January 8

Today at church the question was posed: "What would happen if we as Christians REALLY believed that those who reject Jesus Christ would go to Hell?"

The pastor gave a statistic that said only 3% of church going Christians invited someone to church in the last year - 3%!!! Yikes - and then I thought....I'm one of the 97%.....whoa....

Well I've been thinking about it and I have a few questions for myself:

1. I call myself a Christian - a God follower - but am I really reaching those in my circle for Christ? Am I showing God's love to each person I come into contact with?

2. If not - Why?

I grew up thinking that you needed to "throw up" your religion on anyone who you came into contact with - and I'm learning that isn't the case.  It's about building relationships - letting God's love shine through me. Being Jesus to other people. Because let's face it - people don't really care how much of the bible you know, until they know you really care about them as a person - not just another "notch" in your bible.

So at the end of today's sermon we were asked to think of ONE person that we would try and build a healthy relationship with and just be invitational about church, God, etc... and through the entire service I was thinking about these 3 people.  I know God has been laying them on my heart - and I need to be Jesus to them.

Father God, please help me to be loving, to be kind and helpful. Help me to show who YOU really are to these people. Remove "me" from me and fill me with you. Work on my heart - fill it with you. Work on these 3 people Father - open their hearts so that they can fully receive you.  Help me to listen to them. Let me be uncomfortable - make me uncomfortable - get me out of my comfort zone so that they might see you and your love and grace.  Get rid of my excuses Lord - they are nothing when I think about people spending eternity in Hell.  Thank you for the work you are already doing and are going to do.  ~Amen

January 1

Remember those goals that I wrote about? yeah? ok so here goes one of them! I'm going to TRY and blog a short post or at least a picture and a blurp about my day - everyday - we'll see how this goes!

So today we got our new rental house and started moving in....this move scares me just a little since we are doing it on our own - without a moving company - but so far so good!  Be warned, January is going to be a month of moving stories ;)

2012 Goals

I've never liked the word "Resolution" not sure why it sounds so....negative to me. So here are my 2012 GOALS - much nicer sounding, don't you think?  I hope to come back here on a monthly basis to check in and tell you how I'm doing with each of these.  Honestly I usually don't write these down - or even HAVE goals because come December I usually feel so guilty that I haven't followed through with ANY of them....so we'll see how this goes!

* Eat healthier - more home cooked, less processed meals. Totally cut out HFCS out of our diet, again.

* Lose Weight - I'm not putting a number here because God knows I need to lose a bunch!

* start a workout plan - and stick with it

* Stay on track to be out of debt in 18 or less months

* Move successfully to our new place in January - and de-clutter at the same time.

* make a Cleaning plan for the house and stick with it

* play the piano more

* Read 12+ books (not all fiction like I'm doing now! )

* Hold 4+ Pampered Chef Shows a month - and all that goes with having my own business.

* Watch LESS TV - much much less

* Have a clean kitchen at the end of my day.

* Make friends - actual IRL people that I can have a cup of coffee with

* Get our Adult small group started and it actually go somewhere

* Love my husband more - treat him better than I have been  :/

* Be intentional about having date nights - even if it's a picnic on the floor. Turn off the TV and really focus on each other.

* Stay out of family drama

* build better relationships with family

* Call - ON THE PHONE - friends that are important to me to keep those relationships alive.

* Talk to my grandparents more often

* Have a closer walk with God - reading scripture,memorize scripture and more praying - and not just over the food :/

* Blog more - at least once a week, if not more.

So what are your goals for 2012?