Welcome to 2015! Another year has come and gone. We have now
been given another 365 days to really live and experience life. As you know, I
do not set New Year’s resolutions. I always set goals for myself, though. Last
year, my goals were as follows:
-
- To have true, genuine happiness (A)
- To create balance in my life in mind, body and spirit (B)
- Mind = stay in therapy and read books (A+)
- Body = healthy living (D average)
- o Healthier eating habits (B)
- o To do something (exercise) each day (F)
- Spirit = read the entire Bible in one year (C)
So, for the year of 2014, I earned about a C average. LOL. I
was happy. I had more balance than the year before. I continued to go to
therapy and read books. I changed my eating habits but still didn’t eat a lot
of healthy vegetables. I did not exercise at all. I read half of the Bible but
slacked off after 6 months and did not finish. I am not beating up on myself,
though; just being honest and real. I don’t feel like I failed or let myself
down. I simply did not complete the tasks I laid out for myself. Oh, well, it’s
a new year so I’ll just try again.
My vision for 2015 is all about relationships. I tried to
focus as much on myself as possible last year and I did okay. This year I am
going to focus on my interactions with others.
First and foremost, I want to continue to strengthen my
relationship with Christ. Once again, I am going to try the “Read the Bible in One Year”
program [it’s an app you can download on your phone or tablet (BiOY)]. In
addition to that, though, I am going to try to go to church more often.
Currently, I attend “Bedside Baptist” as my friend Lisa would call it. I watch
people like Joel Osteen, T.D. Jakes, and Joyce Meyer and get the Word that way.
The only thing I really miss about church is the fellowship. So, I am going to
get back to church more often at Covenant of Peace and I am also going to try a
church down the street, Liberty Church.
I want to continue to foster a closer relationship with my
daughter. We have been getting along very well (after a few “come to Jesus”
meetings). Even when she has worked my last nerve, I look at that young lady
and know, without a shadow of a doubt, how much I love her. And I don’t want us
to have the same type of love/hate relationship my mom and I had. I think it’s
even more important now since she is a young mother herself. I plan to spend
more time with her and really try to understand her better and get to know her
better. I hope to create a mother-daughter relationship in which we both feel emotionally
safe, genuinely loved, and incredibly valuable.
I want to rekindle a friendship with my friend Vaneisa.
We’ve been saying we were going to have lunch forever, it seems, and haven’t
done it in over a year. That’s ridiculous. I also want to try again to rekindle
a friendship with my friend Tracey. I have reached out to her but gotten no
response; unfortunately, that may mean that friendship is gone. But, I am
determined to try again. One of my best friends, Gwen, is retiring this year
and coming back to Atlanta and I definitely want to pick up where we left off
when she moved away.
Lastly, I want to keep building a strong, everlasting
relationship with my boyfriend, Joe. His love for me is kind, gentle, and warm.
He makes me feel very special and I love him for that. He tells me I’m “an amazing
woman” and that feels good. He is a praying man of God so I willingly submit to
him because I know that he will lead our relationship in the way it should go
based on the guidance he receives from the Most High. My relationship with Joe
only adds to my life, my peace, and my joy. It is a relationship that I would
like to last forever. I can’t imagine a day going by without hearing him say,
“I love you.” And I want him to know [now] that I value him and his presence in
my life. I want him to know that my love for him runs soul deep and that he is
an important priority in my life. The way to show that is by actively,
deliberately, and conscientiously working on my relationship with him.
Relationships grow over time but they will die without being
nurtured. There is no relationship in our life that can fully sustain itself
without some type of real connection and some level of effort. One day, we will
lose that person for one reason or another and then it will be too late to show
him or her how much he or she really meant to us. So, look at your
relationships today, decide which ones you value the most, and then make a
conscious effort to work on them.
