the Andersons: 2011

I have never really ever "done" a New Year's Resolution. As I look back a lot of years, I have done the typical "I need to workout more" thing to try to persuade my body to create movement and gooo toooo theeee gymmmm. That usually last for a few weeks if I'm lucky. Right after I typed the first couple of sentences here it got me wondering "hmm...what does the average person make for their resolutions?"...I figured weight, money, love. That basically covered the gist of it. Save money, lose weight, stay happy, keep learning, stop smoking, help others, spend more time with loved ones, etc. When I went down the list I was like "yeah..yep..sounds good..(except on the smoking- one challenge I'm glad I don't have to overcome)"...These are all super great and super good. Clearly, who doesn't want to "stay happy", "lose unwanted inches", or "help those in need". However as self-pleasing these all seem, I think my challenge to myself this year will trump all of them while possibly helping me do a lot of them...win win, right?

The challenge for myself is Project 4:4 at our church. Reading the whole Bible in one year. I have never read anywhere near to the whole Bible and I'm actually reallyyy, overly excited to do this. I think Adam and I are going to try and read as much as we can together (which makes me so lovey dovey happy that we can be together while reading...plus, he knows a lotttt more and can help simplify it for me), but I know there will be times when schedules change and I will be going solo on it. And that is good, I think. It will be personal. It will be just God and me:) I feel like I've said this a million times in the past few months, but ~~my goal~~ what I want....is to be closer to God. Sometimes I feel so distant and it sucks to be honest. I keep feeling like there is more that I need to be doing. Being a better wife, being a better teacher, a better friend, a better daughter. Maybe it's God saying, "Amy, you just need to be better at drawing close to me. That's it." I don't even know if that makes sense to anybody. But yeah, raw emotion just creeped out in the matter of 2 minutes. Hmm.. anyways, I'm super excited to grow this year. I feel like the last year I have been learning and thinking about things in the Bible that I have never even heard of. I know this may mean getting up 30 minutes before school when I am exhausted, staying up a little later when I am even more exhausted, putting tv on hold, leaving the gym early (that will not be hard), serving Adam cereal for dinner;), etc. I just hope that I can soak up whatever I can and give the glory to God.