I’m learning how to take small, steady steps. To just do what needs to be done without stopping to agonize over how much I don’t want to do it. To ‘get my big-girl pants on’ and quit making excuses. That expression makes me laugh, but doesn’t that describe it well?
I’m in a season of some unexpected twists that have me tackling some things I didn’t really see coming. I’m doing fine. There is no crisis. But I am realizing that with my current responsibilities, I really can’t think about anything other than what it is that I need to do today, in real time, to hold our little world together. To keep things steadily moving forward. To nourish, guide, clothe, and encourage to the best of my ability…to keep in focus the foundational things that make a family strong, even when some of us have special challenges before us.
Taken with a self-timer on a tripod. One photo a week of our family throughout the year. 2/52. Superman breathing in the goodness of life.
God’s grace is near, strengthening me for the tasks before me, and filling me with quiet confidence that He truly is with me while I journey. I’ve always been one to look ahead, to take a leaping start and charge forth in conquest, but this season is not at all about that. It is about small, steady steps, and surrender to God’s plans for me even when I don’t understand them or find them convenient. Pause to hear His voice, and try to respond with a willing heart, no matter the task.
Not to say that its easy, because it’s certainly not at times. I feel more tender than usual, and long for a time to come that I can take flight on an easy breeze that soothes while I soar the skies, but until then, I will make my peace with being in the low, hidden place, aware of my deep and desperate need for God’s care.
When the year is new and everyone around feels a surge of either gusto or guilt to be doing more to make their lives full of whatever is deemed ideal. Pining for more and better and further, hoping this will be the year to leave behind all of one’s worries, limitations, and extra pounds so that by the end of the year, they can prove to themselves that they have advanced somewhere…to something beyond where they’ve always been.
Really, we will all grow and change this year before the calendar turns again. Whether or not we can see it clear, each one of us is different than we were one year ago. Changed by what we have seen, experienced, lost, encountered, or overcome. Some people have changed in ways they intended. Others in ways that just worked out that way. Some for better, some for worse. Some in big ways, some in small ones. Change is part of life.
I am a goal-setter. January and June. January’s list is where I dream big, think both practical and way outside of practical to all the things I would love to do sometime in my life. The things that fit into a bigger picture. I write the goals down and set my course for whatever has made the list for the year. And then in June, I revisit them and revise as necessary. Some things are crossed off as completed. Some things are dropped because they are no longer part of what I’m after. Other things are adjusted. And some things are added new. For me, the goals help me look ahead to where I want to be going.
Photo taken with a self-timer on a tripod. One photo a week of our family throughout the year. 1/52.
I will probably continue setting goals, because it works for me, but this year, more than the goals themselves, I am reflecting on what is most important to me in life. The goals are great, but I think intentionally taking stock of priorities can be a much more fruitful journey. Goals live on a list while priorities live in our everyday doing. Goals give us something to aim at as we look down the road, but priorities help us take the individual steps where we are in the present, starting from right where we are. If we know our priorities, reaching our goals becomes more realistic because priorities help us look at our immediate decisions and tailor our steps in the right direction.
Whatever your method of preparing for a new year, I hope you’ll take time to think about what is most important to you and set those things in order, so that as you step forward into new months, your goals are not forgotten, and your growth happens intentionally in areas that matter to you with every little step you take.