A new year....

I have been wanting to do a New Year's post, and here it is the end of January! We are already a month in! Where does the time go? But it does feel as though I have been busy. I've never been big on New Year resolutions, because somewhere between January and March, all my motivation has disappeared, but I do have a few things I want to do differently this year....
1. My pastor's wife challenged our church to read the bible through in a year. I have never done this before, so this is something I am trying to do this year. I find doing this first thing in the morning is best. But I have had to read multiple days to catch up already!
2. I have always wanted to run 5 miles without stopping. With Alyssa here, there is no reason why I can't because I can go for a run in the afternoon when the kids are down. I have added the incentive of getting a dishwasher when I've completed my goal. My husband hasn't actually agreed with this incentive, but a girl can be hopeful, right?
3. I want to be more faithful in prayer. Especially praying for family and friends in my life, and for believers around the world. It's easy to become lost in your own bubble, and forget that there are a lot of suffering believers in all parts of the world. I know this is becoming more real to me because my youngest sister is now a part of YWAM and will be headed to Kosovo and Pakistan for April, May and part of June. You can check out her adventures here, http://ashleanoelle.tumblr.com/
4. Something else I have been doing the last few years is picking out a verse from the Bible to pray over my family. Two years ago the verse was, Psalm 65: 9-13, "You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly. the streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so you have ordained it. You drench its furrows and level its ridges; you soften it with showers and bless its crops. You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance. The grasslands of the desert overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness. The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing."  I was reading through Proverbs the other day when these verses jumped out at me, Proverbs 3:9,10: "Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine."
A challenging prayer, but I want to be up for the challenge.
5. I want to love my family better. Having children was a wake up call to how selfish I can be. When you suddenly have a crew of "littles" clamoring for your attention, needing a diaper to be changed, a drink, a snack, to play a game, to tattle on a sibling, you can see your sense of entitlement coming out. I know I have. And that is something I need to work on. And I also want to raise unselfish children. I have been noticing some behaviors that need to be addressed, and I am praying for the wisdom to know how to handle them!
And I also want to love my husband better. Once the kids are in bed it's so easy to turn on the TV and zone out, stay up way too late watching NOTHING and then go to bed. We could have talked about what's going on with the farm, how he's feeling about this year, about our children and character issues, about our dreams for the future. Communication is so important.
These are a few of the things I want to do better this year. Some of them the results might not be seen until years from now, but I want to start sowing the seed now and hopefully reap a harvest in the years to come!