For a long time I observed each 'new year' at the beginning of the school year instead of the start of the calendar year. Even though it was always a little quirky, for me, each school year brought new challenges, opportunities and milestones both when I was a student, and when I was a teacher so starting my year in September instead of January felt natural. Now that I've been out of the classroom for a little over 2 years I am starting to acclimate to measuring my year based on the calendar year and not a school calendar. Which means that as this past December raced by, I frequently found myself thinking about 2018 and what kind of year I wanted it to be.
I am a pretty big believer in the combination of attitude and intentionality. Basically, when I have a good attitude about something and I am intentional about doing that thing, I seem to do a lot better then when my attitude is poor or my priorities don't support the activity or goal. As a stay-at-home mom, I feel a constant pull to do more and be more in pretty much every aspect of my life. From household tasks to parenting, I see areas where I can grow and improve across the board. It would be easy to be swallowed by feelings of inadequacy but I know that allowing myself to live my life out of feelings like that won't serve me or my family.
When I look ahead and mentally plan for the day, week, month or year, I have to ask God to help me prioritize what the most important parts of those timeframes should be. From the outside looking in, the examples I have of this in my day to day life seem almost trivial, but the peace that comes from seeking Gods input and help for my daily life is foundational to my ability to have a good attitude and to do things intentionally. Each and every time I thought through 2018, I felt prompted to claim a specific Bible verse for the year. I have never done anything like this before, and truthfully, it felt a little weird to claim a specific verse for a specific year. But the more I felt prompted to do it, the more I could see how clearly the truth and principles of this verse weave a beautiful purpose throughout each coming day in the year ahead.
I am a pretty big believer in the combination of attitude and intentionality. Basically, when I have a good attitude about something and I am intentional about doing that thing, I seem to do a lot better then when my attitude is poor or my priorities don't support the activity or goal. As a stay-at-home mom, I feel a constant pull to do more and be more in pretty much every aspect of my life. From household tasks to parenting, I see areas where I can grow and improve across the board. It would be easy to be swallowed by feelings of inadequacy but I know that allowing myself to live my life out of feelings like that won't serve me or my family.
When I look ahead and mentally plan for the day, week, month or year, I have to ask God to help me prioritize what the most important parts of those timeframes should be. From the outside looking in, the examples I have of this in my day to day life seem almost trivial, but the peace that comes from seeking Gods input and help for my daily life is foundational to my ability to have a good attitude and to do things intentionally. Each and every time I thought through 2018, I felt prompted to claim a specific Bible verse for the year. I have never done anything like this before, and truthfully, it felt a little weird to claim a specific verse for a specific year. But the more I felt prompted to do it, the more I could see how clearly the truth and principles of this verse weave a beautiful purpose throughout each coming day in the year ahead.
The verse is found in Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 6-9:
These commands that I give to you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and your gates.
While I will not actually be tying any commands to my hands or binding them on my forehead, I love the call to put God's commands in my heart and talk about them with my children. I am especially challenged by the idea of talking about them when I sit at home, when I walk along the road, when I lie down and when I get up. Basically, what I believe God is telling me is that in order to impress his commands on my children, there is always opportunity to talk about Him throughout the day. As I read through this verse each day, I have also been asking God to give me natural ways to talk about Him and His Word with Nicole.
I love to learn and I love to teach. It has always felt natural for me to teach Nicole about things in our environment like cooking dinner, raking leaves or taking care of our belongings, but the greater lesson behind all that we do is about the God who created her with a special purpose in mind and loves her more than she'll ever know. This year I am actively looking for opportunities to tell Nicole all about the God who holds the whole world in His hands.
I love to learn and I love to teach. It has always felt natural for me to teach Nicole about things in our environment like cooking dinner, raking leaves or taking care of our belongings, but the greater lesson behind all that we do is about the God who created her with a special purpose in mind and loves her more than she'll ever know. This year I am actively looking for opportunities to tell Nicole all about the God who holds the whole world in His hands.
If you have any new things that you're trying out in 2018, I'd love to hear about them!
With love,
Erica
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