January 2016
In This Issue
by ANGELA NAZWORTH

Being open allows you to pour yourself out while you're being filled up.
Without a doubt, the best decision I made in 2015 was scheduling an appointment with a Christian therapist followed by the commitment to stick with the counseling sessions.

The many months leading up to that moment can be described in one word: Closed.

A cocktail of loss, doubt, and depression dizzied me. Agitation and procrastination ruled my heart and mind. Exploring my true identity in Christ, which was my goal, required facing parts of myself that I didn't want to see. So I closed my eyes.

Even though cultivating community is my passion, investing in new relationships after moving to city number 10 in a span of 14 years, terrified me. I felt too worn, broken, and needy to bring the energy necessary to create meaningful friendships. So I didn't try.

I closed even more: my creative side, my willingness to be silly and play with my kids, my sense of adventure, my Bible. I kept them all shut tight more often than I cracked them open. It was as though instead of stepping into a new beginning, I fell into portal that whisked me back to the fragile, frightened girl I was years ago.

In every direction I looked I saw piles of unhealthy patterns I either helped create or allowed.
How to Stop Procrastination: What to do when you don't feel like doing anything at all

What do you not feel like doing today?

You know what I mean. It's that nagging thing weighing on you.

You know you should do it.

If you did it, it would honor God because it obeys his law of love (John 15:12), or it's a work of faith (2 Thessalonians 1:11), or it puts "to death the deeds of the body" (Romans 8:13).

You know it would be good for your soul or your body or your family or your vocation or your neighbor or your church.

But you don't feel like doing it.

At all...
Blessing Jar for 2016
There is STILL time to start your family's Blessing Jar for 2016!
I wonder if we'd be so gung-ho about New Year's resolutions if January didn't come so quickly after December.
by MARY CARVER

The holiday season, with all its fun and festivities and falalas, also gives us obligations, stress, and to-do lists (or credit card bills) a mile long. And after pushing ourselves to exhaustion or gorging ourselves on red and green candies (No, YOU ate an entire large bag of peanut M&Ms in one day!), the idea of a new day, month, year is more than a breath of fresh air. It's a gulp of oxygen as we feel ourselves drowning in year-end excess and (often unmet) expectations.

But before we start a list of all the many, many ways we're going to be better, do more, work hard or smarter - or both! - this year, let's take a time out. Let's breathe in deep our clean calendars and pretty paper journals, and let's boil all our best intentions and goals and ambitions down a little.

I don't know for sure about you, but I know that this time of year, as we put 2015 behind us and look forward to whatever may come in 2016, I'm tempted to forget everything I've learned in the past twelve months (and every year before). My knees feel weak at the thought of a few more bullet points, and I get a little breathless as I organize all my hopes and dreams and plans into the most perfect outline or spreadsheet you've ever seen.
Quick Links

Join Our Mailing List