It's a Marshmallow World in My Mind

Happy 1-1-11! 

Here we are, once again, at the beginning of a brand spankin’ new year. But if you haven’t taken your Christmas decorations down, like me, it may still feel like last year hasn’t officially come to a close. Sort of a befuddled-between-years sort of thing.

Happens to me every year. 

Another thing that happens is my desire--and failure--to somehow slow Christmas down. Savor it more. Bake more with the kids. Do some special crafts. Take time to shop in a leisurely manner. (Yeah, not really living in reality, I know). Allow the meaning of ‘God incarnate’ to sink in a few layers deeper than the year before. 

But life happens. We seem to get plowed over with end of semester stuff. Good stuff, most of it. Rehearsals, recitals, and the like. Parties. Church. Travel. The line between Thanksgiving and Christmas gets blurred in a flurry of activities.

Inevitably, my nostalgic side wonders how I could have done things different, made more memories. The practical side argues that you can’t change things outside of your little sphere of influence. The visionary side looks ahead to the new year and says, “it’s a land of opportunity and you have a huge list of things to conquer!”. The cynical side reminds my optimistic thoughts that the list is the same as last year with a few more things added  . . . making it longer than ever. 

Last night we enjoyed a lovely New Year’s Eve party with some friends. Friends that are organized. The party was structured with time for fellowship sprinkled between times of organized fun such as: a Christian comedian, live music, building a “snowless” snowman, having devotions, communion, and fireworks. Within the course of the evening the hostess remarked that during the summer she made-over both of her girl’s bedrooms.

Wow. There’s not a room in my house that doesn’t have a project waiting on me to get my act together enough to tackle. Take my front door for instance. We got a new one about two years ago. It needs to either be stained or painted. I’ve gone to Home Depot and brought home paint swatches. Picked out some trippin’ red paint. I barely had the color picked out when I heard all sorts of awful things about Home Depot and decided to boycott it. I can get the color swatch matched at Lowes or some other spot, I assure myself. 

But, I haven’t. 

I still have a naked, boring door.

One of the speakers at last night’s party discussed the importance of setting goals. And writing them down. Seems there’s something sort of magical about making goals more concrete by putting them on paper. Gave some impressive statistics about those that are purposeful in setting goals.

A few years ago, I resolved “not to resolve” anything as far as New Year’s resolutions are concerned. Because all of my best intentions fall by the wayside leaving me deflated and defeated. Year after year. I’m convinced that unless God changes me, it ain’t gonna change. And I still believe that . . .

However, last night got me thinking. I tend to let life happen to me. I am a “go with the flow” sort of person. I will never be accused of being a Type ‘A’ personality. I see the big picture of what needs to get done but am fairly inept at nailing down the nitty-gritty details of how it’s accomplished. I work much better under pressure than under my own paced out plans. 

Probably because I never make paced out plans. 

But maybe it’s time for a change. It occurred to me that my best-laid ideas rarely get past the foggy-floating-around-notion sort of phase. Most of the time I think of things that need to get done when I’m in bed; not the most opportune time. Yep, better remember to get on that . . . zzzzzz.

Maybe it’s time to write some things down. I’m not talking about getting overly ambitious, here. I can be a realistic optimist. I’m not going to think that writing down “redo guest bath” will bring in the elves to make it happen while I sleep (devastatingly sad!). But maybe if I make a list with things like, “paint the door in the bathroom,” and, “buy some baskets to organize the shelves,” it will break the project down into doable steps that may actually allow me to redo the guest bath! Amazing concept! (And even if I don’t get it ALL done, anything is an improvement, right?).

So, how about you? Maybe you ARE a Type A personality and you need to have more fun? Hey, schedule it into your Daytimer--I know you own one!!! In the meantime, I’m going to breakdown the big picture into little puzzle pieces that I can work with. A little accountability will do me good. 

Feel free to tap me on my cyber-shoulder this year and ask how my list is going! Is it getting any smaller? Is it growing? Am I morphing into a Type ‘A’ little by little?

Whatever your goals, your frustrations, your dreams or needs, I pray God will bless you this coming year. May you have a heart of gratitude for the many blessings, of all sizes, that are part of your life. May you look at trials as opportunities for God to show His glory through you. May your relationships bring you joy! 

And may little elves come and do the dirty work for all of us . . . wash baseboards, dust tall ledges, touch up chipped paint and organize our closets . . .etc. (It could be a long, long list!).