Look, It’s Here—A New Year!

Happy New Year! There’s something about a new year—blank calendar pages hinting at new beginnings and new possibilities.
January for some people is a let-down after the holidays, but for me is a time to re-focus and regroup. Our theme this month is “Vision”, and it reminds me of the Bible verse,

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keeps the law, happy is he.—Proverbs 29:18

We may not perish if we don’t make plans or set goals for the future, but we will lose sight of our purpose. Some of my favorite hymns are related to sight. Be Thou My Vision, My Faith Looks Up to Thee, Open My Eyes That I May See, all remind me that God and Jesus are the only way to keep our focus and improve our vision.

One of my favorite words is “Look”. I am a visual person, so I spend a lot of time looking. As a reading teacher, I teach the word “Look” by adding little dots in the middle of the “o”s , so the word has “eyes” in it. Just for fun, imagine all the “Looks” coming up with little dots for eyes-maybe crossed, looking sideways, etc.

Look Ahead--January is a great time to re-evaluate the use of the resources God gives us. We all have the same amount of time, differing amounts of energy and money. Be intentional in how you spend them--we too often just let things happen, or hope for the best instead of being purposeful and careful.

Set goals for yourself—Mental, Physical, Spiritual and Social. Small steps are best. For instance, in “mental” you might memorize a Bible verse once a week, or learn expressions in another language. Physical goals could be as easy as eating 5 servings of fruit and vegetables daily, drinking 8 glasses of water, and walking for 30 minutes every day. Reading a book of the Bible each month or attending a Bible Study could be a spiritual goal. Making plans to get together with friends you haven’t seen for awhile could be a social goal. You may want to make these types of goals for your children and family, too, and celebrate victories!

Look at things differently-reorganize some things at home for a smoother routine. What things make you crazy? What is always a problem? Decide what things could be done to make the situation better. If planning meals is a problem, take the time to plan a week or two of menus. (Sloppy Joes, carrot sticks, peaches, ice cream. Chili with shredded cheese, cinnamon rolls, relishes and applesauce.) After you come up with 14 meals, you can plan weekly grocery lists and rotate the menus. Keep adding new ones and ask family input. Have a Mexican food night, or Italian. Get out your crockpot and try a different recipe each week. Repurpose spaces in your house. We recently cleaned extra things out of my husband’s office to make room for a treadmill. (see Physical goals above!) Move things around to store things where they are used. Unless it’s set in concrete, you can change things up to make life easier. You just need to “look with new eyes” or “think outside the box.”

Look Out—the holidays may have caused excessive spending and acquiring of things. Resist spending and shopping this month! It’s time to combat excesses. Take a sabbatical from shopping and spending. Try to use up what you already have and save money in January. Plan meals around freezer and pantry items.
Vow not to bring in any more stuff this month. Try this challenge:
End the year with less stuff than you have now!! ( or less weight, fewer grudges and resentments, less “self” focus, etc.)

Look Alive (Rejuvenate)- You may not get outside much, but you can still work on eating healthy foods, getting rid of the sugary stuff left from the holidays (toss it out—don’t eat it!), and MOVE. Walk outside or inside, do exercise videos, treat yourself to a homemade Spa Day. After exercising, soak in a nice warm tub of Epsom salts and scented water, slather lotion all over your dry skin, do your nails and even give yourself a facial.

Looking Good-Revamp your living spaces. Set up a mud room area for snowy boots and coats and school bags. A bench with a drip tray under it for boots and wall hooks for coats/bags helps a lot.
Redesign your family room for “cocooning”’. Put some afghans and blankets in a basket for snuggling, set out board games and jigsaw puzzles, read aloud each evening. Light some candles. Get the mugs, hot cocoa and spice tea mixes, and popcorn. Have soups and homemade bread. Play in the snow and make snow ice cream as needed for relaxing family times.

Looking Back-(Rewind) This is a good time to stay inside and tackle all those family photos—scan them if you have a computer and store on a CD. Put old negatives into a safety deposit box, or scan. Organize pictures into events or chronological order in albums or indulge in some scrapbooking.

Look Up
Realize God’s blessings and Rejoice in His promises. Really Look at those around you. Some days are so hectic that you realize you haven’t even looked in the eyes of your loved ones. Focus on them, listen, and pay attention!

Don’t look now-what we focus on enhances or distorts our vision. When we focus on
the shortcomings of others, it’s like using a magnifying glass—their faults become bigger and bigger to us, blocking our vision of the good things about them.
Sometimes overlooking the actions and faults of others is the kindest thing we can do.

To really improve your vision, Look through our Father’s eyes.
My husband has bifocals that give an interesting effect around lights after dark—everything has a halo. While that is very annoying to him driving at night, wouldn’t it be great if we saw things with the halo effect, seeing the good around us? I often wish I could see others through God’s eyes. My vision is clouded and blurred, distorted by my own perceptions and experiences. The Bible tells us:
God does not view things the way men do. People look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7

Corrective lenses-the only way to improve our vision and our focus is to look at others through the lenses of His love, grace and compassion.

Enjoy your January and remember, everything always looks brighter when viewed through our faith in the One Who loves us and gave Himself for us.

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