Reflections & Prospectives

Reflection: thought, thinking
Prospective: anticipated, potential

While pondering what I want, desire, hope for, anticipate in 2012, I thought it a good idea to reflect on, think about 2011. Twelve months is a long time for me to remember - although there are the big highlights that pop into my mind immediately. So, I took my 2011 calendar and thumbed back through it. Just like a checkbook register can tell you a lot about your spending and giving priorities, a calendar has the same effect on the things you do and how your spend and give of your time. Here's what I discovered about 2011:

1. It started out much like 2012: Allyson was out of the country! In 2011 she was in Ethiopia. In 2012 she is in Haiti. She has such a heart for missions, and I am thrilled that she is getting and taking these opportunities! I am so proud of her!!

2. The year was filled with appointments: doctors & dentists; self-pampering like massages, mani/pedis, and hair; and service giving appointments of donating either blood or platelets.

3. The year was FILLED with appointments, events, activities, etc. for our biggest event of 2011: Erin's wedding!

4. There were fun get togethers with friends and family for birthdays, wedding anniversary celebrations, baby showers, scrapbooking, an ordination and just plain fellowship!

5. I participated in NC Baptist Singers this year, so there were concerts throughout the year with that group.

6. There were church activities: regular corporate worship, choir rehearsals, children's choir rehearsals, Bible studies, VBS.

7. There were funerals to attend: some for family and friends; others as a paid singer for people I never knew.

8. There were some trips: Choral Festival, the beach, Ronda, moving Allyson back to HPU for her senior year.

9. There was entertainment: "The Lion King", the movie "Courageous", "This Hope".

All of these are good things to be a part of, but do they mean anything to anyone else? Some of them do, yes; but a lot of them are just "going through the motions" things. So, as I've been pondering these things and others that were not written down in my calendar, I've discovered some things I am contemplating on for 2012 that were not part of my 2011:

1. Making and taking time each day for me to be still and abide in God's word. I just ran across the word "abide" in the Theaurus. It means to "stop temporarily and wait for". Oh, I so need this in my daily activities: STOP! - temporarily - - and wait - for what? For God to speak to me, to converse with me, to fellowship with me.

2. I want 2012 to be a God honoring year - in everything I do. I want to begin to make small changes in my life, because small changes can lead to big results. A few small changes I would like make are:
a. Start walking
b. Add an extra vegetable or fruit to my day.
c. Say something encouraging to someone each day.

3. Someone this morning said they always liked to set a goal to learn something new. I like that! There are a lot of things I could put on my list, but some of them would cost money. I need to come up with something that won't cost money. I'll have to ponder on this one a bit.

4. Last year K-Love asked for us to come up with a word for the year instead of shallow resolutions that would never be kept. I'm going to ponder this one a bit as well. Maybe I can come up with something to encompass all of the above - - maybe "HONOR" would be a good word.

If I can keep these prospectives front and center for the year, I think 2012 has a lot of potential to be a GREAT year! I've also been pondering why I cannot seem to follow through on goals I set for myself. I'm hoping my time of "abiding" will help answer that question and will also help me to be more successful at this in 2012.

I'll let you know in a future post the decisions made for numbers 3 & 4 above.

Reflection: thought, thinking
Prospective: anticipated, potential