Today I find myself thinking about goals and what I want to work on improving in the new year.  I don’t like making new years resolutions.  Those are too easy to break.  And I have the nasty  habit of not wanting to keep working on something if I mess up.  I am too much of a perfectionist.  But a goal is different.  That is something you are working toward.  Goals are meant to be worked on and it is ok if you mess up, as long as you keep working in the right direction.  That is why I  like to set goals for myself.  They seem attainable, unlike complete perfection, which I am working toward.  But the only perfect person was Jesus.  So goals work for me.

I have lots of ideas running through my mind.  I have been thinking about how I did on my goals this last year.  Some I did really well on and met them.  Others I  need to tweak a bit and renew them.  I am working on defining these and will share what I plan on accomplishing later this week.  I want to really define them and have clear direction on where I want to go this year.  I think it helps to have clear and concise directions.  I think that is what made the difference in the goals I met this past year and the ones I didn’t.  Some of my goals were just too vague.  I need a plan.

I will be setting personal goals and then also making goals with my family for what we want to do this next year.  We set the goal of reading scriptures daily this past year and we haven’t missed a day.  There were times it would have been so easy to just skip it.  There were times we didn’t read until very late.  But we always did it.  We will continue with this during the next year.  We have developed the habit now and no one wants to break our record.  I imagine that one of our family goals will be to be more regular with our family home evenings this year.  We need to have them weekly.  We held some this past year.  Don’t think we didn’t.  But we didn’t always do it every week.  I know that will be my suggestion for this next year.  Family Home Evening will just help us to grow stronger as a family against the fiery darts of the adversary.  And that is so important that we strengthen our spiritual armor in the daily battle against satan.  Our world is becoming scary.  So fortifying ourselves with what is truly important is a priority.

So goals are on my mind today.  Are you thinking about goals for the new year?

Well here it is the day after Christmas already.  I am still in that warm and fuzzy Christmas haze and don’t want it to end.  I love Christmas and everything about it.  I love the getting ready.  I love the family time.  I love the spirit that it brings.  So I can’t believe it is over and gone for another year.

I am one of those people who leaves the tree up until the New Year.  I like to try to extend the season as long as I can.  Plus, let’s be honest…taking all of the decorations down is work.  That is probably the one thing I don’t like about this time of year.   But for today, we will enjoy the warmth that the decorations bring to our home.  We will bask in the glow of the tree lights.

Which leads me to wonder….how long do you leave your decorations and tree up?  Do you take them down right away?  Or do you like to try to make Christmas last as long as possible?