Making This Year's Goals Reality

Happy New Year, readers! 2015?! It seems like yesterday that I was singing along to "Material Girl" and dancing in front of the mirror with my Brooke Shields doll. Anyone? Thirty years later, I'm still singing and dancing, but I've changed my tune and props. If you listen carefully, you might catch me singing to Norah Jones and dancing with Shadow all around the house. Life is different three decades later, but my desire to improve my surroundings and encourage others have remained the same. 

It is out of this passion for optimizing my resources and building others up that my blog was formed. I want to give you some background on how I got started and then encourage you to pursue your dreams in this new year. 

Three years ago I wanted to shout it from my rooftop that Jesus had changed my life. Seeing how I don't like heights and people would think I'm crazy-er than my normal crazy, I had to find a different way to get the word out. I'm not a public speaker and I wasn't about to write a book. Immediately I knew I needed to create a blog. I'm an essayist by nature, and content from other blogs was already adding value to my day, so this was the best avenue for me.

Posting everyday that Jesus is the bomb diggity and the Bible is more epic than The Hobbit would get old fast. Who would read that? I wouldn't. How was I going to show and tell people that much has changed now that God had my heart, all of it? I was still a wife, still a mom, still a brunette, still liked wine and chocolate. One glance and you'd wonder, "What's the big deal?" And then I knew that my blog had to allow people to pause and really see, not just glance, inside my life. I had to share how small and steady changes made all the difference in my quest to put Jesus first. These changes were most apparent in my home, diet, and relationships, and so I chose to showcase these areas of my life as a way to show what God can do in one ordinary woman's life. 

Being an encourager is just natural to me, and so it has given me great joy to share with you experiences and stories to build your faith and confidence in God. I'm encouraging you now to spend time with God by talking to Him and reading about Him in a Bible. Then, search your heart. What do you want to achieve this year? Don't let another year go by with no action or plan for attaining your goal! The more time you spend with God, the more focused you'll be on attaining the right goals for your life. There's beauty in making God's goals your goals, and making those dreams reality.