Looking Forward

I spent a good part of my day yesterday gathering up dates that have already been planned for next year and marking them down in my new 2011 Mary Engelbreit Engagement Calendar. It’s been my calendar of choice for about 8 years running.

I’m not usually one for writing down resolutions (or even making resolutions), but I do seem to have a real hankering to start this year off with a few firmly held convictions, intentions, or plans. I still refuse to write down resolutions that I will break within the week, but I wanted to have some goals for the new year all the same.

Just this morning I happened upon my solution. My blogger friend Gretchen over at New Every Morning was thinking more clearly than me and came up with the perfect solution for those of us who want to start out on the right foot but don’t necessarily want to map out the journey just yet. I encourage you to check out her post (and her blog!), but the jest of it is to come up with one word that describes how you intend to live 2011.

She chose the word Purposeful.

In an effort to out do Gretchen be my own woman , I came up with a list of equally ingenious words or themes from which to choose for myself:

• Gentle
• Yielded
• Servant
• Gracious
• Grateful

All of these are words the Lord has been speaking to me about lately. For instance, I’ve felt a real call to slow down, speak more gently, touch more gently, be more gracious with my words. I’ve also thought of starting a sort of gratitude journal, naming something different every day that I’m grateful for. Of course, that would be one of those resolutions I’d break by February.

But in the long run, with the whole year in mind and my greatest need for change being to follow through with things, I’ve landed on…

Same as Gretchen. (Don’t worry, I’ve already confessed this to her.)

Like Gretchen, I want to be purposeful in my relationship with the Lord, purposeful in my family life, purposeful in my writing (including this blog), purposeful in my relationships with others, and purposeful in my physical health and well-being.

“Arise, let us go hence.” John 14:31

Sometimes, often times, it’s time to stop thinking about, dreaming about, or scheming about a thing and it’s time to do the thing. In fact, it’s when we get busy diligently doing the thing with purpose and intent that God is glorified because people sit up and take notice. They see us purposefully throwing ourselves into whatever it is God has given us to do – mothering, serving, keeping house, working, loving – and they sit up and take notice of our enthusiasm, our fulfillment, our singlemindedness, and they … get it. But when we just meddle at something, just piddle along as though we’re lost and don’t really know where we’re heading, no one is interested in that. In fact, I believe that when we live purposefully, as our Lord did, we draw more attention to Him and than to ourselves. And that’s what it’s all about.

So that’s my hope for 2011…to do the thing, with a sense of purpose, with plans that focus on those purposes, with a single-mindedness that says no to the things that don’t contribute to those purposes.

What about you? Do you have a one word resolution for 2011? You’re welcome to share mine (and Gretchen’s). But what have you felt God calling you to set your mind on for the new year? I’d love to hear.

Happy New Year dear friends. Thanks for reading this year and I hope to see you around in 2011.