New Year’s Resolutions: Reading & Writing

As I shared in my post New Year’s Resolutions, I set some goals, made some resolutions this year, unlike past years.  I also set out to accomplish these goals in a very different way than in the past.   I am learning to “abide”.  In this I am attempting to live more intentionally in what Jesus is calling me to do in the moment.   Does that mean I don’t make a plan?  Absolutely not. I wrote my goals down (somewhere : )  I have a general plan.  I even have a daily calendar and to do list.  The difference is though I prayed over these, I hold on to them loosely knowing He may lead me in any direction He chooses at any particular moment.

Have I been completely successful in abiding in Him moment by moment?  No.  I fail miserably.  Yet due to His coaxing and my God directed determination (interpreted – God’s Grace)  I am succeeding much more often than in the past.  For instance, in the area of writing, I attempted to blog several times in the past, quiet unsuccessfully.  By unsuccessfully, I don’t mean that my blog was unsuccessful or lacked readers, though it did.  I mean I was wildly inconsistent at writing content, often going months or longer without updating what few readers I had.  This year, as He gently led me to take up this torch again, I prayerfully set some realistic goals.  My goal is to post something here once a week.  Though the posts have not been evenly distributed, I am happy to report we are in week 11 of this year.  This is my 11th post for the year.   In addition, I have twenty-five drafts saved for future posts!  Some of them are only a few words to jog my memory of an idea.  Others are completely written just waiting for a picture to be inserted.

Another goal for this year is for me to read fifty-two books.  (To view the books I have already completed click on the Goodreads link in my sidebar.)  This is a major stretch goal for me.  I need complete silence in order to process information.  In a large household, complete silence only happens in the middle of the night.  Even then distractions can erupt suddenly without notice, breaking through the golden silence.  Thus I have decided to include any books, including children’s books, that I read towards my goal.  Even with that consideration I am two books behind at the moment.  I, however, am not discouraged.  I am in the middle of multiple books at the moment that when complete will bring me up to date.  Also, He is keeping this goal in front of me when I forget : )

My main resolution this year is to learn to abide.  Though I often fail, as I learn more and more how to abide, my other Spirit-led goals end up being completed!  It’s only March, yet I feel like I have accomplished more this year than I have in many full years in my past.  It’s not just things I have accomplished either.  Much is going on internally, emotionally and spiritually.  But that’s another post…   If you have left your New Year’s Resolutions in the dust already, consider prayerfully dusting them off, re-examining them, and starting over.   It’s never too late to begin anew today.

© Machelle Baker

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Machelle Baker (22 Posts)

Machelle is a native Texan who values liberty. She has homeschooled six of her children at some point during their educational experience. She continues to home educate the youngest two. One way she expresses her passion for helping others is as a Crisis Chaplain. Some of the disasters to which she has deployed and ministered at are: the Bastrop, TX wildfire (2011), the West, TX plant explosion (2013), the Moore, OK F5 tornado (2013), and the Central Texas flood (October 2013), the Memorial Day Blanco River flood (2015), Hurricane Harvey (2017), the Sutherland Springs church shooting (2017), and most recently the El Paso Wal-Mart shooting (2019). She also currently serves a Regional Deputy Commander for the International Fellowship of Chaplains.