I almost never make New Year's resolutions. Because I know one very true thing about myself... I'm a great "idea" person with very little discipline to follow through. I can think of a hundred things that I started and never had the gumption to finish. Like, basketball, softball, volleyball, college, books (both reading and writing)... just to name a few. But, this year is going to be the year! I am going to follow through on this, or go down swinging!
Here's the deal. Last year I enlisted the help of my very good friend Julayne to help keep me accountable for reading my Bible. And she really sucked at it. As in, she asked me every.single.day. Sometimes I didn't do it and had to tell her that no, I hadn't read. And this is where she really started to get irritating. She never.missed.a.single.day! Are you serious? Not once? Oh, no, not even once! Picture me rolling my eyes at the thought of this, because that's exactly what I just did.
She resolved last year to read her Bible everyday and that's what she did. Please, be disgusted that she not only made a resolution, but she kept it. Because, if you're disgusted then somehow I'm justified in my disgust... more at myself really, then at her... but we won't tell her that.
So as you may have guessed the first part of my resolution is to read my Bible everyday. Every.single.day. There really is no reason "good" enough to justify missing a day.
And here's the really encouraging part. I learned that while it wasn't pleasant to tell Miss Perfect Attendance that I had missed a day, that I needed more people looking out for me. Not only that I heard too many of my friends saying my same excuses, "I just don't have time." or simply saying, "I'm not as good at reading my Bible as I should be." or even some who said, "I don't even remember the last time that I read my Bible." Oh, and I can put myself in each of those quotes as being the one who echoed those very words. So, while you're thinking, "She said this is the really encouraging part?" ... here's the thing. I resolved to make a resolution for my friends as well (isn't that wonderful of me?). We're not going to go at this alone and we're certainly not going to settle for this mediocre Christian walk.
Hotsauce has been reading Ephesians 5 with something like 10 other men from our church, all friends of ours, who decided that they were going to keep each other accountable. And while at first I thought it would be nice to do that with some of my friends, I didn't want to be a copy cat. Didn't want to step on the menfolks toes or anything ridiculous like that. As if it would be super offensive to read our Bibles everyday and become more Christlike and thereby becoming better wives and mothers. Who.do.I.think.I.am??
Obviously with Ben's blessing, I developed this plan. Over the course of the year I would invite my friends to read Ephesians and Galatians. Here's our reading plan.
January: Read Eph. 1 everyday
Feb.: Read Eph. 2 everyday
March: Read Eph. 3 everyday
April: Read Eph. 4 everyday
May: Read Eph. 5 everyday
June: Read Eph. 6 everyday
July: Read Gal. 1 everyday
Aug.: Read Gal. 2 everyday
Sept.: Read Gal. 3 everyday
Oct.: Read Gal. 4 everyday
Nov.: Read Gal. 5 everyday
Dec.: Read Gal. 6 everyday
After we are finished reading we send everyone a text that says, "Done." That way everyone knows who has done it and who may need a gentle reminder! Plus if you have 13 women and 3 girls waiting to know if you've read, that is some serious motivation for not slacking! Did you read that 3 girls are doing it too? *squeal*
Three daughters are joining their mamas in this year long Bible reading journey. Can you think of a better way to encourage/train/motivate your child to develop the discipline of being in God's Word then having her come along side of you! When Hannah "joined the ranks" it probably made me cry, but you will have to determine if that could possibly be true or not. By the end of the year we will have read through 2 books and should have a pretty good handle on them! So exciting!
The next resolution I made came from the inspiration of my wonderful friend, Bethany. Out of a labor of love Bethany made a prayer guide for women wanting to pray for their husbands! And since I have one of those who needs lots of prayer ;) I couldn't wait to get started. The guide maps out areas of life that our husbands need prayer in, such as, his integrity, his work, his finances, his obedience, his walk, his priorities, his fatherhood, his marriage, his trials... just to name a few! Each area of life has Scripture that is to be used to pray specifically for our husbands. What I love about that is that when I pray Scripture for Hotsauce it takes my selfish motivations out of the prayer and inserts God's intentions for him. Oh, and sometimes as I'm praying for Ben I actually call him "Hotsauce" in the prayer and I think God chuckles. Another thing that I love about the guide is that it also calls for me to pray for myself and my attitude and responses to Ben as the leader in our marriage. Perhaps the most convicting prayer that I've ever prayed for myself is that I would be "swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger" (James 1:9). I told Ben the other day that sometimes I pray that one 3 times in a single prayer because I don't feel like it's "taking" yet! I'm sure he thinks, "Only 3 times??" :)
So those are my two resolutions for 2012. Spend everyday in God's word and pray for my Hotsauce everyday. No excuses. No holding back.
By the way, it's not to late to join in the reading plan with us, just give me a heads up if you'd like to get started. Or if you're not from around these parts, get this going with your circle of friends! :)
Here's the deal. Last year I enlisted the help of my very good friend Julayne to help keep me accountable for reading my Bible. And she really sucked at it. As in, she asked me every.single.day. Sometimes I didn't do it and had to tell her that no, I hadn't read. And this is where she really started to get irritating. She never.missed.a.single.day! Are you serious? Not once? Oh, no, not even once! Picture me rolling my eyes at the thought of this, because that's exactly what I just did.
She resolved last year to read her Bible everyday and that's what she did. Please, be disgusted that she not only made a resolution, but she kept it. Because, if you're disgusted then somehow I'm justified in my disgust... more at myself really, then at her... but we won't tell her that.
So as you may have guessed the first part of my resolution is to read my Bible everyday. Every.single.day. There really is no reason "good" enough to justify missing a day.
And here's the really encouraging part. I learned that while it wasn't pleasant to tell Miss Perfect Attendance that I had missed a day, that I needed more people looking out for me. Not only that I heard too many of my friends saying my same excuses, "I just don't have time." or simply saying, "I'm not as good at reading my Bible as I should be." or even some who said, "I don't even remember the last time that I read my Bible." Oh, and I can put myself in each of those quotes as being the one who echoed those very words. So, while you're thinking, "She said this is the really encouraging part?" ... here's the thing. I resolved to make a resolution for my friends as well (isn't that wonderful of me?). We're not going to go at this alone and we're certainly not going to settle for this mediocre Christian walk.
Hotsauce has been reading Ephesians 5 with something like 10 other men from our church, all friends of ours, who decided that they were going to keep each other accountable. And while at first I thought it would be nice to do that with some of my friends, I didn't want to be a copy cat. Didn't want to step on the menfolks toes or anything ridiculous like that. As if it would be super offensive to read our Bibles everyday and become more Christlike and thereby becoming better wives and mothers. Who.do.I.think.I.am??
Obviously with Ben's blessing, I developed this plan. Over the course of the year I would invite my friends to read Ephesians and Galatians. Here's our reading plan.
January: Read Eph. 1 everyday
Feb.: Read Eph. 2 everyday
March: Read Eph. 3 everyday
April: Read Eph. 4 everyday
May: Read Eph. 5 everyday
June: Read Eph. 6 everyday
July: Read Gal. 1 everyday
Aug.: Read Gal. 2 everyday
Sept.: Read Gal. 3 everyday
Oct.: Read Gal. 4 everyday
Nov.: Read Gal. 5 everyday
Dec.: Read Gal. 6 everyday
After we are finished reading we send everyone a text that says, "Done." That way everyone knows who has done it and who may need a gentle reminder! Plus if you have 13 women and 3 girls waiting to know if you've read, that is some serious motivation for not slacking! Did you read that 3 girls are doing it too? *squeal*
Three daughters are joining their mamas in this year long Bible reading journey. Can you think of a better way to encourage/train/motivate your child to develop the discipline of being in God's Word then having her come along side of you! When Hannah "joined the ranks" it probably made me cry, but you will have to determine if that could possibly be true or not. By the end of the year we will have read through 2 books and should have a pretty good handle on them! So exciting!
The next resolution I made came from the inspiration of my wonderful friend, Bethany. Out of a labor of love Bethany made a prayer guide for women wanting to pray for their husbands! And since I have one of those who needs lots of prayer ;) I couldn't wait to get started. The guide maps out areas of life that our husbands need prayer in, such as, his integrity, his work, his finances, his obedience, his walk, his priorities, his fatherhood, his marriage, his trials... just to name a few! Each area of life has Scripture that is to be used to pray specifically for our husbands. What I love about that is that when I pray Scripture for Hotsauce it takes my selfish motivations out of the prayer and inserts God's intentions for him. Oh, and sometimes as I'm praying for Ben I actually call him "Hotsauce" in the prayer and I think God chuckles. Another thing that I love about the guide is that it also calls for me to pray for myself and my attitude and responses to Ben as the leader in our marriage. Perhaps the most convicting prayer that I've ever prayed for myself is that I would be "swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger" (James 1:9). I told Ben the other day that sometimes I pray that one 3 times in a single prayer because I don't feel like it's "taking" yet! I'm sure he thinks, "Only 3 times??" :)
So those are my two resolutions for 2012. Spend everyday in God's word and pray for my Hotsauce everyday. No excuses. No holding back.
By the way, it's not to late to join in the reading plan with us, just give me a heads up if you'd like to get started. Or if you're not from around these parts, get this going with your circle of friends! :)
1 comment:
Those are some great resolutions, Kelly, and I really enjoyed reading this. "Hotsauce" gave me a good chuckle.
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