Posts Tagged ‘new year’

Before you write me off for good and unsubscribe to my blog, just hear me out for a quick minute. I promise I had the same reaction when I heard this message last month. So yes, I realize that it’s February and I am now finally finishing my New Year’s Resolutions. I’m going to show you the before and after list. The before list is what I did before I heard the message about NOT putting God first.

1. Put God first – spend time with God more
2. Family and Friend – call them more and spend time with them
3. Finances- save money
4. Health- eat healthier and work out 3x a week

The problem here isn’t that I put God first. The problem is I only put Him first and didn’t include Him in everything else. In order to have God the center of my life, He needs to be included in and  throughout all of my goals and resolutions. I prayed over my list and took some time to really focus on how important it is to put God in everything. So many times I’ve created resolutions which turned into distant memories by February of that same year. This year will be different. I want to do God’s will throughout all my resolutions and goals and at the same time remember that nothing is impossible for Him.  Once I figured out how specifically I would put God into every resolution and not just the first one, I came up with a new list.

Spiritual:

• Morning time with God. Spend my first moment awake thanking God, praying, and reading about Him.
• Join a weekly growth group at church. I need to stay more involved because I can find many other distractions to keep me too busy for Bible study.

When the Giants won the World Series - exploring

Mental:

• Read 1 CLEAN book a week. I admit, I am a sucker for dramatic novels. I’m not saying I won’t read action packed or mystery books anymore, but my new rule is, I won’t read any book that I wouldn’t refer to my pastor. I’m just not going to target certain authors where I know there will be drama, sex, and drugs. Instead, my plan is to read inspirational books that plant positive seeds. Later, reflecting on the books and talking about them with my family and friends, and my readers of course
• Explore the area that I live in. There is so much culture, history, nature, city, and great weather where I live. I need to do some exploratory learning and living.

My little sister and I at our dad's 70's themed party

Relational:

• Spend time with a friend/s once a week just listening, laughing, and enjoying life with each other. Proverbs 17:22 - A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
• Talk to ALL of my family more. I have two sisters, but I  only talk to one of them. The one I talk to, I talk to multiple times a day. I gave up on the youngest one. I took it very personal that she doesn’t seem to care whether or not we speak. She doesn’t call me back when I call her or she just doesn’t think to call me. It’s been a month and I haven’t talked to her. That is so ungodly and I am ashamed of myself for trying to teach her a lesson. She isn’t mean spirited, just a little nonchalant. She tells me “she tries”, but that hasn’t been good enough for me. I’m going to reach out as God has always reached out to me. When I ignored His calls and didn’t return His text, He has never stopped calling me, thankfully.
• Volunteer once a month. This doesn’t need explanation and is my duty as  a Christian and humanitarian.
• Stay more connected to my readers. Post daily. Tweet even on weekends. Readers, you can hold me accountable.

My favorite nachos and all time happy hour snack

Financial

• Cook more and eat out once per month. I usually cook around 3 or 4 times per week so this won’t be too bad. However, I go to lunch a lot with coworkers and friends, and I will cut back on that. Not only does it cost money that I could be saving, but it’s hard to know what is in your food and what it has been cooked with and in. When I eat out, and because I’m skinny, I feel like it’s OK to  just eat and eat even when I’m not hungry.  I’m going to control this. Phil 3:19 – Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.
• Save money for online store. I will be launching an online accessory and pretty bible things in May 2011. I refuse to take out loans and will be using my own money for this launch. Being a faithful thither and  a good steward with my finances, have allowed me to save up enough money to start my online store. However, I want to keep saving for further growth.
• Spend no more than $500 at a time. No splurging. I have a habit of splurging when I know I have enough money saved.

hello world, meet my boo...Mr. Pinkberry

Physical:

• Eat 5 fruits and veggies daily.  Genesis 1:29 – And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. I clearly don’t do this. But Will!!
• Remove salt from my diet and add herbs and fresh veggies. This may mean making 3 out of 4 saltless meals per week. There have been more than a few people in my family with hearth issues and diabetes. I want to beat this and lead a healthier life style.
• Crossfit and yoga 3 x a week. When I think it’s too tough, I will keep the scripture in mind. Isaiah 26:3 – Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusts in thee. As I’m doing burpees, I will keep my mind on God!
  
• Run 3miles 2x a week
• Salsa social dancing at least 3x a month. I used to go dancing 2x a week and that didn’t include my salsa team’s practices(4 nights a week). Something that I love but have become too lazy to do. When I get there, I love it. I just hate getting ready.
• Love my body the way it is. I don’t want to obsess about the way I look, but with the way I feel.

Me and E, loving life and loving God

As you can see, when I focused on putting God not just first, but throughout, my second list became more detailed with specifs on how to reach my goals. The first list was just something I(emphasis on me, myself, and I) wanted with no clear milestones or end goals or God. What are your resolutions? If you’re smarter than me, you probably have already started them in January.  Good luck to you.

love,
the christianista

It’s Tuesday and what is suppose to be day 6 of my Master Cleanse may be day 4. Ugh!!! This is too much.

I decided to do a Master Cleanse to jump start my New Year. I wanted to do the cleanse for several reasons. 1) To clear the toxins and mucus from my body 2) Help me focus and clear my head to make space for new ideas 3) To prove to myself that I’m not addicted to food. So far, I have failed and proved to myself what I was scared to admit. I’m addicted to food and especially cookies.

I thought I was doing fine and came up with a way to do the fast yet trick my addiction to cookies. My body was craving a cookie so bad on day 3, The cookie sitting in front of my desk was not calling my name, it was singing it and very loudly. I had only one option. Eat the cookie. The problem is, if I ate the cookie, my fast would be over. My solution, chew the cookie, then spit it out. Surely if I didn’t swallow the cookie it wouldn’t count. My friends told me that this was cheating and a borderline eating disorder. OK, they are being a bit dramatic, so I wanted to know what you think. If I chewed the cookie and spit it out, does that constitute as cheating?  There was no cookie in my system. Since the day of the cookie incident, it has gone downhill. I ate on Sunday and Monday. I will start over AGAIN today.

Dear God, please grant me the strength and power to accomplish this goal.

love,
the christianista

I’m going to speak for myself when I say I have the following on deck 24 hours of the day: cell phone, laptop, twitter, facebook, emails, bbms, im’s, gtalk. I stay well connected. At any point of the day, I can be reached or reach out to others. I am in the know and constantly looking for new information whether it be news, fashion, gossip, or random facts. Basically I am connected by technology and it’s important in my life. So where is the quiet time? The quiet time with God, where is it?

When Psalm 23:2 speaks of “laying down in green pastures”, I’m positive it means more than just that. They speak of our one on one time, our communion with God. God restores our soul and leads our paths.

In the New Year I am vowing to myself to limit myself from technology to find that quiet time with God. When you think about it, God is the one who gives us 24 hours in a day, it’s His time anyway. Finding a few minutes in your busy day to read a bible scripture, say a prayer of thanksgiving, praise God for the time He is giving shouldn’t be too much to ask.

love,
the christianista

It’s 2010! Thank God for giving us a New Year and a new day. Most people have New Year’s resolutions, and most people fail to keep these resolutions. Do you run into this problem? Do you always make New Year’s resolutions to read the Bible more, to exercise more, maintain a healthy diet, work on your finances? Do you ever forger about your resolutions by mid-year and plan to start them all over again at the beginning of the next New Year? If so, then maybe you should re-evaluate the power behind your New Year’s Resolution.

You say, Philippians 4:13 says “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.” While this is true God also says in John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” So God is saying yes, you can do all of these things with my strength behind you. Yes, you can lose weight, regain your finances, maintain your healthy diet, and much more. However, you have to remain with God in order to accomplish these goals. You can’t do it alone. You may say to yourself, “I am doing it with God, I pray for strength to help me go and work out and eat right and spend right, what’s the problem”? The problem may be the reason you are doing this.

Are you planning to lose weight for vanity issues, or are you planning to stay healthy to serve God in a more efficient way?  Are you planning on working on your finances to bless your family and others by showing them God’s will or do you just want a new car for boasting rights? What is the purpose or meaning behind your New Year’s resolution. Ask yourself how will my New Year’s resolution help you serve God. When you answer this question, the answer will give you more motivation to accomplish this goal and also help to look to God and pray to him for assistance.

When you pray to God about your New Year’s resolution,  don’t just ask God to give it to you, but do the following:
1. First ask God for wisdom, on what He wants your New Year’s resolution to be. There is no need to pick your own and struggle with God because that is not His will for you. .Just make it easy on yourself and ask Him first
2. Ask and pray for wisdom on how He wants you to fulfill this goal.
3.  Don’t rely on yourself, but instead, His strength to push and motivate you.
4. Find someone to hold you accountable. Find a partner and share your goals with that person.
5. Don’t get discouraged with occasional setbacks. Instead, use them to push you even further than you thought you could go.
6. When you accomplish your goals, give the glory to God!!

I know you can do it. Find out what He wants, do it , and thank Him for it.
Remember,  He is the vine, you are the branch. Put the power behind your New Year’s Resolution!

love,

the christianista

info from http://www.gotquestions.org