Why Resolutions and Friends go so well together!

While pondering the concept of "New Year's Resolutions,"  I've come to realize that like-minded friends go a long way in ensuring that resolutions actually get carried out.

With 9 kids---4 teens, a toddler, a preschooler and 3 in between, I often feel like there is not enough time in the day or "me" to go around.     It's easy to focus on the current needs right in my face like meals, school and laundry.  That narrow focus makes it harder to see other things.  Enter  "other things"----(not less important mind you, just not screaming for attention things):    Reading through the Bible,  exercise....eating healthy.   THAT is where friends come in so handy!

I don't need accountability to make sure my family gets fed or that  laundry or homeschool gets done.  That is the backbone of most of my days.  I DO need encouragement to stay faithful with sitting down and making Bible reading a priority, exercise a priority and eating healthy a priority or they can sometimes get pushed aside.

I'm so thankful for a few close friends who ask me in December, "What should we do together to read the Bible this year?"  This has been happening for a number of years now....and I'm so thankful.   Spending time in God's Word is so life-giving and necessary...and it's SO MUCH more fun to read with other sisters and share the treasures that God is showing each of us!!

If you have an area of your life that you need to focus more on but keep failing at.....find a good friend who can come along side you...she probably needs the encouragement and motivation as well.

"Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."-Philippians 3:13-14