Greetings!   

I love that the New Year comes so soon after Christmas.  We've all spent some time  preparing our souls for God to take up a more permanent residence.  SO... Ready, Set , GO!  We're spiritually ready to decide what major changes we are going to make during this New Year!  The hardest part in this decision is being HONEST with ourselves. Do we like just the idea of changing, or do we really want to change right now?  Do we have any idea how we can trick our psyche into changing something that is so ingrained into our every step?

Honesty is the virtue of the month and an essential one to employ if the changes we hope to make will be lasting.

The reflections that follow might help you think through your resolves and fine tune them so that you can get a running head start with the New Year's Bang and the Dropping of the Ball in Times Square! Yes, you'll want to get on on your way to becoming that "Simply and Beautifully Woman"....the best you in 2012!

Happy New Year!

Sharon

 HONESTY

I came across an interesting conversation on honesty:
 

"The 'urge to honesty' ... refers to the internal nudge we feel that inclines us toward integrity. It includes: (1) a mental "pull" that draws us to prefer true over false; (2) private inclinations to choose valid over invalid reasoning; and (3) inner wants that crave fair play.                     

From the "Roots of Sound Rational Thinking". 

I believe that the "urge to honesty" is God's personal loving call to us to be one with him in the very core of our being. Sometimes we fear the truth, or even fear to live righteously or to live more disciplined because, ultimately, we often believe we are unloveable, unreachable, doomed to the basest nature of our very selves... unredeemable.    

On the lighter side of things.... 

I did a trial run on my New Years Resolutions.  I took that deep look at my life and settled on a few areas that would help me reach my goals of a better me.  I know that God works with my "nature". Any of my changes will need to be matched with an equal "motivator" or "reward". I do love that He is the Creator and actually thinks my "humanness" is a good thing!

I set "alarms" on my IPhone to go off when it was time to exercise, get dressed, plan my day, get my clothes ready, walkout the door, etc. I had about 9 alarms going off throughout the day. Boy, was I going to be the "super organized and predictable woman" this New Year! 

The first morning, I turned off the first three alarms....absolutely ignored them with no guilt!

My plan wasn't working.  I had to take another honest look at what was really going to work for me. I settled on four alarms instead of the nine...and not starting them so early in the morning! This still might need some fine tuning.    I added some "oldies but goodies" music to my exercise and this helped me to began paying attention to the alarm's notifying me that it was time to exercise!   

Looking at my New Year's Resolutions honestly is making me patient with myself.I'm enjoying the process of finding out what will and won't work.

Why don't I do the things that I want to do?  Do I really believe that reading my book a little longer will make me happier than being on time for an appointment?  Do I really believe that putting my exercise off till next week "when my busy schedele slows down", will make me more disciplined in a week? 

I have that "urge to honesty" that is prompting me to take a deeper look.  God is calling me to a "better me" because it is the true good and will result in my true happiness.  I want to walk towards HIS NUDGE.  If I even take one step towards that nudge, I know He will take my hand and lead me with another nudge.

  It's going to be a good Year!  

Our final virtue in this series of 13 will be on perseverance and will arrive in about two weeks.  In the meantime, if any of you have any ideas on persevering with New Years resolutions, SEND them to me!  I will publish them in our next newsletter. They might be the perfect words of ecouragement someone needs. I would also like to hear from you if God has blessed you in a special way  as you take a look at the "nudge of honesty".

A Blessed New Year to You!