'08

Yesterday was my lovely friend Allison's wedding day! Congrats to her and her new hubby Jeremy! Wish I could have been there to help celebrate, but my thoughts and prayers were.

It's also 2008! Hard to wrap my mind around, even though it's now the sixth of Jan. So far I haven't done much reflecting about how I want this year to be different. It's time.

1. Last night in bed I prayed for childlike joy. I've prayed for joy before, and I've prayed for childlike faith, but never childlike joy. I prayed for it because it seems that as I get older, the more I become aware of death, despair and pain--not just for myself but for the people around me. And it seems that there are too many postmodern novels and films that reduce life to one tragedy after another. I'm praying that God gives me the ability to see his light in everything. I want to see hope and I want to laugh, even in the darkest corners of the darkest rooms. Because like I heard in the Living Stone's podcast yesterday, HOPE was born in that stable two thousand nights ago. He is enough for our todays and tomorrows. I want to have childlike joy to believe in Hope.

2. This isn't so spiritual, but this year I want to devote more time to hobbies that have taken a backseat--my music, songwriting (and songwriting without a keyboard, which is most of what I've done), design, perfecting my truffle recipe, photography. . . and I want to actually cross names off of my music/books/films to listen to/read/watch list.

3. As far as my writing goes, I'm accomplishing a major goal now--getting my Masters in writing. But now I'm even more determined to be published. I've been a hideous slacker (in other words, I haven't sent out anything). I want to become better at writing fiction and I want to send out one query letter (at least) a week.

4. Prayer. This is one area of my life that has grown recently, but I want to stay dedicated. I want to establish the same time every day as my prayer time, not just work it in between things.

5. I want to see me how God sees me. I want to wake up every morning and before I do anything, remind myself that God has lavished his love upon me.

6. I want to use the gifts God has given me to influence for good the world he's put in front of me.

7. Forgiveness. I want to forgive others and myself like He has. This will especially be important when I don't keep all these resolutions :)