Naming the New Year

I hate New Years Resolutions.  Lose weight, pay off debt, blah blah blah.  How many people do you know that actually keep their resolutions?  Mine are usually out the window by the second week of January.  Of course, my goal is usually weight or health related, and January is full of football and chicken wings.  So, there you go.

Therefore, I had firmly decided not to make any resolutions this year.  Weight loss goals are a moot point considering I have an alien that has taken over my body and is causing me to crave things like mashed potates and refried beans (yes, on the same plate).  Paying off debt is not an option since every spare penny will be going to the doctor, to the hospital, or in the bank to pay for maternity leave.  I did make a reading list for myself this year which I don't consider to be a resolution.  It's more like a map to keep me from standing in front of my bookshelves for an hour, chewing my nails and trying to figure out what to read next.

Then I pulled up Google Reader to catch up on some blogs that I hadn't read in awhile, and I saw something that struck me as interesting:  Naming the New Year.  I first saw the idea on Lisa Notes, and it tickled my brain a little bit.  The idea is to link the upcoming year with a name, a theme, an idea - anything that will inspire you and challenge you throughout the year.  Before I closed Google Reader I had seen five other blog friends write about naming their New Year.  And a little voice in my head said "You should do this", and the name for my New Year was abundantly clear.  Of course, I ignored that little voice for three days.  I prefer to not be held accountable.  After all, there's football and chicken wings on the horizon. 

Then I remembered the whole "not-being-a-control-freak" thing, and alas, I gave up.  My New Year has a name, and it's name is Stewardship.

I have many weaknesses - control freak, too sarcastic, habitually late - but there is one specific thorn in my flesh.  It's that thing that I really hate most about myself.  I can't really put a specific name on it because it's too big for that.  Basically, I don't think I am a good steward of the gifts I've been given.  This isn't the time for me to go into specifics, but my word for 2011 will be stewardship - physically, financially, spiritually, completely. 

I've been thinking so much about that little alien I mentioned earlier.  Aaron and I have been talking about the things that we want to teach him/her.  We have so many ideas about the kind of home we want to have and the kind of example we want to set for this little critter.  Now is the time to create those habits.  If I wait until d-day it's too late. 

Luke 12:48 says "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."  I have been given so much!  How am I using it? 

Aaron and I were talking on Christmas about the pressure Mary must have felt.  Here Mary, you've just been handed the responsibility to parent the one and only Son of the Almighty God.  Yikes!  And then it hit us - we have the same gift.  The child I'm carrying is God's child, too.  He/She is not God in the flesh and will not be the Savior of mankind, but I don't think Mary could possibly have understood those things while she watched her belly swell and then her child grow.  She, just like me, had a precious gift from God and her responsibility was to be a good steward.

What I am doing with the gifts God has entrusted to me?

"Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”  ~Haggai 1:5-6

"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.  I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the LORD Almighty.  Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.  ~Malachi 3:10-12

"Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”   ~Luke 6:37-38

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  ~Matthew 6:19-21

What will the name of your new Year be?