the greenest grass around

Happy 2023

A new year brings new hope and new opportunity.

Over the past week, I have been thinking and praying about goals for this year. I considered not creating any goals based on how bad the year 2022 was for us. But to stay true to myself, I decided to plan a few goals. Goals help me to have something to work towards. They help me stay organized and focused. If not, I will end up repainting cabinets at midnight (it has actually happened.) Not that goals keep me so focused that I do not have time to get wild hair but they usually help me keep first things first.

I am a huge fan of “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” 1. Be proactive (hence goal setting). 2. Begin with the end in mind, 3. Keep first things first, 4. Think win-win, 5. Seek first to understand, then be understood, 6. Synergize, 7. Sharpen the saw. I will touch on these throughout the week.

This year I found a planner that requested words and a bible verse for the year. Both of these concepts are new to me but I thought “Why not.” I might even pick a song theme for the year. But mainly this verse from Esther, you know it. “Perhaps you were born for a time such as this.” Esther 4:14 keeps coming to my mind.

Over the past six months, my life has been turned upside down. I had it together, or so I thought. I had the American dream; a husband, 2 kids, dogs, a good job, great family and friends, church, and community. I ALWAYS have a plan. I ALWAYS have it together. I ALWAYS know where I am going and what I am doing. Well God had other plans. But this verse just keeps coming up. So I am throwing my hands up, I have asked God to help me trust him EVERY SINGLE DAY since June 20, 2022. Here I am Lord, send me… (Not really, I’d prefer to say local…) again enter pleading emoji. But in all seriousness, I cannot get away from that verse so here goes nothing. Let’s see what God will do.

My words for this year ( I turned them into a sentence. Blame the teacher inside of me.)

I will check my perspective while I am healing so that I will prevail.

Perspective- Because I could have a terrible attitude about what happened, and no one would blame me. Not one person would judge me for it but that isn’t me. Yet, I know the way the devil works. I know that I will need to check my attitude, my negativity, my pride, my selfishness, and my love for others. It would be easy to say, “It’s not fair.” and it isn’t but life isn’t fair. What happened to Jesus wasn’t fair. He did nothing but died for our sins. So yes, I need to check my perspective.

Healing– I touched on this a little earlier. This coming year, I have to let myself heal. I have not been kind to myself. Then again so much has been going on and it’s easy to put things off. I need to allow myself to heal mentally (there is so much going into grief that I never knew about.) I need to heal physically. I have not kept up with my weight or exercised in the last six months and just let myself go. Now, you may say, “well you have been through a lot, give yourself some grace.” Yes, but there comes a point when it is unhealthy and I am definitely there. Finally, my family’s relationship has to heal. There is no blame or anything like that but we had a great loss and each deals with things differently. It has caused some dysfunction and we need time to heal.

Prevail– I picked prevail because I am determined to survive this, and I am determined to make sure my family thrives in the future. My life may not look at all like it used to but I will come out on the other side. We will be victorious with the help of God and our support system.

My words, verses, and songs will help me keep first things first and begin with the end in mind. I hope you will join me on this journey.

This week, I will be posting a reflection on one bible verse a day. Each of these verses was one that I chose to consider for my verse of the year. Then I will tell you which one I choose and why. I hope you will reflect on this past year and how you can focus on what is important to you in the new year. I love a new year, it brings so much promise and hopes for the future. Let me know if you choose words or verses for the year. I would love to hear them.