A Look Back at 2017 + Goals for 2018

One of my favorite times of the year is right after Christmas. I love having time to reflect upon the last year, and dream for the next year! 2017 certainly was filled with many milestones. 

By far the biggest two things that happened in 2017 was saying yes to spending my life with the man that I love, and marrying him five months later.

In between getting engaged and getting married, I was working a full-time job, planning a wedding, had an intense surgery with a recovery of almost three weeks, and finished writing Longing for Motherhood. Needless to say, it was one of the busiest seasons of my life. 

Two weeks before Christmas, I loss my job because my boss resigned. The immense kindness of the Lord in the midst of this season is the fact that the staff is paid through the end of April. I’m excited to pray and dream about what I want the next season of life to look like. 

As I’ve reflected back on 2017, the same thing keeps coming to mind. “I don’t know how I accomplished everything.” Most of the time, I felt like I was five steps behind, or was on the verge of drowning in all that I had to do. The Lord truly did sustain me this past year! 

2018 Goals and Vision

Even thought 2017 was filled with many sweet moments, my heart longs to slow down and abide in Christ. In many ways, I feel like I was living out of scarcity the past year. I did the best I could, but I long to live out of abundance and abiding with Christ. This morning, I was in John 15, and the words of Jesus cut to the core “Apart from me, you can do nothing.”  

I desperately want to spend my time, talent and treasure on the things of eternity, with the knowledge that the burden doesn’t rest on my shoulders. My job is to abide in Christ, and stewards the gifts I’ve been given out of the overflow of that abiding!

Many of my “goals” this year are striving to establish habits that will help me live out of abundance. I long to be an excellent wife, an intentional friend, a joyful teller of the truth, and a lover of Gdod. 

• Regularly ask Michael how I can love and serve him well!
• Launch Longing for Motherhood well
• Don’t use my phone right before bed or first thing in the morning.
• Send out birthday cards!
• Call one friend a week!
• Steward our finances wisely and well.
• Work out consistently (I’ve started working out a lot more due to not really having a job right now, and I feel great!)
• Read for (at least) 30 minutes a day.
• Blog consistently (twice a week)
• Write 500 words a day.
• Memorize Scripture (Working on Colossians 3 right now)
• Maintain a weekly Sabbath!