welcome 2008

I've never really gotten into the whole 'resolutions' thing, but I do love any opportunity to re-evaluate, refresh and, in a sense, start over. Actually, I find myself doing this every few months (and it seems I need to that often!) - I do it in August or Sept (beginning of school year), January (New Year), and sometime around spring, when I try to Air-Out and Clean-Out.

Last night Todd & I spent a little time praying together and asking God for some direction for us personally, and for Koinonia House. We felt that there were a few key areas that we should focus on afresh for the new year, and really commit ourselves to:

• Changing eating habits - we both could stand to lose some weight, as well as, we noticed how much better we felt last summer during our fast when we had cut out all 'meats and sweets' and tried to stick with pretty much just whole foods. AND we had lost 10 pounds...but once the fast was done we were right back to our old ways. We're tired of feeling sluggish, and having some other physical affects of our less than stellar eating habits, so we are going to make a new effort (well, other than fasting, we've never actually made ANY effort, so I'm not sure "new" is even the right word!)
• We are starting a reading plan together (Todd & I) that will take us straight through from Genesis to Revelations over the course of the year. This is something else I've never attempted before, but I've really felt over the past few weeks God was calling me to this challenge. It will take me getting more serious about my devotion time, which is really what I need. My sad, but true, admission is that my quiet time is definitely erratic. I know that as a mom of little ones I need to be flexible - and believe me, it's not like I think God is sitting there with a stop-watch, clocking my devotional time. But I think I've tended to use that as an excuse (let's get perfectly honest here!) and it's let my personal one-on-one time with God get too lax. And I definitely can sense it in my overall attitude, so I know it's time to 're-group' on this one. I think what might help act as a 'priority thermostat' is checking my God-time in comparison to my blog-time. Who or what is getting me of my undivided attention?
• Making sure that some of the family time we spend together gets devoted to Bible stories and praying together - as a family. We are going to continue with our weekly family night, but make sure that, sometime during the course of the week, we read at least 2 Bible stories with the kids.

I love fresh starts!!

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:21-23