In just a few short days, a new year will be upon us. Last year at this time, I was very worried and anxious about what 2015 had in store for me. I was just a few weeks away from giving birth to my third child and had no idea what this “new” family was going to look like or how I was going to handle it. But, because of that baby, my life has changed so much and I feel like God truly blessed me with one of my best years. I learned to give up some control and I’ve grown more this year than I have in at least five years. I am not the kind of person that likes change; I get very nervous and anxious over big life changes. I’m sure this is because I didn’t feel very stable growing up. Big things were always happening and most of them were not pleasant things so I grew up to fear change and I craved stability. This year though I’ve realized that though avoiding change makes me feel safe and much more comfortable, it also prevented me from growing personally. I had begun to grow stagnant in my life and just let life happen around me while I just went through the motions. I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy life or that I had grown depressed -- that’s not the case at all - I was still enjoying my life and my family but I wasn’t growing. This past year I have taken a leap of faith in letting go and in giving God control over my life and in doing so I’ve discovered myself in a way that I haven’t in a long time. I’ve realized so many important things about myself this year because I’m tuning into what I need, what makes me less anxious, unhealthy habits that I need to change that I was too busy and stressed out to realize earlier. Now, the challenge and joy of 2016, is to continue that growth and not allow myself to get stuck in a state of motion that keeps me emotionally exhausted and also never really gets me anywhere.
I often make goals for my new year. I tend not to call them resolutions because “resolutions” just gets a bad rep. I instead refer to them as goals because mostly they are things that I will continue to work at in this new year and will have an end result eventually but not necessarily in this year. While thinking about my goals for 2016, I realized that my goals for the last few years have been very similar, and though it may seem like that means I’m not accomplishing my goals, as I review them, I know I am on the journey to accomplishing them and I can look back and decide which one is almost there and which one needs a good kick in the pants! I won’t go into all the details of my personal goals for 2016 but I will say that all my goals focus on one central theme for my life and that is “simple living”. I’ve always longed for things to be a simple as possible so I can live more fully - it seems like it should be easy but it can be a struggle especially in this society. There always seems to be something bigger and better that we are convinced that we need or that would make life “easier” and I always fight with the temptations of materialism. So, in this new year, I am decluttering, purging, cleaning, getting rid of things and debt and bills for things I don’t need. I am focusing on simple, whole foods that God has been good enough to give us without needing a factory to create it. I’m spending more time with my family doing things together that will create memories of a loving family for my children and that fills my heart with joy.
What are your goals for 2016? What is God putting on your heart to do in this new year?