God-Centered One Words {10 Days of One Word}

10 Days of One Word 2012 God part 1We could all stand to have a year with God as our focus. The first two posts of this series will focus on the Creator of all things. This is by no means all it takes to explain God. He is bigger than any one post, blog, book, or person can describe. This is just my attempt to bring glory to the One without whom, there would be no 2013 to conquer. So, with that, here is my first offering of One Words for you to consider for 2013.

1. Jesus

“Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our profession.” – Hebrews 4:14

“Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.” – 1 John 4:15

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” – Isaiah 9:6

2. Father

“But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.” – Isaiah 64:8

“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

“Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;” – 2 Corinthians 1:3

3. Faith

“Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.” – Matthew 9:29

“And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” – Matthew 17:20 See also – Luke 17:5-6

“And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.” – Mark 11:22

“To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.” – Acts 26:18

“Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” – Revelation 14:12

4. Praise

“Then believed they his words; they sang his praise.” – Psalm 106:12

“So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever, that I may daily perform my vows.” – Psalm 61:8

“When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.” – Psalm 42: 4-5

5. Thirst

“Oh God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see they power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.” – Psalm 63:1-3

“As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?” – Psalm 42:1-2

6. Christ

“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:6-8

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” – Galatians 2:20

7. Might or Glory

“Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.” – Psalm 24:8-10

Tomorrow’s post will bring you seven more God-centered words to consider. Check out the whole series on the Overview post.

10 Days of One Word – What’s That?

10 Days of One Word 2012

Everyone knows that new year’s resolutions are widely-viewed as pointless because no one bothers keeping them. Goals are not viewed much better. It doesn’t really matter what everyone else thinks though. If you want to make resolutions, do it. If you want to set goals, do it. Just make sure you set yourself up for success. One way to do that is to focus your efforts. Enter One Word.

Three years ago, I thought I was being original and named 2010 the Year of Change. Apparently, lots of other people do this. Ah, well. Doesn’t really matter whose idea it was, what matters is it works for a lot of people. Kind of like setting goals and resolutions.

What I like about One Word:

  • it forces me to focus
  • it is simple
  • it sets a tone for the year
  • it works really well with goal-setting
  • it is flexible

So, ladies and gentlemen, this brings us to the very first “10 Days of” post series here at the Vicki Arnold blog. *cue fanfare*

Allow me to introduce the rest of the cast of posts:

You’re on pins and needles, right?! You should be. These posts will share ideas to inspire your One Word (notice how I’m assuming you’re picking one), scriptures to focus on, and definitions to help you dig deeper. And for good measure, we’ll be talking about how to USE your word to conquer 2013 however you see fit.

To get a feel for this, please check out my previous posts on naming your year:

Tomorrow, we start things off with part one of the God-centered One Word posts. See you then!

Mind Mapping Your Way to Success in 2013

Happy New Year! I know it is totally cliche to set resolutions for the new year and such, but if it works, who cares? Today we are talking about making it work.

Mind Mapping Your Way to Success in 2013 @vicki_arnold blogHave you heard of mind mapping? Or visual mapping, which is what I thought it was called until I browsed the google. Well, if you are a visual person, you’re going to love this.

I recently met Tabitha from Meet Penny via a Twitter chat and she invited me to join a group of bloggers on Facebook. I am so very glad I did. These ladies are pretty awesome. Anywho, Tabitha encouraged us to create a visual for our blogging goals of 2013. Once I did, I became a little hooked. I made my blog goals visual, a visual for a project I’m working to launch in July, and one for something new around here called Healthy Habits.

Rabbit-trail with me, if you will, through the blogger group, I met Dollie of Teachers of Good Things. She was wanting to start a group of bloggers to chronicle their healthy new year’s resolutions to create accountability for the blogger and encouragement for the readers. She’s also launching a Facebook party, which she will be hosting each Monday night at 9 p.m. (eastern) starting January 7.

So, let me introduce you to Healthy Habits Tuesday. Hi, how are you? Nice to meet you. Now that we have that out of the way, on to the mind mapping, goals, and resolutions, oh my!

Step One: Set some goals. Grab a pencil and paper and start writing. A couple tips on setting goals (or resolutions) that work:

  • Be realistic – Weight loss is a common new year’s resolution, so I’ll use that for my example here. Don’t set yourself up for failure by trying to lose half your body weight by next month.
  • Break it down – Take what you need to lose and aim to lose one pound per week. It may take a while to get where you want to be, but you’ll get there. So if you want to lose 20 pounds, that is 20 weeks or 5 months. Aiming to lose 20 pounds by June is completely doable.

Step Two: Analyze your goals. Look for a common theme. For example, if you want to lose 10 pounds, kick the soda habit, and walk in a 5K, those are related. Taking a cooking class would also be related. Learning a new language? Not so much.

Step Three: Focus on the main goal. Do you have one in the group that is most important to you? That is your starting point.

Step Four: Break out the unlined paper. Put your main goal in the middle. Around that, put the related goals that are ways to work toward achieving your main goal, these are your strategy points. Our example would have lose 10 pounds in the middle and then kick soda habit, walk in a 5K, and taking a cooking class around it.

Circle your points individually and draw arrows from your main goal to your strategy points.

Next, look at your strategy points and break down how to achieve them. Kick the soda habit may have drink 64 oz. water daily, drink 1 less soda per week until 0, drink herbal tea, or start a dollar jar for each soda you DON’T drink.

Make sense? Good, now go do it. I’ll wait here until you’ve finished and then we’ll move on.

Step Five: Make it purty. Or not, it’s up to you. Break out the markers and paper. Or use the computer to create your visual. It’s up to you. Point is, make it visually appealing to you, you’re going to be looking at this a lot.

Here is my Healthy Habits mind map:

healthy-habits-mind-mapNow, WHEN you do this, let me know in the comment section. I love, love, love comments and do my best to answer each one. You can also follow my new healthy habits Pinterest board.

Next week, we will talk about turning your goals into action. You should also check out the exciting things I have planned for the Vicki Arnold blog this coming year.

Won’t you join me? TwitterPinterestFacebook

Today’s link up can be found here.

Next up is Turning Your Goals Into Plans!

10 Scriptures to Memorize for Overcoming Procrastination

10 Scriptures for Overcoming Procrastination via @vicki_arnold blog

I mentioned in a previous post that I was working on posting scriptures through my house to meditate on and serve as a visual reminder of my goals. I’ve compiled a list of 10 scriptures to post and work on memorizing. When I’m done, I’ll post them to Flickr in case you would like to print them out, too.

1. 1 Corinthians 14:40 – “Let all things be done decently and in order”

2. Colossians 3:23-24 – “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.”

3. Romans 14:12 – “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”

4. Ecclesiastes 3:1 – “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven”

5. Psalm 16:11 – “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”

6. James 1:5 – “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”

7. 2 Timothy 4:7 – “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”

8. Galatians 6:9 – “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”

9. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 – “Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”

10. John 5:13-14 – “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.”

May you find inspiration in the Word of God.

For more inspiration, please check out some of my other posts:

Linking up to Titus 2sday –

One by One with a Deadline

It is hard to believe that we are starting the 3rd Friday of October. I never believed people when I was a kid, but time really does fly. Also, Ephesians 5:16 and Psalm 90:12 mean more to me now that I realize how easy it is to fritter away the days accomplishing nothing. Oops, did I say that?

I frequently set goals and write to do lists. This helps me check off things, especially those that may not be a pressing daily need, but something that I do want to get done. Earlier this year, I wrote a To Do List for 2012. I have actually been successful in accomplishing some of the goals and am now looking at that looming “deadline” of the new year and slightly panicky and inspired all the same.

Here’s an update:

  • Fabric de-stash – Yeah, not much of this has happened, but with the Christmas gifts I have planned, I should be able to knock this one out still.
  • Blog challenge – Thought I knew what I wanted to do, then changed my mind. Then again. And for a refreshing change of pace, I changed my mind again. I did finally settle on something that’s not really a blog “challenge” per se, but I’m counting it. Why? Because I can, so there.
  • Kid’s wall photos – I actually have the photos on my computer. Now to just edit and have them printed. This will get done!
  • Go camping – Pretty sure this is just gonna happen in our yard, if at all. We did finally replace our tent, so that is a step in the right direction.
  • 25 things on the List – I don’t even know where I stand with this one. But I’m ok with that now.
  • My weight – I ACTUALLY DID THIS! BELLS, WHISTLES AND CAPS LOCK, OH MY!
  • Photo challenge – Yeah, no.
  • Leapin’ Lilies – I’m leaning towards giving this up. I’m finally accepting that this is not God’s will for me in this season of life. At least not in this form.
  • The Dunes – Sadly, this will not be happening.
  • GAPS experiment – Check! It went very well, we are working towards being able to commit to doing it longer term.

So that’s that. Eventually, I will update you on some New things in my life this year. I’m learning not to promise big things with this here blog before they are actually written, being that this blog is the first thing to take a backseat when life gets busy and all.

So how did your new year’s resolutions or goals go this year?

Transparency — AKA I’m Not Perfect Either

Funny how things go sometimes.

Today in my Facebook news feed was a link to the latest post on Bohemian Bowmans, Things You’re Not Supposed to Say About Life.

While I agree with her reasons, I’d like to add another one to the table. A friend of mine and I were talking about this recently. We were discussing how it’s hard to be transparent with everyone because there are people who seem to be waiting for a sign of weakness to say “I told you so” or offer their “advice” to do exactly the opposite of what you are currently doing.

(Just One) Example: the homeschooling mom doesn’t share her homeschooling struggles because of the relative who uses every opportunity to share that sending the kids to public school is the magical answer to all of them.

The bigger issue is when we take our experience with one person and use it to make assumptions about another. A homeschool parent once made a comment about you sending your child to public school, so now you are wary of what you share with all homeschooling parents. Or, on the other hand, a public school parent intently questioned you on the socialization of your children or your qualifications for teaching your children once and now any time the question comes up, so do bitter feelings.

This creates a lot of unnecessary division in the body of Christ. We are part of a body, which means there are hands, feet, etc. And simply because you are a foot in one area of your life like so-and-so, doesn’t mean you’ll both be hands in another area. It also doesn’t mean you will be a foot all your life. <End Christian Cliche>

There seems to be a wave of transparency moving through the Internet. More and more people seem to be realizing that others are looking at what they are putting out there via blogs, Twitter, Facebook…and not getting the whole picture.

What’s the whole picture? Life is life for everyone, no matter their label. It’s messy, it’s hectic, it’s crazy…and it’s beautiful. It’s real.

Everyone struggles. Everyone.

So in the spirit of transparency, here is a dose of the real me…

Care to share a struggle?

If you are dealing with mommy guilt, please read my post called Dear Guilty Mom – Give Yourself Permission.

If you would like some practical help with housekeeping, check out my list of 19 Ways to Change Up Your Housework Routine.

My Theme for 2012

Idyllic

I’ve done this for a couple years now and enjoy the tradition. Choosing a central theme for the year seems so perfect to me. How has it worked for me? Pretty well, I think. I do think that I need to re-visit the theme more often in a year, sitting down to pray and think over how to improve, but I’ve done far better with a theme and the 3 in 30 goal setting than I ever dreamed of doing with resolution setting. It’s more manageable.

You can read about 2010’s word – Change. Also 2011’s word – Diligence.

And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for, my word for 2012 is New. Simple, yes and no. I spent a good amount of time mulling over what word to choose in December and had a pretty good idea of what I actually wanted to say with that word, but could not find the perfect word to fit. Then I prayed about it (ain’t that the way it goes?) and God gave me New in a split-second. At first I thought it was too simple, but then I realized just how perfect the word was.

In 2012, we will be welcoming a new baby (like within the next 2-3 weeks) into our family, I will be entering a new decade of life (my 30’s) and so will my oldest daughter (double digits, eek!). My husband and I have some projects we are working on that would completely change some things for us. And then there are the things I would like to change personally.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” – 2 Corinthians 5:17

I’m looking forward to a great 2012, how about you?

3 in 30 November 2011 – Goals

3in30 Challenge

October’s 3 in 30 goals went pretty well. We had very minimal television time in our house, we ate better (thanks to a three week GAPS diet trial run) and I left October feeling better about my kids’ Mom. On to November!

1. Daily Bible and prayer time – Feel like you’ve seen this one a time or two before? That happens because it is unfortunately the thing I let go first when things get busy or I simply get distracted. So, that one is back on the list for November. So far, things are going well, I finished Genesis in about 3 or 4 readings and am now moving on to Exodus. I’m also reading Romans in the New Testament.

2. Actually do at least one project each week with my kids – This is one of those, we have so many plans, but life gets in the way things. November is a particularly busy month for me this year, but I’m purposing to not lose this precious time with my kids. My oldest turns 9 next week and I’ve been hit recently with just how SHORT the time is that my children will be young. And with the pregnancy hormones raging through me (29 weeks!), I’ve been on an emotional roller coaster lately. I cry easily, but seeing the change in my babies in the last two years almost brought sobs. Seriously.

3. Stay on top of the happenings of the month – It would have been appropriate if my parents had given me the middle name of Procrastinator instead of Lynn. Procrastination is my biggest struggle. So I have my lists and am taking the month on a week-by-week basis.

How about you? What are your goals for this lovely month?