December Daily: The New Year

Have you given any thought to the new year? If you're like me most of the time, you're just making it through this week! Next year?!!

For several years, when Wes was on staff of our church in Texas, our pastor encouraged us to plan for the new year. Wes has carried that through here, and has been working on a church calendar for a couple of months now. And since we have a few weeks left before the new year, I want to sit down and make some plans for my personal life; not so much resolutions as goals for the coming year. Our pastor used to say, "If you aim at nothing, you're bound to hit it!"

What are some areas that we homemakers should set goals in?

• Spiritual - we are individually responsible to God for our own relationship with him! We should have goals for Bible-reading, Scripture memory, prayer, giving, and witnessing
• Physical - we're also responsible for taking care of ourselves. Not excessive pampering, but truly caring for our health with good food in proper portions, adequate rest, some exercise each day, some quiet time for ourselves, checkups. And then plan for some shopping for clothes (even the thrift store counts as shopping!), hair appointments - things to keep us looking nice.
• Marriage - our relationships with our husbands are the longest-lasting ones we have. Our children will grow up and make their own lives; will we still know our husbands when that day comes? We should make some goals for dates (even if it's just once a month), for building that relationship with loving words, maybe even plan some more intimate times with our mates (they won't complain!)
• Children - we should spend time with them, maybe one-on-one? Maybe plan a Bible study, memorize some Scripture with them, schedule family nights.
• Homemaking - have a plan, no matter how loose, for getting household tasks accomplished. I like FlyLady's Zone method; others may clean one room or area each day. Plan for heavy cleaning, emergencies, busy times outside the home
• Creativity - set goals for creative projects, if you have interests in that area. Learn something new. Make gifts. Make things to sell. Make things to decorate your home or to wear.

Planning ahead also does several things for you:

• Reduces stress - the more thoughts you can get on paper, the less you have to remember!
• Saves time - you don't have to stop to plan when it's time to get things done
• Motivates - planning ahead gets you excited about all the things coming up
• Makes you more efficient - goals give you a map to follow, helping you get more done, more efficiently
• Prepares you for the unexpected - planning your work helps you when emergencies arise - you know where you stand what needs to be done, without having to stress out over the little things
• Prepares you for the busy times - those inevitable busy seasons won't creep up on you when you know they're coming and have planned for them - birthdays, church meetings, school events, holidays

(These points were loosely based upon Thoughts on Planning a New Year by Dr. Cary Schmidt)

Do you make goals for the new year? Care to share what some of them are? At the end of the year, I'll share what I have in these areas. We can be an encouragement to each other!