....and we're back!

Is it really the second week of January already?? Seems like just yesterday we were trimming the tree, decking the halls and fa-la-la-la-la'ing. Now the Christmas chaos is over, 2010 has been rung in, and a fresh new year is upon us.

I love fresh starts. As a child, I always looked forward to the first day of school - brand new notebooks, freshly sharpened pencils, bright pink erasers all organized so neatly in my desk. By the time October rolled around, the notebooks were crumpled, the pencils broken, and the erasers worn down to a tiny nub.

New Years resolutions are much the same, in my experience. We start the year so full of hope and anticipation, only to have that exhilaration slowly dwindle as the weeks and months pass. The resolutions fall by the wayside, leaving us feeling as though we have failed.

Out of curiousity, I looked up the definition of "resolution"... this is what I found:


res·o·lu·tion (rz-lshn)
n.
1. The state or quality of being resolute; firm determination.

Firm determination... now that is something to which I can relate. I do have a four year old, afterall - and he's my second one!

This will be my year of firm determination! I will not make promises to myself I have no intention of keeping, but instead I will continue to walk forward in faith, knowing God does indeed have a plan for each of us. I will strive to be the best mother and wife I can be, remembering that without Him, I can do nothing. Most importantly, I will not let go of hope.

"But as for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more."
-Psalm 71:14