A new year had begun and it brings with it a sense of freshness and opportunity. This is an opportunity to celebrate, set a direction, lay footings, and let go of things. Where do you need to:
*Celebrate! We have parties on New Year’s Eve but we have much more to celebrate than just the calendar turning over. Do you take the time to recognize what you have to celebrate? What successes have you experienced over the last year? What experiences have you enjoyed? What changes have you made for the positive? What new relationships were built or how were existing relationships deepened? What do you have to rejoice over? How have you done, or will you do, some celebrating?
*Have some cleaning time? We say that we have a new beginning with the New Year but in reality we often carry a lot of junk in from the past one. We act like everything is fresh on January 1st but in reality there is stuff that has been kept and needs to be washed out. What hard feelings do you need to let go of? What habits do you need to stop? Are there relationships that are destructive and need to be let go? What do you need to clean out? What can you do to make that happen?
*Identify your purpose. One church encourages their members to pick one word which will be focused on for the year. Then people are encouraged to pick a scripture that highlights that word. As you look at the new year what do you feel like God wants you to focus upon? What word comes to your mind that captures that focus? Do you know what that focus is or, if you don’t, will you spend some time and prayer listening for God’s message for you? When?
*Lay some Groundwork. Once you have identified that word or focus work on listing the things that need to be put in place to reach it. What preparations do you need to make so that you can successfully pursue that goal? Look ahead to what you want, set out possible steps to achieve it, and then take action to get the pieces in place. What are the first few of blocks you need to set in place? How will you do that?
As you start a new year do it with gusto….celebrating, cleaning, focusing, and moving to the future!
1/10/2014