Today has been a good day. I had the day off of work and took time to do some things that needed doing.
Even though we’ve tried in the past, today was the day we really took off Emma’s training wheels for good. She took to it immediately and rode up and down the street in front of our house. I loved sitting on the tailgate of my pickup with Caleb, drinking coffee, and watching her as she alternated between pedaling and crashing.
We put up all the Christmas stuff today and completely cleaned out our garage. As a pastor, so much of our work moves at glacial speed, so it’s nice to do this kind of work from time to time and actually start and finish something in the same day!
We also followed in my family tradition and ate beans and cornbread for New Year’s Day. As long as you eat something that swells when it cooks, rice, beans, etc., you’ll prosper in the year ahead. At least that’s the logic behind that tradition. So, I’m looking forward to a prosperous year!
I’m not one to make a ton of New Year’s resolutions, but I think I’ll make a few for this year. I plan to read through the Bible this year using YouVersion on my iPhone. As of this moment, I’m planning on doing my daily readings in the TNIV version.
Second, I plan to work on my skills as a leader. Seth Godin has been really inspiring me lately, and his post today really challenged me to step up to a different level in that arena. He writes,
The place where expectations are lowest: leadership. Everyone expects you to get in line and follow, not lead. The opportunity this year is bigger than ever: to lead change, to create a movement in a direction you want to go. While the rest of your world huddles and holds back, here’s a golden chance to use cheap media, available attention and great talent to make something that matters.
This hopefully links to my third resolution, which is to finish my D.Min. project. My project involves developing an alternative entry point for Christian Formation, specifically creating an online classroom for a curriculum series I’ve been working on in my new position. It is definitely integrated with the cheap media side of Seth’s challenge, since I’m using free resources like wetpaint.com and youtube to develop it.
I think that’s all I’m going to write. It seems that there resolutions are ever-expanding, and I could think of fifteen more things that I’d love to focus on in the New Year. I guess fifteen focus areas would probably not be focus at all, would it?!
May you all be blessed in your planning and blessed in this New Year!!
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