Reflections and Resolutions

With the new year comes many things. Foremost among these are reflections and resolutions. As I reflect upon this last year, I must say its been pretty good. I started out with 5 jobs last year, working pretty much all hours of the day and night. The good news is I was able to pay all my bills. I finished the three classes I needed to get the Reading Endorsement in Utah and I was definitely not bored. The start of the new school year found me working full time at the school, which allowed me to quit all but one of my other jobs. Fortunately the last job is not stressful at all and brings in needed extra income. The new school year also brought me the opportunity to purchase my own home, for which I am grateful every day. So there are many good things that came out of last year. This year is looking pretty good, as my bills are manageable and hopefully next school year will find me getting paid salary.

As I think about resolutions, I have to say I have mixed feelings about these. I am the kind of person that when I decide to do something, I don't want to wait until some arbitrary date to accomplish it. I choose to make a change right then. Someone wise once said that if you feel the need to change and don't do it within the next 24/36/48 (can't remember the exact number, but it was at least 24 and no more than 48) hours, you won't change. So I have tried to make the change quickly. This has caused me to relax more so that I'm not as stressed out, to get up to work out in the morning and to find time for the temple regularly. So I'm not really much for New Year's Resolutions. I try to accomplish things as quickly as possible, as opposed to waiting for the New Year.

Having said that, I do have a resolution that has come up at this time and I feel this is the perfect time to institute it. I normally read my scriptures straight through. I read from the beginning to the end. Its an easy fall back. I figure if I have a question or a thought, then I'll study that, but generally I just am too lazy to actually do that. So this year, I am going to work on studying my scriptures by topic. I have struggled a little trying to decide how to decide what topic to study, but I have decided that if I hit a wall on what I should be studying, I can always go to the Conference Ensign and I'm sure the General Authorities will be able to help. I am also hoping that this will help my scripture study be more meaningful. (Especially since I've read the standard works several times from beginning to end. And by several, I mean more than 5. Book of Mormon I've read at least twice every year. So time for something new)

I do have other goals, but many of them are long term, as in longer than a year. As I think of them, I'll try to share, but this is what I've got for now.

Good luck to me!