Not to Us

With the start of a new year, I've been thinking about last year and what I enjoyed/ accomplished. I remember the big things... First annual girls weekend, Lots of friends having babies, Emily's wedding, celebrating our first anniversary, painted/decorated our home, turning 25, completed my first scrapbook (a gift for Emily), completed our wedding scrapbook, became Lead Therapist at work, transitioned to a new hospital at work, worked out regularly for half the year. And I'm sure others I'm forgetting. However, this year I want to be more intentional about my time. Zach and I are enjoying our days of just the 2 of us, but Lord-willing, that will not always be the case. I want to look back and be thankful for how I spent my time growing and learning and enjoying this season of my life.

I read about the book, Shopping for Time, on the GirlTalk blog and it got my interest. I went and bought it and love the suggestions that it give for setting priorities. Tonight I finally decided to sit down and write out my priorities. They recognize that everyone will have different priorities and welcome adjusting to meet where you are in life. The thing that got me was when they said "it's important that your priorities come from God's Word and not cultural or personal preferences" (pg. 54).

I took the 7 priorities they suggest and prayed through what they would look like for me.
- Grow in Godliness
- Love my family
- Serve in the church
- Fellowship with Christians
- Evangelize non-Christians
- Attend to my work
- Care for my physical health
I'm not going to go into details of how they look for me because at this point it's something the Lord and I are still working through. I do look forward to being able to share throughout the year of how I have grown in each of these areas and to give Him the glory.

"Not to us. But to Your Name be the glory." The choir sang this song this morning. It truly is the desire of my heart.

** photo by Optical Illusion on flickr