Purposeful

Purposeful:

having a purpose, meaningful, intentional, full of determination

I don't usually make New Year's resolutions.

When I was in Jr High I would make these silly resolutions like "I will have a boyfriend this year", or "I will be more popular"....

I will be honest - they never turned out as I hoped and I usually felt like I let myself down.

I don't like setting goals for myself that I know I won't really care about in a week or two. I don't buy into the "lose weight now with the newest exercise fad" and although I know it is good for me....setting a resolution to floss more will be left by the wayside in very quick order.

By February I have forgotten what it was that was so important to me on January 1st and I usually won't think about it until the end of the year and I realize that I once again I haven't met my resolution.

But this year I heard about "One Word 365".

The premise is simple. Decide on a word that you want to define your year.

This I think I can handle....and so for the past few days I have been thinking about what word best describes what I would like to see for myself in 2012.

And this is what I have come up with....

Purposeful.

I want to be more purposeful in my marriage. To really spend time strengthening the relationship I have with Dominic. He is my best friend and I often take him for granted. I want to be more purposeful about showing him respect and supporting him in all that he does.

I want to be more purposeful with my kids. So often in the business of the week I get caught up with what needs to be done and get frustrated when I don't feel the kids are cooperating. I want to make sure that they know how important they are, to encourage conversations and to just plain have fun with them.

I need to be more purposeful about my relationship with God. I don't want God to be a "phone a friend" when I need something kind of relationship. I need to be more purposeful about getting into His Word and asking for His guidance and direction in ALL things.

I also want to be more purposeful in my prayer life. I pray all the time, but I want to start praying specifically each day for people in my life. I believe that God answers prayers and so I am going to start keeping track of the prayer requests I receive and watching as God answers those prayers throughout the year.

And finally I want to be more purposeful about my time. Admitedlly I spend more time than I probably should on the computer. And while I love blogging, I have to make sure that it isn't cutting into time that should be spent on one of the things listed above.

So as I go through 2012 I hope to share with you where I am being more purposeful and hopefully how it is changing who I am.

How about you? What word would you chose to define your 2012??