Beginning Again

It’s been a while since I have logged onto here.

Last Thursday I went to a local coffee shop and plotted out the next, oh I don’t know, thirty years of my life. Not super in-depth. I mostly was looking at the overarching years of my children’s lives from now through their graduating high school. And in doing that, I also calculated my age range, and started realizing, holy cow! I will be getting older! (I’m probably still in that phase of life where you naively think your youth will never end.)

In doing this, I refocused. It was a world-wind year of having our third baby, looking for and buying our first home, packing/moving/updating. I’ve had pretty tunnel-vision in the midst of all this to just accomplish what was right before me. And while there are seasons of life like this, my time at the coffee shop cleared mental fog to realize that time really will move on. And there are some things I want to make sure I am being about as my life progresses.

One of those things is writing. I journal almost every morning and it is a big part of sorting out my mind and heart each day as I follow the routine of praise, confess, pray, and give thanks. But I haven’t blogged in a long time and one of the desires of my heart is to someday write a book that will encourage and bolster believers in their walks.

Another thing I want to be about is bringing up my children well. I was inspired by Val Marie Paper’s intentional prayer journals and started a new Moleskine notebook today, specifically to record prayers for my children. On the first page I wrote the bedtime prayers I pray over our kids. Something I want to do is spend time with my husband thinking about how we are going to be intentional with our family’s vision and values and goals.

The last thing that was clear in my mind, as I thought over the expanse of my life now and in the next years, is that I want to support my husband. He’s a youth pastor, and as a mom of young kids I mostly support his ministry from the outside right now by designing all the flyers he needs and helping with event-brainstorming sessions. I want to make sure I allot value to it when I’m thinking about what to make time for in my weeks.

With the coming weeks bringing a new year – what are some overarching desires of your heart that maybe you have shelved during a busy season, or maybe been hesitant to pursue?