A good friend of mine recently did a little Facebook Live video in her No More Buts Facebook group (go check it out) … she asked her followers to think about our “word” for the year. Hers was consistency, and she gave several examples of how that will apply to her life in 2018. Of course, I felt inspired, and couldn’t NOT think about what my word for this year should be.
Though I haven’t “looked back” on 2017 too closely yet (I will soon), I certainly experienced some challenges … a difficult pregnancy that left me feeling completely depleted on a daily basis … for months, I was in survival mode. In survival mode, there is no goal setting. There are no “extras” … there are the daily basics … and that’s it.
The day before my third daughter was delivered via emergency c-section (at 30 weeks gestation), I sent my big kids to the sitter for the day and crawled into bed, setting my alarm to ensure I would be up on time to pick them up that afternoon. That’s … how … completely … depleted … I felt.
But here I am now … at the beginning of 2018 (four months later) feeling completely revived … completely “back to normal” … completely energized. I am getting my eating back on track; I’ve started working out again. I have energy … and because I am on mat leave … I have time. I have time for my kids and I have time for me.
I have time (and energy) to think about my word of the year … so here it is … DISCIPLINE.
“Discipline” in its simplest form just means “good behaviour.”
In 2018, I will demonstrate “good behaviour” in the following categories:
– eating – stick to one “treat” per day
– exercise – 30 minutes at least four times a week
– drinking water – a jug a day
– getting enough rest
– taking vitamins
– house work
– house work
– my business
– writing/creating
– writing/creating
– social media use
– finances
Being the “don’t do what everyone else is doing” type of person I am sometimes though, I can’t just stick with one word (and I just know I can’t be PERFECTLY GOOD all of the time …LIFE HAPPENS) … To make 2018 my best year yet, I simply HAVE to sprinkle DISCIPLINE with a little GRACE (my second word of the year).
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:8-10).
I absolutely LOVE this notion of being “God’s handiwork … to do good works.” What an incredible INTENTION for the year ahead!
Now, more about this GRACE thing … I will need “pardon” at times and/or to be “forgiven” for my actions! Sometimes, LIFE HAPPENS!
Like maybe my mom makes fresh cinnamon buns or Big M picks a fight about what to wear or the baby poops up her back right before we’re heading out the door or I forget to take meat out before heading out for the day (and decide to buy a pizza instead) or a sudden appointment comes up and I have to make an unexpected trip out of town or we run out of milk.
Let’s face it, if I’ve already had my “treat of the day” and I go to my mom’s and she is pulling fresh cinnamon buns out of the oven, I am going to eat a damn cinnamon bun (maybe even two … everyone knows they’re the BEST on the first day they are made) … a sprinkling of GRACE.
And if I don’t get every “chore of the day” completed and marked off the list, with a sprinkling of GRACE, it’s going to be OK. Today was “drop off recycling” day. If I would have done that though, we would have been late for lunch at the farm … humans before chore checklists.
And if I set a goal to complete and post a blog post such as this one before heading to bed for the night, but I have to fight with a reflux baby between paragraphs instead … a sprinkling of GRACE will be in order once again. Hopefully, my readers will understand (and read it in the morning).
I used to be an avid goal setter … since I had my children though, I have felt discouraged over and over again with goal setting as things would come up, and I would fail. I expected PERFECTION … my goals were RIGID. And because they were so rigid, I failed again and again and again. Life with children doesn’t leave room for rigidity. Yes, routine and discipline are important, but life with kids requires a whole lot of flexibility and GRACE too.
“Grace preserves us and comforts, encourages, and strengthens us” (2 Corinthians 13:14; 2 Thessalonians 2:16–17; 2 Timothy 2:1)
Goals are good! Discipline with a sprinkling of grace is better!
Our Life Well Lived - Leanne Hintz 
Love it Leanne!
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