HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wow! 1-1-11! This is crazy! I'm very excited about this new year! I feel like it is going to be amazing. I wanted to take some time to reflect and get a purpose and just see where God wants me to focus for the year. Just something I like to do. I had some time to think about it. I got a call around 2:10am this morning from my mom. She called to let me know my little bro L had called the ambulance to pick him up. She had to go to work at 5:00 am, so she was trying to get someone to cover for her. My dad is on a camping trip with my little sister. So, my mom called me to go to the hospital with my brother. The hospital is about forty-five minutes to an hour away from my house. So I left my party peeps (I was just going to get in bed) and headed here:



Thank goodness it wasn't anything serious. He has plueracy, which is just inflammation basically. I took him home. Then drove home. I got home at 5:30 am. Thank the Lord for safe driving. Anyways, I had a lot of time to think about the new year and goals and such. So, I thought I would post my goals for the year.

Now, granted, I know I may not reach all of them, but it's a good guide map to start walking with. My #1 thing is to be a completely different person this time next year. I would really like that. So, here we go!

1)Consistently follow hard after Christ.

2) Read through the Bible in a year (I've got the plan going!)

3) TALK MORE - I don't talk about my feelings enough with the people that should hear that. I bottle up a lot, and then explode later.

4) Write more - blogging, journaling, experimenting with writing...

5) Use means of communication more effectively - facebook, twitter, this blog - I deleted a bunch of "friends" from facebook - mostly married men and people that are on there that aren't really friends - just faces I may have met once or twice. I'd like to use means of communication to really build relationship and/or point people to Christ.

6) Become more domestic - I'd like to cook more and maybe even start some sewing or something - I don't know - use this as a way not to waste time - I'm a big time waster - maybe doing some of these will help me with that.

7) Love God & Love People More than Myself - basically, putting others before me. I'm super selfish. I love me. I only do what I want to do when I want to do it and how I want to do it. I'd like to get beyond that. This will probably be the hardest.
8) Orphans - I don't really know what this enta
ils. I just have such a heart for the orphans of the world. Maybe something locally? Maybe just praying & giving? I don't really know.

Like I said - it's a dream list, but it's a good place to get started. Hope your New's Year Day is as relaxing as mine! May this new year be the best of our lives!

HAPPY 2011!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Okay, so tonight I brought in the new year with some of my closest friends and communion.

Here's how I threw a great party:

1) Great Christmas Music


2) Clean the House


3) Set up Bathroom Kits for Guests




4) Encouraging Notes for Guests (and myself!)





5) Tablescapes


6) Decorations (KEEP IT SIMPLE)


7) Food (KEEP IT SIMPLE)


8) Great Friends






9) Reflection/Thought on the New Year



10) Bringing in the New Year with Communion (THE RIGHT WAY!)



It was a great night....more pictures/posts to come from this night..

New Year Plans?

Well, it's that time again. At the end of every year, I think about a couple of things.

1. My parent's anniversary. I was born before they were married, so I kind of give credit to myself for getting them together (ha!). They were married on December 30th, so I will be wishing them 23 looong years and many more to come!

2. New Year's Eve plans. This year I am getting together with my closest friends to celebrate. We are just going to hang out and spend some quality time together. I hope that we can talk about what the new year will hold in place and goals and such. That is my hope. Along with a lot of laughter.

3. Old Year Reflections - where was I this time last year. Have I gone backwards, forwards, still in the same place? Did I reach my goals? Did my predictions come true. This year I can say I think I've moved backwards in many areas of my life, especially my relationship with God. I didn't reach my goals. I don't know that I ever do. None of my predictions came true. They involved babies, love, and something bad happening (none of which involved me). None of them came true.

4. Old Year Pictures. I usually like to review the year through pictures. I am currently in the process of putting all my 2010 pictures on a jump drive to display on a digital frame through the new year. Can be a fun and a not so fun experience, but the memories are really good.

5. New Year Goals. This is what I want to accomplish in the new year. These are my "resolutions" so to speak. I am still formulating mine for 2011.

6. New Year Predictions. I don't usually predict for myself. My predictions will probably be very similar to what they were last year. I just think they have more of a chance of happening this year.


What about you? Do you do anything with the old year? What are your plans for bringing in the new? Any resolutions? I want to hear them!

Hoarders & Intervention

So, I've been watching a couple of shows lately that seem to stick out to me. They've either been about hoarders or addictions and they always end up in intervention. I was watching this one show and watched this man and woman living in the woman's hoarding chaos. I looked at the man and with my kindest intention thought, "Ugh! Who in their right mind would live with that? LEAVE BROTHER!" The intervention shows talk about this. They talk about enablers, people who may not add to the addiction of people, but in the name of "helping" them, enable them to be addicted. Of course, I judged them, too (being the good Christian person that I am - haha).

I watched the intervention and it just kind of blew me away. Not being an ex-druggy, I've never experienced anything like that. The people get together when someone is pretty much at rock bottom, tell them how they've been affected, and then present the person with options. And it kind of hit me.

1. Why do we wait until people hit rock bottom to have an intervention?
2. Why do we only do intervention for drugs/alcohol? Why not do intervention for a different kind of hoarding - unforgiveness - or people who are harboring anger. I don't know, just a thought.
3. What am I enabling? in other people? in myself? What piles of junk am I just looking over, passing up, etc? Why don't I just look at myself and say, "MOVE OUT, SISTER!"
4. What hoarders are we judging? Everyone has a little bit of a hoarder/addict in them. Just different things.
5. Does intervention really help? It requires someone to care about people. Is it effective?


Just some thoughts. Would love to hear yours!

Week Off

So, I have the week off. The only thing I have to do for work is check email today and tomorrow (for payment deadline purposes - it's a long story). Today is Monday. There are a couple of things running through my head.

1) Holy Cow - I didn't get anything accomplished today. I did straighten up pillows in the living room, empty and fill the dishwasher in the kitchen, sweep the middle of every floor in the house to appear that I cleaned, pay a bill, drove to our Chick-Fil-A for my Fix, and cleaned out my purse. Sure that sounds like a lot, but compare it to the number of hours in the day and the amount that my roomie who had the day off got done, and you'll see - I got nothing accomplished today.

2) I have a whole list of TO DO! My to do lists get pretty ridiculous, actually. I don't know if you could accomplish them in a year. Yet, there are some items that are doable and I want to finish them. They bounce around in my head like a game of Pong. This list is the reason for feeling #1.

3) Why do I have to do the to do list? Don't I deserve some time off? This is like a sick cycle I put myself through. I have a lot to do, I need to do it, I don't do it because I feel obligated to give myself time to not do it, and then I feel guilty for not doing it. It's a sick cycle. I know.

Does anyone else face this cycle? What do you do with the battle of lazy time and productivity that should occur? And don't tell me to take me time - I take plenty of me time - hence the reason my to do list is so long. I don't do it! HA!

Any thoughts?

Snow!

Yes, Virginia, there is a weather man! We had snow in Myrtle Beach! I know - it's hard to believe. I feel like the Meiser brothers made some wicked deal to help Santa get his little Vixen back or something. If you have no clue what I'm talking about, watch Year Without A Santa Claus. I actually went out and played in the snow today. Super fun! It was a White Christmas after all.

And yes, we didn't go to church today? Why? Because in the South - we can't drive. Second of all, we can't drive in precipitation, especially not snow. So I stayed home all day. It was wonderful! Look at some of the pictures:

Experience

"He told me that it had all happened one winter day, as he was looking at a barren tree. Although the tree's leaves were indeed gone, he knew that they would soon reappear, followed by blossomsm and then fruit. This gave hima profound impression of God's providence and power, which never left him. [He] still maintains that this impression detached him entirely from the world and gave him such a great love for God that it hasn't changed in all of the forty years he has been walking with Him."
(Practicing the Presence of God pg. 11)

"And then at night, Jesus Christ Himself came. He came to me and that was real. That was not a dream. That was not a vision. It was real. It was after midnight. I was alone in that room - in the hospital. The whole room was glittered in light. There was - There was Jesus Christ, and He was real. He was there. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. He was there. Jesus was there. He was real, and He talked to me. He said, "Yes, I am the one to give you a new life. Glory to You Jesus. He said to me, yes, I am the one to give you a new life."
(Former Ethiopian Prime Minister Tamrat Layne)

"And as he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"...."Then Saul arose from the ground and when his eyes were opened he saw no one."
(Acts 9:3-8)


"And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead."
(Revelation 1:17)

Tonight I'm just thinking about my whole experience with Jesus. I have come across these experiences with Him in the past couple of days. These people were completely changed after their encounters with the Son of God. My first encounter with God was a young child in the back of a car looking out the window with tears rolling down my cheeks trying to figure out how a God that could make such beautiful stars could die for a child as bad as I was. Later, I encountered Him again at a worship night in a youth group. I heard Him speak that night. I would again encounter Him in my bedroom after I told the people I lived with that I was moving out to walk away from God and run after the world as hard as I could.

Every experience I have had with Jesus has been life changing. As I look at this life and the journey I have been on, I wouldn't trade it for the world. Of course it hasn't been easy. Of course I have fallen. Who hasn't? But every time, there is Jesus with His hands wide open, catching me and holding me up.

Oh, friend, if you are reading this, I pray you know the same Christ that so many have experienced. I pray that He changes your life and fills you with the same love and acceptance that He has offered so many. And just like with the Prime Minister, Jesus is waiting to give you a new life. I hope you will live it.