Dreaming makes me happy. Oh so happy.
And excited. And giddy. And hopeful.
That’s why I love the New Year so much. Such an exciting time of renewal and freshness.
This week, I am chatting about my God-sized dreams. On Monday, I shared the very cool dreamy journey God took me on in 2015. If you missed it, no worries. Check it out here.
And now comes one of my favorite parts of blog writing: Revealing my NEW God-sized dreams.
Ready? (I hope so, because I can’t wait any longer!!)
Dream #1: Intentionally pour into the heart of my husband and daughter
So, it has recently come to my heart’s attention that my tongue is really sharp. (And by recently, I mean like a year ago.) And God has REALLY been showing me how damaging my tongue is to those closest to me, like my Beloved Husband and my sweet squirrelly toddler daughter. So this year, He is calling me to be intentional about the words I say to them. To build them up. To love and respect them, specifically with my words. So each morning, I will reflect on the previous day to determine if I said at least one intentionally nice/loving/edifying statement to each of them. If yes, I get what I am calling an “accountability tally mark.”
Dream #2: Read 75 books
This is pretty straight forward. I just love to read and want to be feeding my brain/heart/soul with some solid Jesus material– plus a little bit of fun stuff too! I like this dream because it sure to challenge me as it is about 1.5 books a week (a lot for the number of plates I am currently spinning in the air.) Good thing we have a deployment coming up 🙂
Dream #3: Be Positive
Yeah, this dream ties into dream number one. I have recently been convicted about the fact that my “joy” in life is kind of counterfeit– it very much changes with my circumstances. My attitude/joy is not constant on the character of Christ. (Ouch, I know.) So each day, I will reflect on the previous day and ask myself: Did my words, attitude and actions reflect Christ yesterday? Did I avoid negative traits (eye rolling, sighs, pessimism, unnecessary sarcasm, etc?) If yes, I get an accountability tally. If not, I soak up God’s grace and reset for my day! (Side note: Biblical joy is not to be confused with earthly happiness. Two different things. I wrote about that here.)
Dream #4: Pass the Army Physical Fitness Test
Nobody panic. NO, I am NOT joining the military. Yikes. Totally not my jam OR calling. However, it IS on my bucket list to meet the minimum fitness standard because I have never been able to run very fast or do a single push-up from my toes. I kind of got a head start on this one by beginning the 100 day push-up challenge in November. And good news! I can do REAL push-ups for the first time in my life. So excited that I. Can’t. Even.
Oh, and for my age/gender, my minimum PT score requirements are: Run 2 miles in under 20:30, 17 push-ups (in two minutes or until failure– no resting in down position allowed) and 45 sit-ups (in 2 minutes.)
Dream #5: Break the Emotional Eating Cycle
Remember back in July when I wrote about my Whole30 food adventure? How God had FINALLY helped me legitimately taste real freedom from my food addiction/emotional eating cycle for the first time in 30 years? Yeah. That. So the Lord has called me to expand on it– to REALLY break it permanently and be set free. So I am doing a Whole120. That’s right, 120 days of eating only whole foods (meats, fruits/veggies, healthy fats) and nothing processed. I have an incredible accountability partner (thanks Dani!) who is doing it with me. We meet once a week and are also doing Lysa TerKeurst’s bible study Made to Crave. When Jesus, Dani and I pull this off, it will be a HUGE game changer!
Dream #6: Hide God’s Word in my HeartÂ
God has recently lit my heart on fire for His word. Not just to read it, but to very intentionally memorize it. So I am. This year, I plan to memorize at least 150 Scriptures… The entire book of James then the rest can be where ever God leads. I have a nifty notecard box set up for this process as well as a very cool phone app called ScriptureTyperPro. I am already loving this challenge and feel like that my tongue/emotions are surrendering more and more to the Lord as I hide TRUTH (my 2016 OneWord) in my heart!
Dear readers– what are your dreams for 2016? Jump in the convo and leave a comment. I would love to hear all about it.
Here’s to dreaming really, really big (God-sized big!) in 2016!
Living HIS dreams,
“May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.” ~Psalm 20:4
