exciting things for us. And we know that as long as we "trust God and believe in good things to come" all will be well.
Here is the video:
I've also decided there are a few things that I would like to work on this year:
1] Obviously trust more in the Lord. This is where I lack. I can trust Him in the small things but when it comes to trusting Him in the BIG things I'm scared. I'm scared about the "what if's." But no more! "Trust God and believe in good things to come." Bring it on 2011!
2] Have dinner at a regularly scheduled time (preferably when the hubby comes home from work). I've been doing good with this. We even got our kitchen table cleaned off so we're sitting at the table and not on the couch with our TV trays. Eating on the couch was something we did fairly often and I hated it! So nice to have the table cleaned off.
3] Set business hours. Being self-employed as a massage therapist and trying to kick-start my business, is very time consuming. I have marketing to do, research, networking, marketing meetings, answering emails, sending emails, more research, writing articles, more marketing. You catch my drift. I'm usually working from when I wake up to right before I go to sleep. Need to set hours so I'm not neglecting my responsibilities at home. Which leads me to number 4. . .
4] Fulfill my household responsibilities. I cook? Yes. I clean? Occasionally. I do laundry? Um, only when I'm in desperate need of things. To sum it up, I pretty much suck at life when it comes to getting these type of things done. 2011 will be anew.
5] (Really) Read my scriptures. This was Inspired by my older brother. He stopped going to church when he was 18. Recently he has started going back to church AND reading the Book of Mormon. Not just 'reading' it but really reading it. Like studying and pondering of every little thing. And if he doesn't understand a chapter he reads it again. He's told me he's spent a couple of days on chapters. Um, so not there with my scripture study habits. I read them and ponder them but I don't study them out like my brother does. So appreciative of his example.
6] Blog more, Facebook less. One of my friends said that she FBed so much that she stopped posting on her blog. And she didn't want that. I read an article that stated FB was the new blog. I don't want that. I can make a book out of my blog, but not my FB posts-even if they are pretty witty.
7] Get out more. When I was full-time and it came time for the weekend, I just wanted to stay home. But now I want to get out and LIVE! We have a book that's "everything Idaho" it tells you about different towns in Idaho and what they have to offer. I want to live this book.
8] Date my husband more. Even if it's just us hanging out and rocking out to Rock Band.
9] Take more pictures. I have a good camera. But I rarely take it out to just taken random pictures of us. Then I feel as if we have nothing to show the past year.
Bring it on 2011. It's going to be an amazing year!
*it should be noted for some reason I am having a very hard time typing "2011." For some reason, I want to type "2001." Weird. And yes, every time I typed "2011" in this blog it was first typed "2001."