Bible Verse 1

52 Verses in 52 Weeks. My mum and my grandparents did it last year, and I'll be joining them this year.

Last night I wrote about my New Year's Resolutions, and as I wrote, I realized that with such a huge list the only way I can keep myself accountable is to document my resolutions here. Maybe not all of them, but some of them. And this is one I can document on my blog. So this year I will be writing 52 blog posts about the verses I memorize each week. I know that because my thoughts about resolutions for 2013 hadn't jelled yet when the year began I'll have to play a bit of catch up. So, this week I will memorize two verses, next week two more, and then one a week for the rest of the year.

I want to mention that if you feel so inclined, you're more than welcome to join me as I memorize 52 verses this year. You don't have to document your Bible verses on your blog or on Facebook or anywhere online. You can document them in a notebook or even just document them in your heart and mind. But if you want to join me, and you want to share the verses you choose in an online venue, I would really enjoy the partnership and encouragement, the sharing and learning that it could foster. If you decide to do this challenge with me, please let me know so we can be in this together.

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"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible." ~ Hebrews 11:1 & 3 NKJV

I have long known Hebrews 11:1, if not completely by memory than at least by near-memory from hearing it many times over, being quoted or in scripture readings and sermons. But Hebrews 11:3, only two verses later, is not one we hear so often. I spotted it during my study of the first lesson of this year, looked it up in my Bible, and lingered over the words, reading verse 1 then jumping to verse 3 and back again and seeing how beautifully they fit together. How often do I miss precious verses by just a few sentences? I fear it happens all too frequently. I hope that throughout this year God will lead me to some of those verses. The beautiful, powerful ones that are sometimes buried just a little deeper than I usually think to dig.

Picked from the SDA Sabbath School Quarterly | Lesson 1: Jesus, Creator of Heaven and Earth | Sunday, December 30

New Year

This Christmas season was such a blessing. Being home again with so many family members and friends was wonderful! I'm so glad it worked out for Jonathan and me to spend this Christmas in BC with my side of the family, many of whom I haven't spent Christmas with for several years.

I will write some update posts about our Christmas vacation soon, but tonight I wanted to write a post focusing on the New Year. I'm not really one for making lots of New Year's Resolutions. Some years I do, most years I don't, and the years that I do I end up not keeping them for much more than a few weeks. But this year I want to make some resolutions, and I want to make ones that I will keep. So I'm giving myself some leniency in the resolutions that I make. I don't want to make them so rigid that if I miss a day, I will be off of the routine for the rest of the year and end up not keeping them throughout 2013. So I've been thinking about ways I can make subtle, but lasting changes in my life. And I've come up with several that I think will work. I may add some as I come up with more. I may even realize that some of them aren't as important as I thought they were in the first couple week of this new year, but I want to make a real effort to keep as many of them as I can.

Since I've just recently returned from the Generation of Youth for Christ conference, many of my New Year's Resolutions are spiritual. These are the ones I most want to keep this year. I hope you will encourage me and help to keep me accountable to these resolutions as we move from month to month. Thank you in advance for your support!

Relationship

• Spend more quality time with Jonathan - we've decided to write down 24 fun things to do together this year, and twice a month we will pick an activity and spend time doing it together
• Be more intentional to communicate with the people I love in their love language
• Find ways to give more thanks, encouragement, and appreciation to people
• Look for local organizations where I could volunteer and meet new people
• Get rid of blogs (not friends' blogs, but ones of random people I've collected over the past few years) that take my time away from my family members and friends

Spiritual

• Read from my devotional every morning
• Do the quarterly lesson study daily
• Read a chapter a day of Ellen White's Conflict of the Ages series (About two years ago my mum and grandparents learned that if you read a chapter a day in the CotA series, you will finish all five books by sometime in mid-October, I believe. This will even leave time to read through Steps to Christ as well, I think, or at least give some lenience for a few missed days here or there.)
• Daily read the corresponding Bible passages to each chapter in the series
• Memorize a Bible verse a week (for starters)
• Be more intentional in counting/writing down my blessings
• Start to prayer journal again
• Join a Bible study
• Give more, either financially (might be tricky at the moment, but God can bless even a small gift) or of myself or my time

Physical

• Walk, hike, or ride my bike more often (maybe we'll start it off at two or three times a week and raise that number as I improve)
• Be more open to playing/doing sports that Jonathan enjoys (because as much as I hate to admit it, reading probably isn't a sport...)
• Explore Maine and the surrounding regions either on foot, bike, or car (but try for the first two as much as possible)

Creative

• Be a more consistent blogger
• Write more, and look for places to have that writing seen and read by others
• Work on actually posting the pictures that I take again, either on my blog or Facebook
• Start looking for possible writing/editing jobs, either in the area or online
• Look for ways that I can use my creative gifts to raise money for worthy organizations

Christmas card

Jonathan and I have had many incredibly blessed and wonderful experiences in 2012! I hope you all have as well. I want to share our Christmas card with you. Enjoy! (Click on the images to view larger.)

Pictures of our year

The descriptions for the pictures (These pages were designed to be printed double-sided,
so the descriptions are on the opposite side of the page from the pictures that they correspond with.)

Merry Christmas, readers, and a very happy New Year! I hope 2013 is an amazing year for you all!

Home for the Holidays!

I'm starting the trip home in about four and a half hours! Yep, that's early (2 a.m. over here in the east), but it means I'll be in Seattle by 12:30 p.m. and home about 7 or 8 hours after that (traffic and weather permitting). I can't wait!! See you soon, everyone from the Okanagan Valley!

Advent activities calendar

Every December of my life (except, I think, 2010 when I was living in Tanzania) I've had a chocolate Advent calendar. Even last year in Korea I convinced Jonathan that we needed to go to E-Mart, the large Korean chain store, and search the International aisle for Advent calendars. (Yes, we found some.) In all the hustle and bustle of decorating the house this week and getting our things ready to move, I nearly forgot about the Advent calendar tradition. I remembered last night and told Jonathan we'd have to go get a couple tomorrow. (Picture coming! :)

This year, in addition to the chocolate Advent calendar, I want to start a new tradition with Jonathan. A tradition where we take a little bit of time each day of December and spend it doing something together. So we made a list of fun activities to do together. Some of the things on the list are concerts or events that we've committed to taking part in. Others are just fun things I've always enjoyed doing with my family or ideas I read on other blogs and thought would be fun to try. Some will involve more people than just the two of us (our families or fellow church members). Some will be just for us, a time when we can put away other distractions and just spend time together. I love all the ideas and I just can't wait to get started! December is going to be SO much fun!!

December Advent Activities
Dec. 1, Saturday - Read the Christmas story from the Bible
Dec. 2, Sunday - Play with the Topsham Strings at L.L. Bean in Freeport
Dec. 3, Monday - Set up and decorate small Christmas tree
Dec. 4, Tuesday - Decorate our new apartment for Christmas
Dec. 5, Wednesday - Send out Christmas cards
Dec. 6, Thursday - Set up nativity scene (maybe this one this year since my creche is still packed)
Dec. 7, Friday - Play in Handel’s Messiah at the Brunswick church
Dec. 8, Saturday - Attend Talent Show at Penner’s ?
Dec. 9, Sunday - Make paper snowflakes
Dec. 10, Monday - String popcorn while listening to and singing favourite Christmas music
Dec. 11, Tuesday - Make marshmallow snowmen
Dec. 12, Wednesday - Make a real snowman (snow pending, might have to switch)
Dec. 13, Thursday - Make sugar popcorn and watch a Christmas movie
Dec. 14, Friday - Have a sock snowball fight :)
Dec. 15, Saturday - Go Christmas caroling with the Topsham church
Dec. 16, Sunday - Drink hot chocolate & read a Christmas story/book (when we get to Kelowna)
Dec. 17, Monday - Cut down a real Christmas tree in the woods, bring it home, and decorate it
Dec. 18, Tuesday - Make a gingerbread house
Dec. 19, Wednesday - Drive/walk around town and look at Christmas lights
Dec. 20, Thursday - Make and decorate sugar cookies (and/or make gingersnaps)
Dec. 21, Friday - Colour/draw Christmas pictures while listening to a Christmas story
Dec. 22, Saturday - Participate in the Orchard City church Christmas program & go Christmas caroling in the evening
Dec. 23, Sunday - Wrap Christmas presents and put them under the tree
Dec. 24, Monday - Play crokinole and board/card games with family; Later, open Christmas name gifts with extended family and then open Christmas Eve pajamas with immediate family

*Note: I would like to try to blog about these activities. I can't promise I'll blog about each one every day, but I'll try to blog about several together at the very least. Look out for a lot of blog posts coming throughout December! Also, all of these activities are subject to change, especially making a snowman and the ones later in the month when we'll be in BC. I haven't confirmed the activities or dates with my family, but I'm quite sure they will be quite happy to join in in the activities, even if we have to move them to different dates.