(Start) a New Year

Figured January 1 was a good time to declare how I want to start this new year. Simply put, I choose to live 2012 better than I used to be.

Not better than Person X, not just doing things better or being a nicer person, but BEING better than I used to be in 2011. For all the flaws I have, all the new ones I’m certain to pick up this year, I hope to lay some old habits down and leave them in the past for good…for my own good.

I like lists – they make me feel like I have a plan, a strategy. So here’s the list of what I learned in 2011 that I hope to not have to re-learn in 2012. What does your list look like?

1. Yelling is not one of the 5 Love Languages (you really should read these books if you don’t know what I’m talking about).
2. Love is a verb not a feeling. TRUTH: I can love without feeling loving or being loved.
3. It’s okay to say No as long as your No means No.
4. Being married isn’t supposed to make you happy, it’s supposed to make you married.
5. Facebook can’t accomplish in a lifetime what one meaningful face-to-face conversation can.
6. Before you ask of others be sure you are prepared to do what you are preparing to ask.
7. Christians are human.
8. Everyone is accountable to someone, it just doesn’t necessarily need to be to YOU.
9. It’s okay if everyone doesn’t like you, so long as they respect you.
10. The “work” you, the “married” you, the “parental” you, and the “church” you are all the same person – or at least they should be – and there should be no confusion from the outside about which YOU they are getting from one moment to the next.
11. I still don’t really like cats very much.
12. Worry is faithless.
13. Do for one what you wish you could do for all (thanks to Andy Stanley for this one).
14. Being the first to say “I’m sorry” is not a race to see who’s a better person it should be a race to humble yourself quickly enough to move on with love rather than resentment.