So this is my first post of ‘09.

It came on a quiet night this year. Alone at midnight, i raised my champagne glass of bubbly Pepsi and rang in the new year with a pirate-esque photo of myself which i uploaded onto Facebook. Cheers to the new year.

Before then, i was busy writing my New Year Resolutions. They are as follows:

1. Start over. *For me, it means not giving up. And sometimes you just need to “start over” even if its not physically literally starting over. This resolution goes with my last resolution.

2. Be more… patient . kind . slow to anger . quick to listen . encouraging . thankful . compassionate . understanding . loving . joy-giving . supportive . self-less . trustworthy . serving . humble . courageous . fearless . merciful . … *That’s pretty much self-explanatory. The triple dots mean there are more to be added.

3. Drink at least one glass of water everyday; no Pepsi allowed unless I drink a glass of water first. This goes for home, work, restaurants, anywhere. *I am so serious about this and have been doing great (except today…but i still have time right?)

4. Wear my seatbelt every time I am in the car. *Now this seems like common sense, but ever since my first car - a ‘93 Saturn SL1 with the lovely automatic seatbelts, i forget very often (almost all the time) to now manually put on my seatbelt in my ‘98 Nissan Altima GXE. i know, tis a shame.

5. Learn the piano and take voice lessons: set aside one evening a week (Tuesdays) to school myself. Practice on other days where time permitted. *I was supposed to start these (at home) classes today, but today was a crazy stressful day, so i postponed my “schooling” for next week.

6. Meet with Grace and have “No Pressure, No Diamonds” recorded in the studio. *For those of you who know me, actually writing and performing a song of my own (which can be seen on my Facebook) was a BIG deal. I am not very confident or extroverted. It took me 10 years (since i first started writing lyrics) before I ever finally did an entire song of my own. And i have to say “entire song” because I did write and record the hook for one of our youth pastor’s rap albums (The Quickening). It’s a song called “Complete”. So it’s going to be another push to actually get into my dad’s studio and record it.

7. Set aside one day every month to watch a web-seminar on worship leading. *This is pretty awesome actually. I found this website called The Worship Teleseminar and it’s free worship leading and worship ministry training. They ask you to register (it’s free) and once you login, you are able to access online replays of each session and download the mp3’s and handouts. This is part of my personal dedication in growing to become a better worship leader/director.

8. Look for a graphics art course to take and learn more about designing. *This will come after my piano and vocal classes. I will either look for something to take online, attend a graphics art course at the local community college, or ask one of my friends to teach me. In due time.

9. Write and perform more original songs. *Easier said than done, but I need to push myself more.

10. Organize my worship stations and post them available on my blog for other churches to use, oh yeah, and blog more. *One of these days i’ll get them all together and you’ll be able to find them under “Refuel Your Creativity” as well as regularly update this here blog o’ mines.

11. Stay within my budget. Take out money from each paycheck and put within savings. Save more money by not purchasing what I don’t need. Pay off credit cards/get out of debt.  *I am well on my way towards paying off my credit card debt (for the past 2 years) since i have not touched a credit card since i began this quest. As for taking out money from each paycheck? I have been little by little. Of course, it helped that when i needed emergency money for stuff, I was able to dive into that a bit. Still, paying off my credit card debt is the most important.

12. Take a multi-vitamin daily. *I need to keep healthy and this is one way to achieve success in this area. Call me crazy, but i love Centrum orange-flavored chewables. They remind me of those awesome Flintstone chewable vitamins that we used to eat as kids! No “horse-pills” (and aptly nicknamed by their grande size) to force myself to swallow and it doesn’t leave that odd vitamin after-taste. 

13. Trust God… in all areas of my life. Spend more time with Him. Read the Bible. Listen to podcasts. (ex: teachings from Mars Hill Bible Church) *Okay, okay, so i classified all the Christiany stuff in one resolution. But i think we can all relate to this. And as for podcasts, Mars Hill Bible Church is so far my favorite to listen to. If anyone has any suggestions on new ones i can subscribe to on iTunes and give it a whirl, let me know. 

14. Pursue… Healing . Restoration . Trust . Hope . Personal forgiveness . Peace . Rest … *These are collectively self-explanatory like resolution #2 as well as personal. I’m sure i’m not alone.

15. Take every positive moment in life. Take only the growth and lesson from every negative moment in life. Leave the past behind. Move on.  *This last resolution goes with my first resolution.

Keep smiling . be love . emunah . ahavah . speak life . dream . live

There you have it. I hope maybe I have inspired some of you. 

If not, it’s all good. (:

until next time, peace out girl scout ;)

keep smilng.be love