LOOKING BACK ON MY WORD FOR 2023

Happy New Year friend! I pray you holidays were blessed.

In 2023, my word of the year was actually a phrase: draw near. Using James 4:8, I wanted to draw near to God.

To draw near to God, my plans were to:

- continue my daily quiet time
- read through the entire Bible
- do in depth Bible study
- journal
- use Write the Word journals daily
- cultivate a passionate prayer life
- read a devotional and Scripture before bed
- work on Scripture memory

While I do feel as though I had growth in this area and I sought to draw near to God, this is a goal that you will never "arrive" in. There will always be room to grow and we should continually seek to draw near to God.

Two areas I struggled with is before bed devotional and Scripture reading and Scripture memorization. I started the year strong with doing a "mini" quiet time before bed, but soon fell back into the old routine of reading novels or playing games on my phone. As for Scripture memory, I completely failed in this area. I am excited to be working on Scripture memorization this year with Woman to Woman's January Scripture Memory Challenge!

In addition to my word of the year, my Powersheets goals were my faith, marriage, family, finances, ministry, and health. I feel there was growth in these areas, but again, there will always be room to grow. I am thankful for the growth I did make.

Specifically in my health. I was going to the gym 4-5 days a week. It became a really good daily habit and I begin to feel so much better. I even worked up to one mile on the elliptical -this machine used to kill me only one minute in. I was doing really good with getting in 100 ounces of water a day, keeping up on vitamins and medications, and was averaging 10,500 steps every single day. I felt great and I proved to myself I could do it.

I stayed strong in this goal from January 1st until the end of October. My schedule with watching my grandsons changed and instead of adjusting my gym time or workouts, I just quit. Once I quit working out, it felt as though everything else unraveled. I am disappointed in how I finished the year out with this goal, especially after realizing I could do it.

There you have it! My word of the year and Powersheets goals all had growth, and I learned so much about my goals and myself. But, there is still lots of room for growth.

What about you? Did you have growth in your word or goals last year? How do you feel you did?

Over the next couple of days I will be sharing my One Word for 2024 and my Powersheets goals! Join me!