New Year's Resolution #1

Well, now that things have slowed down, and I'm just relaxing at home, I wanted to sit down and write a little, and think about my New Year's Resolutions! I've only come up with two so far, but they both cover a lot. Today, I'm going to share the first one:)

My first resolution is to constantly walk in the Holy Spirit. By this, I mean, living my life in every way for God, and WITH God. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to live in us and with us when He went back to Heaven, and my goal this year is to stop ignoring that when I want to, but to live in His presence at all times, seeking guidance in all things; to keep my eyes towards heaven, and not on earthly things.

I've separated this into 4 parts: What I Think, What I Say, What I Do, and What I Allow Myself to Be Exposed To. I'm thinking its going to be a little hard to transform 4 things that are constantly happening pretty much all at the same time so, first I'm going to work on Thinking.

What I Think: Along with praying for a better thinking mind, I will be reading the book, "Battlefield of the Mind; for teens," by Joyce Meyer. I read, "Battlefield of the Mind; for kids" when I was around 8, so I'm very excited to read the teen version, now that I'm a older. I'm thinking I'll take February to read this and go through the process of cleansing my mind.

What I Say and Do: I will start this in March, but continue it for the rest of the year, or as long as I need to. I got a journal for my birthday, and I plan to use it for this "assignment." I plan to really work hard on what I say. I want to carry this journal around with me everywhere I go. At the top of the page will be the date, and everytime that I say, type, or THINK (as in if i continue to purposely think about it and dwell on it... not all thoughts come from me), something that does not line up with the Bible, such as gossip, I will put a tally mark in the journal. This is not my way of dwelling on the negative, it is my way seeing how far I've come. We all say things we don't mean to, and this will be my way of keeping a filter on that. If there's a day where I actually accomplish having no tally marks, maybe I'll reward myself with some chocolates or something.. that sounds pretty good! In April, I will add in things that I do, like if I disobey my parents, or anything like that.

What I Allow Myself to Be Exposed To:
This is nothing that I need to write down, or read about.. I know what is right and wrong, and this is just something that I need to make myself more aware of.. like TV shows, Music, People, etc.. This is when I have to take it upon myself to use the common sense God gave me. One thing I'm going to try to do, is when watching something, or listening to something, I'm going to think about how God would feel about that. Would He be rocking out to those Taylor Swift lyrics? Would He sit down and watch that certain PG13 movie with me, and find it enjoyable? This is just where I need to pray for the power that is given to me through the Holy Spirit to shine through so I can say no to that movie all my friends want to see, or where I can say no to those friends that keep pressuring me. It's hard, but I think it's DEFINITELY worth it!

Brooke Pruitt
          -Beaming for Jesus