Happy Chinese New Year!

My last post was about the new year's and a review of last year's resolutions. Now, I would like to wish you a very Happy Chinese New Year (which is next Monday)!

In between these two new year celebrations, we also went to Hong Kong for my brother's wedding. It was a relatively short trip but it was great. We spent most of our time with family and friends, while doing a tiny bit of sightseeing. :) So in case you were wondering what we had been up to these past few weeks, we were traveling!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

It has been a gorgeous day here in our town. Our back porch faces east so we have a great view of the sunrise. I got up this morning just as the sun rose. What a glorious sight! We went to church and our guest speaker preached a great sermon on new year's resolutions based on Proverbs 3. What a great way to start the year!

Speaking of new year's resolutions, I have been thinking about them. When I was younger, I would write down my new year's resolutions on new year's eve. But this year, I have not been able to quite put everything down. A lot of things have come to mind, but to pare them down and to focus on specific goals for 2012, it might take some time.

In light of this, it might be more productive to look back at my three new year's resolutions (and life-long projects) from 2011, so here we are (if you'd like to see the original posts, click on the titles):

Giving: This resolution was about giving something (material or otherwise) to someone every day. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. :) God opened my eyes to see how easy it was to give something; and it helped me to think about myself - my to-do lists, my plans, my concerns - less often. By God's grace, I think this resolution was accomplished fairly well (but there is always room for improvement, of course) and I am looking forward to new ideas and opportunities this year! Hopefully, along the way, through these little givings, someone was pointed to Him.

Punctually: This resolution was about not filling every moment to get one more thing done and about allowing time to be still and to be on time for the next thing. I think overall I improved on being on time, but there is a lot of room for improvement. I was still late quite a few times. If I were to fine myself ten dollars for every minute I was late, I would have set apart quite a large sum. This bad habit of doing one more thing before leaving the house mostly happened outside work and school. I had been late to church, to appointments...... and I am not proud of it. I need to do better this year.

Confidence: This resolution was about letting go of myself and trusting in God and finding confidence through Him alone. The result, or fulfillment, of this resolution is somewhat difficult to assess. I still have the lock issue, and I still (subconsciously) take matters in my own hands, and try to plan things out, but I also know that this is not something I can get rid of in a year's time. It truly is a life-long goal. I'd like to report that I have made progress, but in a way, I also think this is not up to me to say. I only know that I need to keep working on this, through God's help and the strength He gives me; and because of Him, I am hopeful.

One of the verses our guest speaker shared this morning was Proverbs 3: 5-6 -

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

It is a familiar verse, and what an encouragement it is as we begin the new year!