new year, same goals

Welcome to 2015!

Are you ready for another year?  Did you make resolutions?

I welcome each new year with open arms.  You know that feeling you get when snow first falls and it’s perfect and untouched.  You don’t want for anything to mess up this perfect, white blanket, full of promises.  January has this feeling for me.  (Come February, the flawless utopia has turned into dirty snow with dog pee in it, but we won’t speak of such things today.)  No.  Today, I’m full of hope for this new year.  Like I’ve said before, my goal for this year is the same as any year – to BE PRESENT.   Specifically with my family.  (which in turn makes me hungry for more stillness with Jesus.  funny how that works.)

You see, it’s so much easier (and more pleasurable) for me to go about my day, iPhone in hand, rushing my children from one thing to the next and never really take the time to sit down and TALK TO THEM.  To listen to them.  To watch them play, and then get down on the floor and play WITH them.  It’s far easier for me to let the TV babysit my kids for an hour while I have “ME TIME”.  For me to hurry them to Trackstars in the morning, set them up with a snack and get in a workout (again, FOR ME.) The Enemy makes life outside of the home addictive and alluring.  Because he doesn’t want to see our family succeed and flourish and he wants me to be distracted.  It is a constant battle – one that I WILL win – one that I’ve gotten so much better at.  Being present looks WAY better than it did two or three years ago…way, way better.

I know this about myself (and only about myself, as I do not presume to know what your calling is):

I am called to be a Stay-At-Home mom. 

Now if you’re looking for a fight over who wins the “Who’s Better: Stay-at-home Moms or Working Moms”-battle, you won’t find it here.  I’m not even going there, as I don’t believe there is a battle.  All I know is ME and what works for US.  I will say that it is a struggle for me to be this woman that I’m called to be.  To sit and soak up this time, to engage my children at every chance, to be present in their lives, hour by hour – these things are, by nature, some of the hardest for me to do.….while at the same time being the ones that make me feel incredibly fulfilled.  To be present requires much more than I am naturally willing to give.  But isn’t that the point in setting goals?  Stretching ourselves further so that we might become stronger.  Better.

The best versions of ourselves.

I like the sound of that.

What will 2015 hold for us?  I’m not sure but it’s gonna be great!

QUESTION:  Did you make a resolution??  What is it?

splendid…lindsay