The Future

Lately Chris and I have been thinking about a lot of family decisions. What do we want for our family? What do we want for Hutton? How do we want to raise Hutton? What are the most important things to us? How do we want to spend our money? Where do we want to travel?

We've done a lot of future thinking. 5 year plan type thinking. Side note: I think it is great to have a 5 year plan and suggest it. But also be flexible and understand that God may have something else.

 

In all this thinking and planning I've been wondering about my future. I will always be a Christ follower, Chris' wife, and Hutton's mommy. But what will my life look like outside of those things in 5 years. Right now, I honestly don't know the answer and I think thats okay. Here is what I do know...

 

~I love going through life with people~

~I have a passion for youth and college aged girls~

~I love friendships~

~I love sharing~

~I love creating~

~I love giving gifts~

~I love to read~

~I love to be with my family~

~I love being busy~

~I loev planning parties~

 

I get to do a lot of that now and pray that I continue to have the opportunity to do these things in the future!

6 weeks... Impatient Me!

  I'm very impatient. It is probably my greatest fault. When I want to do something, I want to do it then. When I want to eat something, I want to eat it then. When I want to talk to someone, I want to talk to them then. You get the point. So when I tell you I'm ready for Hutton to be here... I'm ready for him to be here YESTERDAY!

I have 6 weeks left (max). So what I tend to do when I'm really impatient and wanting something to get here sooner is I make lists and find ways to make myself busy with the waiting. So my newest thing is to look at those 6 weeks I have left and think about the highlights of those weeks...

Jan. 9-15th

ReAlLy busy week at work*Friends over for National Championship*Nursery getting closer to finished*Childbirth class*Small group starts back*Wednesday night church dinners start back*Doctor's Appointment*Baby shower at Chris' work*Baby shower for a friend on Saturday*Possibly sit down and try to figure out my sewing machine*Deep clean the house*Finish thank you notes from my first baby shower*Church on Sunday*Sweet brother in law Tripp in town so dinner for his birthday*

Jan. 16th-22nd

Relatively busy week at work*Childbirth class*Dinner at church*Small Group*Baby shower at my work*Mani/Pedi day for me*Take dinner to friends who just had a sweet baby girl*Nursery completion deadline*Church on Sunday*Leading youth small group Sunday night*May schedule a girl's night*Hopefully a date night with the hubbs to go see War Horse*Thank you notes for work showers*

Jan. 23rd-29th

Childbirth Class*Dinner at church*Rhema Bible Study at church*Small Group*Doctor's Appointment*Miss Alabama Pageant*Figure out how to put car seat in/out of car*Put pack and play up in our room*Pack hospital bag*Sweet friend Luv's birthday*Church on Sunday*May schedule a day with my mom*Youth small group on Sunday*

Jan. 30th-Feb. 5th

Busy week at work*Last childbirth class*Dinner at church*Small Group*Doctor's Appointment*Do taxes*Date night with the hubbs*Superbowl Sunday*Possibly Bridal show with my friend Melissa*Decorate for Valentines Day*Hopefully dinner for brother in law Tyler's birthday*

Feb. 6th-12th

Really busy week at work*Dinner at church*Small Group*Doctor's Appointment*UNC v. Duke game*St. James Youth Auction*Relaxing weekend at home with the hubbs*Church on Sunday*Youth small group on Sunday*

Feb. 13th-19th

SUPER busy week at work*Survive and Thrive (big work event)*My favorite 4 year old's birthday*Dinner at church*Small group*Valentines Day*Sweet friend Abbey's birthday*Church on Sunday*

That's it... the wait is over! I can get through those 6 weeks right :)

Spiritual Focus and Commitment

  I was just browsing around the internet today and ran across this article on Lifeway's website and had to share...

Consider your ways in the New Year

by Don Whitney

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP) - Once, when the people of God had become careless in their relationship with Him, the Lord rebuked them through the prophet Haggai. "Consider your ways!" (Haggai 1:5) he declared, urging them to reflect on some of the things happening to them and to evaluate their slipshod spirituality in light of what God had told them.

Even those most faithful to God occasionally need to pause and think about the direction of their lives. It's so easy to bump along from one busy week to another without ever stopping to ponder where we're going and where we should be going.

The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to stop, look up and get our bearings. For starters, here are 31 questions to ask prayerfully in the presence of God as you "Consider your ways." Think on the entire list at one sitting, or answer one question each day for a month.

1. What's one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?
2. What's the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?
3. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?
4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?
5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?
6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?
7. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?
8. What's the most important way you will, by God's grace, try to make this year different from last year?
9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?
10. What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in 10 years? In eternity?
11. What's the most important decision you need to make this year?
12. What area of your life most needs simplifying, and what's one way you could simplify in that area?
13. What's the most important need you feel burdened to meet this year?
14. What habit would you most like to establish this year?
15. Who do you most want to encourage this year?
16. What is your most important financial goal this year, and what is the most important step you can take toward achieving it?
17. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your work life this year?
18. What's one new way you could be a blessing to your pastor (or to another who ministers to you) this year?
19. What's one thing you could do this year to enrich the spiritual legacy you will leave to your children and grandchildren?
20. What book, in addition to the Bible, do you most want to read this year?
21. What one thing do you most regret about last year, and what will you do about it this year?
22. What single blessing from God do you want to seek most earnestly this year?
23. In what area of your life do you most need growth, and what will you do about it this year?
24. What's the most important trip you want to take this year?
25. What skill do you most want to learn or improve this year?
26. To what need or ministry will you try to give an unprecedented amount this year?
27. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your commute this year?
28. What one biblical doctrine do you most want to understand better this year, and what will you do about it?
29. If those who know you best gave you one piece of advice, what would they say? Would they be right? What will you do about it?
30. What's the most important new item you want to buy this year?
31. In what area of your life do you most need change, and what will you do about it this year?

The value of many of these questions is not in their profundity, but in the simple fact that they bring an issue or commitment into focus. For example, just by articulating which person you most want to encourage this year, you will be more likely to remember to encourage that person than if you hadn't considered the question.

If you've found these questions helpful, you might want to put them someplace - in a day planner, PDA, calendar, bulletin board, etc. - where you can review them more frequently than once a year.

So let's evaluate our lives, make plans and goals, and live this new year with biblical diligence, remembering that, "The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage" (Proverbs 21:5). But in all things let's also remember our dependence on our King who said, "Apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).

Donald S. Whitney is Associate Professor of Biblical Spirituality Senior Associate Dean of the School of Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky.