Happy New Year to you!!!! Doesn't the ring of that, bring a jingle to your heart? I love those two words together- New Year. A blank book of pages waiting for our hopes, dreams, and memories to fill them.
If you are like most of us, Christmas decorations are being put away till that glorious time arrives at the end of THIS year. Too soon the bliss of the holiday is set aside in our minds, as the routines of work and daily living and academic lessons resumes. Actually, I am looking forward to the monotone hum that daily living brings. But this first week of January brings change like a hurricane. One day we are eating the delicacies of the season with abandon, the next day fine-tuning our new exercise regimen and diet. One day we are spending and giving with bliss, the very next day taking account and getting ready for taxes. Children lost in the pleasure of days filled with playing, now need to rise early to attend school. (One of mine does tomorrow. The other still gets to sleep a little later!)
Organization beckons to us, as over-swelling refrigerators with holiday left-overs and garbage cans overflowing with cardboard boxes that housed all kinds of toys, yell at us that they need attended to. Every organizational tool is for sale in the stores currently. The sale flyers yelling at us to "get yourself in order!" As if one human being could organize cupboards closets, garages, budgets, diets, schedules, and our lives- all within a few weeks!
I love to set things in order. Really. I love to plan and carry it out- making a mess into something clean and crisp. The starkness of January, right after the full revelry o December, is a perfect time to do this. But I am telling myself and exhorting you:
Remember to give yourself time to adjust. And give your children and spouse the same room and patience.
As the end of a year closes, I begin in prayer to ask the Lord what my focus should be for the upcoming year. I make a prayerful assessment of all of the aspects in my life and family's, and prayerfully re-prioritize. I consider my inward character needs, and the outward behaviors, activities, distractions, and things that I would like to venture into. I use this time to gain what balance I can possibly maintain with a husband, three teens, a daughter, and a dog.
By listening to the Holy Spirit, I am guided into a
main focus for the year. This year, it is to be "Sow, till, weed, and work." To me, this means I am to keep doing diligently that which I have been doing, and continue to give my all in it. Sow more. Dig deeper. Weed more stringently. And continue to work where I am. For me,
that work is being a help-meet to my husband as manager of our home, mother of our children, help with bookkeeping for his businesses, director of the home education of two of my children, teacher a class at co-op, hostess and leader o bible study groups, student at the university, and writer for Ladies Of Virtue. Whew! Really, I am not a type-A person (which is fine if you are!) I simply have been given a lot of responsibilities. This year I am reminded to be faithful in them. I share this with you to help you understand what I mean by
focus.
Your focus will be totally different. Our Abba knows us and our situations intimately. He will guide you just as you need directed. Do yo have an idea of where you are being led this year?
"Aspirations"-
"an ardent wish or desire, chiefly of spiritual blessings;
to to rise or tower with desire"
from American Dictionary of the English Language, Noah Webster, 1828.
I encourage you to pray about your life and the upcoming year. You have aspirations for yourself and family; do not throw yourself back into life's routine with no thought. I always ask the Lord for a scripture to confirm this focus. Ask. He is faithful to speak to you. Just for your understanding, last year my focus was "DeSTRESS." Nothing seemingly spiritual about that. But I can tell you that life's circumstances can rob you of the fruit of the Spirit in you. I cut back on activities, situations, perspectives, and emotions that robbed me of peace and joy. I made adjustments to my schedule and my children's. Of course, I could not get rid of ALL stress; but having that for my year's focus, I was on a path to live more fruitfully this year.
Always one to write things down, I made a list of ponderings for myself that I have used the past few years. I keep it in the front of my home planner to peruse throughout the year, as a compass so to speak. Below I am attaching one or you and encourage you to prayerfully use it. If you do, would you please let me know? I would live to hear what your year's aspirations are.
"And the Lord answered me and said, 'Write the vision and engrave it so plainly upon tablets....'"
~Habakkuk 2:3 Ampl.
May your 2012 be richly blessed.
To download
2012- Yearly Aspirations click here. And please share your vision with me.
If you would like to receive LOV letters in your eBox,
So with that introduction, I would like to share that January for me is about RENEWal. I used to follow the masses and view this month after Christmas with disdain. Yes, the days are shorter, colder -bleak even- routine. However, I now actually look forward to these days of January. Why? Because the cold gives me reason to get cozy with a hot mug of hot chocolate. The shortness of the days prompts me to crawl into my cozy bed with a good book. The routine and lack of celebration gives me time to rest and enjoy the simple things some of which I just mentioned. 
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