Softball Pitches & New Years Resolutions

I can see our tree skirt again because presents have been opened and trash bags stuffed with torn paper and cardboard packaging. Today we ate bits of leftovers from the last four days of family Christmas celebrations.

The girls’ new Rapunzel’s Tower & Popstar Dressing Room Lego sets are assembled and extra pieces litter the table and floor. And, as I write, Mark is matching the socks after folding five loads of laundry (and that’s with the girls wearing the same Christmas dresses three days in a row).  Buying gifts, planning menus, advent wreaths & countdown crafts–there is this glorious momentum that drives us to Christmas.

And, every year, it seems I am startled by how quickly the new year follows.  Last night, as I washed dishes and found places for leftovers in our fridge, I recalled the list of 2015 goals I had written down on a coffee date with Mark–some of them accomplished and several abandoned by summer.

Those abandoned goals make me feel embarrassed, lazy, and immature.

This past summer Mark played on a co-ed softball league; at a practice before the games officially began, Audrey and Charlotte wanted to try hitting a ball like Daddy.  Charlotte, first, held the oversized bat, with Mark’s help, while another teammate slowly lobbed the ball her way.  Even with Daddy’s help, she swung and missed.  Immediately, she dropped the bat, and with her arms crossed stomped away angry and defeated.

She failed to reach the goal she had envisioned–did I see her as embarrassing, lazy, or immature? Of course not.

Because, as parents we accept that when our children are attempting to accomplish significant {new} goals, failure is normal and inevitable.

We also accept that failure is not final.

If you are like me, you are better at expecting and accepting failure from your children than from yourself.  And our crafty adversary would like to use your abandoned goals (or the ones you meant to make and never got around to) to keep you from even trying in 2016.

But, what if, we give ourselves the same grace we present to our children when they’re tackling a new goal and pursue the goals (after we’ve chosen them under the Holy Spirit’s guidance) with the tenacity we have for potty-training.

This year, some of my 2016 goals will be nearly identical to the 2015 list, but that will not stop me from writing the list, identifying steps, and going after them by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Won’t you join me? 

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