Happy New Year!

We had a quiet New Year's Celebration as a family. It was fun to be able to stay inside with how cold it has been over this holiday season. We ordered supper (although Terry braved the cold to pick it up), enjoyed a chocolate fondue, and played some games together as a family. Kirra made up a new game she calls, "The Family Game." It was boys against girls. You ask each team questions about the other person on the team but they have to write their answer down before you can answer verbally. For each correct answer in this 'how well do you know me' game, you get a point. It was cute that she made up a game for all of us to play. We started watching a movie together fairly late in hopes of staying up to ring in the new year. However, Terry and the kids fell asleep and I woke them all at midnight to say, "Happy New Year!" And then we all went to sleep. It was a cozy New Year celebration together and was perfect just the way it was, even if we didn't do a countdown.

A new year means a new beginning, a clean slate. Really, we could look at every day as a new beginning knowing that God's mercies are new every morning, but there is just something about the reflection of a new year. I look forward to each new year with anticipation - anticipation of further growth with each passing day and each passing year. Every year as January 1st approaches, I always wonder what my new goals should be or whether I should even set new goals. As I was chatting with a girlfriend tonight I joked, "A new year with new goals not to be kept." And then we talked about the different areas for further growth in the year ahead - in our marriages, as mothers, in our Christian walk, in our jobs, as well as physically. My girlfriend proceeded to talk about a fitness goal she had the year before and how part way through the year, the goal morphed into something different. Exactly as it should be. I think that in our walk, we should always be learning and growing and our goals should constantly be morphing. Morphing because we have reached those goals but also because those goals need to reflect our walk and season in time.

Our lives can be so busy and life ebbs and flows. We need to experience life - the life we are living and learn from our past and not let us hold us back. We shouldn't let past goals, some perhaps unmet, hold us back but we should be able to learn from them and morph those goals into what they need to become to shape us into the people God intended. Life is a journey and we need to keep moving forward. There are times we may not meet our goals or those goals may morph into something bigger and better. May we all be willing to show grace to ourselves if we waver from our goals while at the same time have the wisdom to redefine what those goals should look like as we move forward in 2018.

So, what are some of the goals you have for the new year? What areas of your life need work? For me I definitely want to continue to grow in my faith life, put more time into my marriage and relationships with family and friends, and I have a couple of fitness goals as well. One thing I have learned about goals is the use of the acronym SMART - Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Timely. It is important to know what each goal looks like when achieved and continue to allow the goals to morph as growth occurs. And having support in place when creating goals is beneficial. When you can have a couple of people who encourage you and help with accountablity, you are more likely to achieve the goals you set. I would love to hear what some of your goals are for the year ahead as we encourage each other in our journeys.