Jesus Dates

I've been trying to be more intentional about having daily time set aside that I spend with Jesus. It usually ends up being afternoon nap time. I wish it was in the morning, but my kids' wake up times are not regular so nap time is a consistent time I can set aside every day.

I love Psalm 19 because it is a great reminder how awesome God's Word is.

The prayer for my heart.

An amazing description of God's Word.

The verses I picked for Rya and Titus to pray for them for this year (or at least the next 6 months).

This is a great book that helps teach mothers how to get down to heart issues when parenting their kids instead of just trying to change outward behavior. It's an overwhelming book, but in a great way. It definitely reminds me that I need Christ to do this Mommy thing!

Devotional book Bryan and I are going to be working through. It's a 30 day thing. Looking forward to it!

Decisions for the New Year

I have always avoided make New Year Resolutions. Mostly because I am a very lazy person and knew that whatever my goal was would not be achieved. I viewed it as a "quit while I'm ahead" kind of thing. If I was able to accomplish something, then awesome, but if it didn't happen I didn't have to deal with the guilt of not reaching my goal.

This year is different. God is calling me out of my laziness and challenging me to a new life. A new life of being intentional. Over a year ago I found this blog called Intentional by Grace. Leigh Ann and Nikki and other contributing writers all focus on intentional living. God has been slowly tugging on my heart that I needed to change. I needed to stop living selfishly and live for Him. Living for Christ gives my life purpose. It gives each day purpose.

So here are my decision for this new year. They are all pretty much geared around the idea of living intentionally.

Self:
-Making time for God in every day. In this season of my life it might not always be at the same time every day but I have time I can set aside to read the Word and pray.
-Exercise. I need it- end of story. There's no way I am going to get down to pre-Rya weight without it.

Marriage:
-Praying together every day. Once again this might not always be at the same time every day but it CAN happen every day.
-Dates: whether in or out they need to be more frequent.

Kids:
-Using Scripture as I teach/guide/discipline them. I want them to know what God says in His Word and to want to obey it.
-Playing with them more. I play with them a lot now, but I also like to sit on the couch and watch them play quite a bit. Both are good things. However, I want to intentionally seek to spend time with them together and one on one.

House:
-Stick to a cleaning schedule! Sadly, I wrote out a schedule when we moved over a year ago and I have NEVER finished a full week. And it's really not a hard schedule to stick to, either! I'm just lazy and I come up with excuses.
-Stop living out of laundry baskets. Bryan hates digging around for clothes. I hate digging around for clothes. Does this change our tendency to "forget" to put away clothes? Not so much. So here I go being intentional about putting clothes away.

I'm sure there might be more specific things as well. It all comes back to being intentional.

What goals did you set this year?