New Year, New Knowledge

My son said it best on New Year's Eve. He stated "Goodbye 2010! May 2011 be much better!". I couldn't agree more, but I'm sure for very different reasons.

I've learned much in the past year. Things like more patience in parenting, picking the correct battles to fight, how callouses on your knees may be the best offense when raising teenagers, and how lack of organization really effects life have been biggies on the list of learning for 2010. But I still seem to be struggling with simple learning processes like time management, menu planning, making laundry exciting, and the ever present weight management thing. I suppose there is some give and take in any learning moment. For instance, if we are concentrating on learning how to converse with someone who is 17 with grace and patience, it is really hard for our brain to wrap around why we feel compelled to shove that fourth cookie in our mouths without even thinking. Or if we are in the midst of working our way down the to do list of crises at the moment, it is almost impossible to stick basic laundry in the mix.

So in the great scheme of things, I believe I'm going to concentrate on things just a month or two at a time. If I learn in those few months, then I can adjust my goals for the next few and so on. Sounds rather sane, doesn't it? But really, the bottom line for me is not what my goals really are, but that in doing all that I am doing, that I put the Lord at the center of the process. If I truly want a 'new beginning' all I really need to do is focus on Him. After all, His Word, His manual for life, His Book starts with the very wise words "In the beginning God..." If he is first, more important that what I have, more important that what I think I need to do, then he'll be in charge. I won't have to be. How freeing is that?!?!?!?!

Here's to a wonderful, exciting new year of learning, growing and becoming what God intends for me to be.