2013 part two - JOYFUL, JOYFUL!

So, I am back with more on New Year's missions and reflecting on turning 30.  I had planned on including all of this in the last post, but ran out of time! Where does it go?  Flies by like H running away from his mama chasing him around with a Kleenex.  Anyway, back to the mission.  After all my work on setting my mission statement for the year and coming up with thoughtful goals, I had a rough week for a lot of reasons and already, in the second week of the year, didn't accomplish one of my goals!!!! What? Seriously? Yes, I missed a Birthday, one week after making a goal of not missing Birthdays! I was pretty bummed at myself about it and that combined with a bunch of other small things: H not sleeping, Hand I were in a funk, I was stressed about the home study and was all of a sudden full of fear and doubts about the adoption (I will share more on that later).  The spirit of our house was just off.  All due to small things that I was letting get the better of me and turn my attitude sour.  Now, I know in my heart, that in the grand scheme of life and the things that matter - I am so blessed.   But I so often and so easily forget to believe that in the way that I live (a.k.a my daily attitude).

One night last week, I was reading Unbroken, (great book) and read a paragraph about how the attitudes of three men lost at sea the were shaping how they responded to current situations and ultimately shaping their future survival.  As soon as I read this I felt like God was speaking right to me about my attitude and response to situations (Can you say debbie downer?).  Then, I opened another book to the picture above. This is a photo from one of the most precious gifts I have ever received :) Anyway, it is amazing how God works and can bring everything together to gently or forcefully call me out on the state of my heart.  Ultimately, I realized that the most purposeful and strategic thing I can do this year is be JOYFUL in every minute, of everyday, and with every gift I have been given.  Because the way that I live my moments is the way that I live my life (I don't think those are my own words I must have stolen them from a poem or song or something - sounds good though, doesn't it!)  If I focus too hard on my goals, I tend to over look the goodness and purpose in every moment and end up living too many minutes with the wrong  attitude.  So, I am not throwing the mission statement out the door but I am one adding thing to it and I am writing down first my to-do list every day 

Be JOYFUL! 

I better have a lot of check marks at the end of the year!

This is a picture of a little sign we made with Christmas lights this year. It is still up and I am thinking about that I may need to leave it up  all year.  Sometimes I need lots of reminders!