2012 1/2

I just realized the other day that we are nearing the halfway point in the year… already. How did that happen?! I remember writing my goals for the year and BAM! Next thing I know a brood is graduating and we’re working on Vacation Bible School backdrops. [sigh] I’m tired just thinking about it. But it is what it is and I, and you, have to deal with it. Time doesn’t stand still, no matter how many poems or songs say it does. It moves at an ever faster break neck pace as our bodies lean forward into the wind. The strain on our necks and calves is incredible and we’re never quite sure if we can keep up the race. But we do. My second grandson turned one this past week, just to add salt to the wound. It seems like yesterday we were all sitting in the hospital waiting to hear he had been born. Instead, my son came out with a sullen face and said “Still nothing.” He waited several long seconds and then broke into his infamous smile and said “Just messin’. He’s here!” The little guy sported a Mohawk for the occasion and ate more cake than anyone should be allowed at age 10, let alone age 1. It was one night we were glad he went home with his parents. I started thinking about my goals for 2012 earlier this week. I began to wonder how I was doing with them. I mean, I knew the answer, but I began to wonder why I had wandered so far from them. The reasons I had chosen each of them had not changed. I still need to get up earlier. I have succeeded at moving my alarm from 7 am to 6:30. But moving it that last half hour from 6:30 to 6 just hasn’t happened… yet. I read the line about allowing the still small voice of scripture and devotions to whisper louder than the shouting voice of emails and Facebook messages. Scripture has won out but devotions needs to pick up the pace. Some days it gets in, some I just plain run out of time. Additional spiritual reading closed the book about a month ago. I was doing so well and then… well, you know the story. Then there was the biggie. This goal was so big it needed bullets to define its content. It was all about returning to my “Fit at 50” plan. Still eating too much sugar. Still not working out. Still watching the big 5-0 turning the corner and wonder if anything will be different by then. It would be easy to get all discouraged and simply decide to eat what the heck I wanted, pick up a new set of larger clothes at the Free Store, and call it a good year! But I know I won’t. Darn. Instead, I won’t quit quitting. That was my motto for smoking for years and I’m a true non-smoker now. If I had gotten discouraged and given up, I’d still be coughing with red hot fiery lungs and wheezing a whistle. So instead I am reminded only half the year is over and there is still plenty of time to quit again… and again, if needed. Quit whining about time flying by. Quit focusing on the year being half over. Quit moping about the weight I haven’t lost or the sugar I have found and start celebrating life, before it’s over. Did I mention we have ten incredible youth graduating from our church family this year? Did you see the pics I put up on Facebook of my grandson’s Dr. Seuss birthday party, complete with a Thing 1 and Thing 2 photo op? Did you happen to read one of the scripture verses I shared on my profile? I love it when God’s Word is right on for the day ahead. Yep. The year is nearly half over. But what a half year it has been!