Happy New Year!

So maybe one of my goals this year should be blogging more often! :-)

I'm excited about this new year, hoping it will be better in many ways than 2008 was. Not that this last year was bad, but it was just so...busy, what with planning and preparing to move, all the decisions about the house, actually moving, having a lot of out-of-town guests, hosting events, getting settled and buying furniture and decorating and, and, and... In the midst of all the activity, a lot of important things kind of got lost in the shuffle, like being more intentional in my relationships -- my relationship with God, my relationships with family and friends. I want to be more intentional this year...to not just let life swirl around me!

I want to learn to like exercising, because I am WAY too sedentary. I won a free six-month membership to the health club my church owns, and as a part of membership you get three free sessions with a personal trainer. So I met Andrea this week and she is going to help me figure out a good workout routine tailored to my fitness level and goals. I'm glad, because I don't seem to have the motivation to design an exercise program on my own!

Most of all, I really want to have a deeper hunger and thirst for God's Word and for communion with Him...I want my prayer life to become more vibrant! I have so much "head knowledge" about the Bible and prayer floating around in my mind...I need to grab a hold of it and pin it down in my heart, so it becomes part of the fabric of my daily life. I want to live out what I know. I want to start running purposefully in the race again, instead of just skipping along staring at the flowers on the side of the track.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."

~ Hebrews 12:1-2 (ESV)

There are so many other goals that I could name for this year, but that's the most important...throwing off the sins and weights and distractions that slow me down and instead choosing to run this race of the Christian life with endurance, living by the Spirit and daily coming to Christ to let Him fill and lead me. May 2009 be a year of great spiritual growth for all of us!