Looking for a Bible-reading plan?

January is the time for reflection and resolutions, and for many of us (including me), studying the Bible is a big part of our plans for the new year.

But it can be a daunting task. So I’ve collected a list of resources for reading through the Bible. I hope one of them might turn out to be just what you’re looking for!

Traditional Plans:

-The Lectionary: You can find the Revised Common Lectionary in the back of th Book of Common Prayer.  It is an old and reliable system for reading scripture. It’s not comprehensive, but it will take you through a good deal of the Bible, and in a way that’s sensitive to the liturgical seasons. (I like having a hard copy, but the BCP is also available online here, for free.)

-The St. James Devotional: This subscription service is what I use personally. It takes you through the New Testament every year, the Old Testament every two years, and the Psalms a lot. It includes weekly collects and a simplified form of morning and evening prayer. It also includes commentary on the selections. Written by Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon, this alone are worth the (small) cost of admission.

Cyber Plans:

-The One Year Bible online - This site lets you customize your start date and gives you a plan for reading through the whole Bible in a year. Very cool!

Something a Little Different:

-Professor Grant Horner's Bible-Reading System: This one is intense. But it looks like it would be a great way to (relatively) quickly increase your knowledge of the text and its contents.

-The Quiet Time Bible Guide - This one takes you through the New Testament and the Psalms. If you're new to reading through the Bible, this might be a gentler way into the practice for your first time through.

-Reading God's Story: a Chronological Daily Bible - reading the Bible chronologically can open up a lot of its meaning. 

For the Kids:

-Highlights from the New Testament: The idea behind this free list is to get you reading the actual text of the Bible to your children, but in slightly smaller, selective, digestible pieces. This is what my husband and I are planning to use this year during our after-dinner devotions.

-Highlights from the Old Testament: Same as the above, except it takes you through the Old Testament.

May God bless you as you dive ever deeper into His word!
Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

This post contains Amazon affiliate links. (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

Weekend Links - wine, vaccines, and more!

Interesting reading from around the Web:

"We made a sommelier taste all the Trader Joe's Two-Buck Chuck":

Here's the thing, though: some of it's actually pretty damn good, and could easily be sold as Nine-to-Eleven-Buck Chuck without anyone being the wiser.

So we brought in two devoted tasters to blindly drink eight different types of Charles Shaw Blend, hit us with detailed notes, and determine 1) which bottles are totally palatable and even enjoyable, and 2) which should be avoided as if they were made by Chuck Woolery, who, it turns out, makes terrible wine.

"Growing Up Unvaccinated":

Pain, discomfort, the inability to breathe or to eat or to swallow, fever and nightmares, itching all over your body so much that you can’t stand lying on bed sheets, losing so much weight you can’t walk properly, diarrhea that leaves you lying prostrate on the bathroom floor, the unpaid time off work for parents (and if you’re self employed that means NO INCOME), the quarantine, missing school, missing parties, the worry, the sleepless nights, the sweat, the tears and the blood, the midnight visits to A and E, sitting in a doctor’s waiting room on your own because no one will sit near you because they’re rightfully scared of those spots all over your kid’s face.

Those of you who have avoided childhood illnesses without vaccines are lucky. You couldn’t do it without us pro-vaxxers. Once the vaccination rates begin dropping, the less herd immunity will be able to protect your children. The more people you convert to your anti-vax stance, the quicker that luck will run out.

"Celebrating Epiphany": I love Ann's ideas for month-long celebration! Very creative and family-friendly.

"The God of the Coming Year":

And Osteen’s books be damned, you may have the worst year of days you have ever seen.

"Resolve to Resolve":

In the place where hope meets grace, there is God. God is where resolutions become effective. God is where change happens. Grace is the answer to the naysayers, those voices both within and without who say that you cannot start afresh. Grace is the breath of fresh air in April when the resolutions of the new year and even the Lenten promises look like one big heap of failed attempts at perfection. Grace reminds us that His power is made perfect in our weakness and the true growth in holiness is in the soul’s earnest effort. Grace is sufficient. Sufficient? It’s abundant.

"Rainbow Rowell and the World with No Rules":

. . . YA novels should be written for teen readers, not adults who just want the teenagers in the books to hurry up and grow up. I’m not advocating for the teens in this book to grow up already and have their worldview and ethics all figured out. I just want them to have something, preferably Christianity, but something, to push against, to wrestle with, and possibly to grow into. 

"The Invisible Anglicanism of CS Lewis":

It is striking that as much as Lewis spoke about mere Christianity, when asked to speak about his own spiritual life he constantly returned to his roots in Anglicanism. Lewis might have written about a broad Christian orthodoxy, but the spiritual experience that enabled him to do so was much narrower. 

New Year's Resolution #6: Take Care of the House (and get out of the house!)

This one's totally boring, but it's foundational to a pleasant day-to-day life.

New Year’s Resolution #6: Take Care of the House:

1) Keep doing the budget, as we have been. Meet savings goals. We’ve been using the budget printables from Dave Ramsey’s website.

2) Keep up on to-do list. I have a housework to-do list that works well for me (I should blog about it sometime!), so I just want to keep up on it.

3) Continue my very slow (but successful!) decluttering project. This is another thing I want to blog about. But basically, I’m slowly decluttering our house, one room at a time, and it’s really making it easier to keep things picked up and neat. I want to keep going on this one.

4) Keep menu planning. It works!

What about you?

Talk about your domestic goals in the comments, or link to your post about your goals. I’ll add any links to the body of this post, so they’re easier for others to see and visit.

Bonus Resolution #7: Miscellaneous:

I resolve to be miscellaneous!

No, not really. This is just my catch-all for the extra stuff. 

And really, I only have one this year. I suppose this could fit under “loving my husband” or “loving my kids” or “loving myself”, because really, it’s a family goal.

So here it is:

1) I think that, once a month, I want to make sure our family goes OUT somewhere. Somewhere other than our regular haunts. There are so many cool places around Southern California that I want to take my kids to, but it’s not going to happen unless I plan it. I want to make a list with Adam, and just see if we can check off 10-12 of the this year. Here are a few, off the top of my head:

- The La Brea tar pits

-the Getty

-the Santa Barbara mission

-strawberry picking in San Juan Capistrano

-Balboa Park

-Julian

-Apple Valley (apple-picking! Hot springs!)

-Amboy Crater (Mojave)

-the tide pools down in southern OC

-the waterfall hike in Malibu (I totally don't know the name of this; I've just heard about it from friends)

-Joshua Tree

-Mitchell Caverns (Mojave)

-Morro Bay (and San Luis Rey! And Montana de Oro!)

-and oh-so-many nifty trails in the mountains around Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara, etc.

We do a good job making sure the kids get out of the city – Camping Is Our Hobby – but there are all these extra little day trips that I want to try. 

Frankly, I have no idea how this resolution will go, but I want to at least give it a good effort. It just sounds fun.

New Year's Resolution #5: work!

New Year’s Resolution #5: Write!

This is the place to consider our goals for our jobs. It might be a work-outside-the-home gig, or work-at-home, or homeschooling, or SAHM’ing – whatever it is, this is the place. For me, it’s writing and editing.

My specific plans:

1) Treat my work like what it is: real work. Specifically, during school year, clock in and clock out while kids are at school. And when summer comes, figure out a writing schedule that works for that time.

2) Query, then do the work. I’m not sure exactly which projects I’ll work on this year, because the nature of the job is to query first, and then find out whether or not you have work. So I have a list of projects and places to query, and I’m planning on just working my way through those, and doing the work as I get assignments. I can’t control which jobs I get, but I can control how I go after them, and how professionally I do the work that I get. (You can look at this as, "I promise to get X many rejections." Which is, ironically, one of the best ways to get acceptances!)

3) Pray about the work. Most importantly, pray about various opportunities, and try to listen to what the Lord is giving me to do.

4) Keep track of what I earn. For taxes, first of all! But this will be my first full year with all the kids in school, so I do want to pay attention to the financial side of my work. I’m not sure what to expect or what to aim for, because this is the first time I’ve had enough time to treat writing and editing as a substantial part-time job. So this year I want to keep track, and pay attention to how things go, so that I’ll have the information I need to make sensible goals in the future.

5) Keep track of how much time I spend working. Much like the above point, I just want to pay attention and collect data, so that when next year comes around, I’ll have an idea of how to set sensible goals for how I spend my time in this work.

6) Keep working on making a good blog. I’d like this to be a good place on the web – a place I would enjoy finding if it were someone else’s. My favorite blogs are two things: interesting and encouraging. That’s what I’d like this space to be.

What about you?

Talk about your work-related goals in the comments, or link to your post about your goals. I’ll add any links to the body of this post, so they’re easier for others to see and visit.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

New Year’s Resolution #4: Love me

This is a new one for this year. But it’s along the lines of “love others as you love yourself.” Part of loving the ones God has given me to love is to make sure I’m well enough that I can love them and care for them.

Some of the specific ways I plan to do that:

1) Exercise 5X/week, when not sick. I’ve been putting on my workout clothes first thing in the morning, and that’s been working really well.

2) Do a modified No S, when it’s not feast time or fast time. (My modification is that I allow for fruit/veg and/or protein (e.g., milk, nuts) as snacks. I just do better when I snack!)  

3) Keep reading real books. The Web is wonderful and distracting, but I feel better when I read real books. I always keep track of my books read, but recently I've been keeping keep track of my reading time, and it’s helped me get back on track with my to-be-read list. I want to keep this up in the new year.

4) Be aware that lot of the things in the other categories help here, too. Like listening to the Bible, praying, writing, spending time with Adam, getting out of the house as a family, etc. All of those things keep me healthy and functioning.

What about you?

Talk about your self-care goals in the comments, or link to your post about your goals. I’ll add any links to the body of this post, so they’re easier for others to see and visit.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

p.s.  I really liked Jen's comment on my last blog:

I've heard of doing "high-lows" (what you're doing when you ask your kids for one bad thing and one good thing), doing the 3 J's (your junk, your joy, and your Jesus moment), and a modified examen (something you're thankful for, something you wish you hadn't done, and somewhere you saw God's work during the day.) 

I really want to try the 3 J idea!  and maybe the modified examen, too. Thanks, Jen!


This post contains Amazon affiliate links. (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

New Year's Resolution #3: Love my kids

-Love the kids: Specific ways I’m going to do that include:

1) Share the gospel with them, pray with them. Our Jesse Tree devotions went well this year, so I want to keep it up by having. Bible study time after dinner, at the table. We're planning on using this list to start.

   

Honestly, it's my husband who heads this up, but I can help by making sure dinner is early enough that we have time for this afterwards. I love listening to him and the kids discuss the stories while I do dishes (and occasionally chime in).

2) Pray for them.  I want to spend some time writing down where each kid is at, how I can pray for him and her, what she or he needs . . . partly for memories, partly to just make sure I pay attention and am deliberate in my mothering. My mom did this for us, twice a year. I think if I do it for one kid each month, that’d be good. So I’d do it for each three times this year. I like this idea.

3) Read to them. I’ve been doing better on this this year, and I want to keep going!

4) Listen to them. Each day, I want to spend deliberate face-to-face questioning/listening time with each kid, even if it’s just 5 minutes. I spend so much time with them, but there's a difference between the all-of-us-in-a-group time (which is pretty much all day) and one-on-one time.

I often do this with the after-school “tell me one good thing and one bad thing about your day” and it works really well. Sometimes there’s nothing big, but it makes SPACE for something big, if they need my attention, advice, or help. It holds the ground open between us. I want to keep doing this – it’s been good, and I think it’ll be more and more important the older they get.

This is one of those things that sounds so simple, but it's easy to forget if I'm not deliberate about it. And it is so worth being deliberate about this one.

What about you?
Talk about your parenting goals in the comments, or link to your post about your goals. I’ll add any links to the body of this post, so they’re easier for others to see and visit. (And if you’re not a parent, please share your goals for loving those in your household or church or family or wherever your closest community is found.)

Mary emailed me with her (awesome) advice, saying:

How can we show love to our friends and our church? Just SHUT UP and listen to them instead of doing all the talking! (They all seem to love that).

Wise woman. :)

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Weekend Links: Bible reading, kids' books, the Hobbit, and more!

(Updated this to fix a broken link!)

I'll continue with the New Year's Resolutions series on Monday, but meanwhile, here's some good stuff for your weekend:

"How to Change Your Mind":

Christians often talk about having a Biblical worldview yet most have only a rudimentary knowledge of the Bible. They attempt to build a framework without first gathering the lumber and cement needed to create a solid foundation. The benefits of following this process should therefore be obvious. By fully immersing yourself into the text you'll come to truly know the text. You'll deepen your understanding of each book and knowledge of the Bible as a whole.

The 2013 Cybils Finalists: I had fun using this list to request some new-to-us books from our library.

A Thief in the Night: The Christian Ethic at the Heart of The Hobbit: (Jess' note: I loved this!):

If Christopher is correct and this is a case of the filmmakers brazenly cashing in, allowing commercial considerations to override esthetic judgments, the irony could not be more complete, because The Hobbit is above all about greed—and the overcoming of greed. Christians who may wonder whether The Hobbit has a moral message worth engaging with should look to this aspect of the tale, for Tolkien’s diagnosis of the sinfulness of greed and his description of its cure are both central to the story and presented with brilliant imaginative skill.

"Sooner or later: yet at last": I just rediscovered this amazing poem by Christina Rossetti. This part is especially amazing:

I plead Thyself with Thee, I plead

Thee in our utter need:

Jesus, most merciful of men,  

Show mercy on us then;

Lord God of mercy and of men

Show mercy on us then.

But the whole thing is so good - go read!

"The Saturday Evening Blog Post": This is a great place to find the best posts of a whole range of different bloggers - fun weekend reading! (ETA: fixed this link!)

"Theology of First John": And if you're looking for something good to listen to this weekend, look no further. A short description:

The title of the one-hour lecture is “The Theology of First John,” and while that accurately captures the main task, the lecture also spends a fair bit of time motivating and orienting readers so they can engage the text well. There are tips on how to benefit from, rather than suffer from, the repetitive and non-linear character of John’s writing, for example. I also compare and contrast John’s literary persona with those of the apostles Peter and Paul.

It's wise and good (and funny!).

"On Keeping a Logbook" - nifty idea for the new year!

New Year’s Resolution #2: Love my husband:

New Year’s Resolution #2: Love my husband:

This resolution is less complex than the “Love God” one I posted yesterday. Maybe just because it’s harder to forget someone who’s physically present with you?

Nonetheless, in the same way I have to remind myself to attend to the Lord, I find I have to remind myself to attend to my husband. Here are some ways I’m hoping to do that this year:

1) Go to bed on time. Adam’s mornings start earlier than mine, but he appreciates it when I go to sleep with him and wake up with him (or at least wake up before he goes to work). This is a little tricky, because I actually physically need more sleep than he does, but it’s worth working on (and since I'm a SAHM, naps are a thing I can do, when I need to catch up).

2) Spend our 15 min. a day together. This is something we’ve started deliberately doing this last year, and it’s really good. We spend all kinds of time together, of course: working at church, working at home, taking care of the kids together . . . but this is different. This is 15 minutes a day when we just sit together and talk. We catch up. Sometimes it ends up just being a nice little break; sometimes it turns out we have issues we really have to work through.

Either way, having a dedicated time to just us has turned out to be a really good thing. It keeps that space open, so that it’s there when we need it. It's time that reminds me that this is my friend, my love, my heart. It sounds silly, but it totally works. 

3) Encourage him in all good things. What’s good for Adam is good for me. I just want to keep remembering that, so that I cheerlead him in things that he loves and that are healthy for him, instead of curling into my little introvert ball and assuming that anyone who wants to spend that much time with other people must be a total weirdo. :)

4) Joyful, frequent sex. Of course!

What about you?

Talk about your marriage goals in the comments, or link to your post about your goals. I’ll add any links to the body of this post, so they’re easier for others to see and visit. (And if you’re not married, please share your goals for loving those in your household or church or family or wherever your closest community is found.)

-Tienne of Take the Poor With You posted about her resolutions here. Thank you for sharing, Tienne!

New Year's Resolution #1: Love God

My first resolution is the same one as last year and the year before: Love God.

It’s okay to make the same resolution every year, I think. It’s even good. The new year is a time to take stock, to remember where we are and where we’re going, and if you find every year that your first thing is still your first thing . . . well, that’s good. It means you were probably right about your priorities. It means you just might be fitting into that wonderful description of the Christian life: “A long obedience in the same direction.”

Anyway, where it gets fun and very New-Year’s-y is in the details. What are you going to try to do, specifically, that will help you (specifically!) to love God better? What are your disciplines, your practices?

Specific Goals

Here are mine, for this year:

1) Keep using the St. James devotional to read (listen) through the Bible. Currently I’m listening through the assigned passages 3-4 times a week.

2) Keep listening through Proverbs every month. Ideally, this is one chapter a day, but often I listen to them about 4 or 5 at a time, to catch up.

3) Scripture memorization. I have no good plan for this. I need to think about this. (Revisit in Feb? Tie it to fast times in the church calendar?) (ETA: my husband is interested in working on this together. Yay!)

4) Observe the traditional Christian fasts. Not in a heroic way, but just in a basic eat-less-eat-boring way (sort of like the Orthodox do). This would be Wednesdays, Fridays, Lent, and Advent, basically (I think). I don’t want to do this, but I feel like I should. Just because, well, it’s what Christians have always done, and all the saints say it’s helpful in killing the passions, and it’s conducive to prayer.

5) Pray regularly. I want to be more deliberate about this this year. Unless and until I come up with a better plan, I’m just going to plan on saying an (Anglican) rosary morning and evening.

6) Pray for others. I also want to get better at praying for others, especially those in my family and church. Not sure how to do this either, but maybe I can (ha!) pray about it during January, and revisit it in February. (Update: my husband is interested in doing this with me, using the BCP’s Prayers of the People.)

What about you?

Talk about your devotional goals in the comments, or link to your post about your goals. I’ll add any links to the body of this post, so they’re easier for others to see and visit.

A new way of looking at New Year's resolutions

Mt. Rainer Dawn, by Betsy Barber

It's no secret that I love New Year's resolutions. I love big conceptual ones (e.g., "Love God, love my husband, love my kids and WRITE) and I love super-specific ones (e.g., "memorize the Psalms of Ascent").

I really love taking big conceptual ones and making them specific. (e.g., "One of the ways I will show my love for God is by memorizing the Psalms of Ascent.")

Recently, I came across a note to myself. It read:

Things that keep me healthy: sleep, exercise, writing, good food, prayer, eye-to-eye contact with family

And I thought: "huh. That sounds like a good way to think about my New Year's resolutions this year."

Stewardship:
What keeps me healthy? Healthy not just in body, but in mind and heart?

We're stewards of ourselves. We're to take what we're given - this particular body, mind, and heart - and use it for the glory of God.

What does that look like?

It's different for every person, I think.

Well, it's different in the specifics. The overarching goal is the same: Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself. But how that works out in your specific circumstances is going to vary.

The new year can be a prompt to examine our stewardship of these selves that God has given us. Are we staying healthy? What's working? What needs tweaking? What would it be good to try anew in the coming year?

I never make New Year's resolutions assuming that I'm going to keep them all perfectly. But I do better when I have something I'm aiming at.

The Plan:
So, this next week on the blog, I'm going to look at these different areas of my life:
-Loving God
-Loving my husband
-Loving my kids
-Loving myself (this is that stewardship thing!)
-Writing (i.e., working well - insert your particular calling here)
-Keeping House
-Misc.
And journal through what I'd like to work on this year.

Do it with me!
I'd love it if you did this along with me! You can participate either by posting your goals in the comments, or by sending me a link to your own blog post about your goals, which I'll be happy to post here for you. I get inspired when I read how other people are working out their particular callings, and the more, the merrier.

So, first up tomorrow: New Year's Resolution #1: Love God.

Can't wait to hear what you all have to say!
Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Weekend Links! - Christmas, New Year's, and more!

"Why Busy Parents Should Always Go to Midnight Mass":

Now that I got that first, pious reason out of the way, I have to admit the real reason: it really is the most convenient. Think about it: Christmas eve and Christmas day are already packed with activities, the kids are already buggy, and my husband and I are already up late doing last-minute preparations, and already nobody gets much sleep. As long as it's the craziest 48 hours of the year anyway, might as well go whole hog and add a van trip into town in the middle of the night. I'll tell you what's difficult: finding time the evening before, when we're supposed to be wrapping presents, or the morning of, when everyone's hopped up on chocolate and candy canes and doesn't want to be torn away from their new toys. We've tried the vigil Mass and Christmas morning Mass, and they are not a walk in the park!

"Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: A Review of Rosaria Butterfield’s Book":

So often, especially concerning sex, Christians talk as if we are asking people to nip a little here, tuck a little there. But to follow Christ is to die. To be fair, Christ gives us back a new life, an eternal life that can’t be compared to what we lost. But having borne two children in the last six years, I can tell you, birth is messy, and painful, and the best sound you can hope to hear in your newborn is a loud, terrified cry. New birth in Christ is no less terrifying and miraculous.

"Clutter Interrupted’s New Year’s Goals"  - I love reading about New Year's resolutions, and this is a particular fun and thorough post on the subject. (And there's a podcast to go with!)

"The Herod in Each of Us":

We see Him as a threat to all things that could bring happiness. Tiny Baby. Gentleness incarnate. And we rage. And we struggle. And yes, we kill. We destroy peace. We destroy joy. We slaughter childlike faith. All because we think we know better. We are so afraid of relinquishing our own wills, that we miss the one thing that will give us genuine peace. 

"Word of the Day: twelve":

One of the sad losses as Western man moved from liturgical time to secular time has been the festal season. We have shopping periods, with no special beginning or end, stretching farther and farther out away from Christmas Day or Easter, losing all connection to the feast, and bringing in their wake not festivity but weariness and ennui.

Links - the year, the time, and the wine

"The Year of Not Putting Up With Things":

Maybe we should blame it on the practice of frugality that seems to have come with my German heritage, but I've put up with a lot of minor inconveniences over the course of my life...little things being not quite right, particularly in my home or in my wardrobe. A belt doesn't fit quite right. A dress rides up funny on one side. A shirt feels a tiny bit too short. The trusty black pumps I've owned and worn for years have started to separate from their strap on one shoe. The toilet in the guest bathroom splashes the lid when you flush. The rug in our living room is too small for the space. Our air conditioning has never worked.

"The Best Wine in the History of the World":

He was about to perform his first public miracle. Let me frame that a different way. He was about to formally and publicly introduce himself to his bride—the church—for the first time. I wonder if Mary’s request sounded to him something like, “Go on, son. Ask that girl to dance.”

"Routine Life":

Some mornings I wake up feeling ready to do it all again. Ready to get out of bed (after drinking coffee, of course), face the day, clean, prep meals, homeschool, do laundry, break up fights, nurse the baby. But some days, I just feel do not feel it. I do not feel like getting up and doing it all. Those days generally do not go well. But sometimes, something happens to arrest me mid-day and change everything.

 Usually, that thing is . . . work.

"how do I Run a Micro business and homeschool?": this whole thing was interesting, but I love, love, love Christine's observation about her home:

 I don’t decorate the house – it’s the lab for making projects in, it isn’t itself a project. 

Hey, I've got one of those project-lab houses, too! :D

"I love this bar (and a recipe)":

Houston, we have a problem. Even though I know that I can make something akin to a Larabar in my food processor and have a great granola bar recipe that most of our family will eat, even though I no longer buy boxes of granola bars or nutri grain bars for the children I cannot resist the lure of the bar.

There is something about the presentation, the bright colors, the many flavors, that seems to beckon. Eat me! They cry. I am interesting and fun and come in my own individual wrapper. I have as much protein as a chicken breast but taste like fake cookie dough coated in fake chocolate. Eat me and you can skip taking your multivitamin! I can make you happy!

"Op-Ed: An Ode to Ordinary Time": I'm not quoting from this one, because the fun is in the scroll-down reveal.

"Guinevere and Julia: The Platypus Reads Part CCX":

. . . it's a necessary part of all romance and adventure that we not be allowed to weasel out every time our beliefs land us in hard places. 

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Halfway Through 2012

I'm stealing this from momco3, so go over to her blog and check out her mid-year reflection on her New Year's Resolutions.

How am I doing on my New Year's Resolutions?
It's over halfway through the year, and time for a check-up. So, how am I doing?

Well, better than I thought I might be. Last year, I had about 20 resolutions. This year, I only have five. (Some year, I might decide to be sane and only have one.)

Here's what I wrote in my journal before I made my resolutions:

I’m wondering if my word for this next year, for this upcoming year, ought to be “faithful”. Last year it was “attend”, and I still don’t feel like I’ve come to the end of that.

But “faithful” came to me tonight, and here’s the fleshing out of that: I know what to do, and I just need to be faithful to do it. I know what my priorities are: I’m for loving God first, then for loving Adam, then for loving our children, then for writing, and then for taking care of my house (which really is a sub-section under loving Adam and the kids), and then . . . then I get a bit more confused. Extended family, friends, and church probably come in there next. But the first four are very clear: God, Adam, kids, writing. That’s me, those are my duty.

And I do all of those, but not faithfully. Not like breathing. And not in the right order, always. Or even often. So, “faithful”. I want to be faithful. I want to do the things I know I’m supposed to do, and do the most important ones first, and then let the rest fall into place.

The resolutions
-Love God. Specific ways I’m going to try and show this love:

            -use the St. James devotional to read the Bible

            -use the St. James devotional or the BCP to pray, including Prayers of the People.

            -pray the Jesus prayer throughout the day.

            -pray and read Bible stories with the kids.

How am I doing on this one? Well, I've kept up on the first one, and on praying with the kids, but the rest have been spotty. Not non-existent, just inconsistent. So, I want to be more mindful of them for the rest of the year, esp. with reading Bible stories with the kids.

-Love Adam.

I think this one is going pretty well. :)

-Love the kids:

This one's interesting, because it's the one that takes up most of my time in day-to-day life. I've been noticing how much time I spend taking care of the kids' physical needs (bigger bodies mean MORE food prep and MORE laundry and BIGGER messes), and thinking that - especially while they're home in the summer - I need to include them in more of that work. This might, eventually, have the benefit of taking some of the weight of the household chores off my shoulders, but honestly the reason I want to do it is so that I can spend more time with them, not just taking care of them.

All in all, I think I'm doing well on this one, though as the kids continue to grow and change, I continue to see more and better ways to love them (the above just being one specific example).

-Write.

This is going well. I had a list of nine specific things I wanted to do in my writing life this year, and I've already accomplished five of them. That's really encouraging! If I keep working well, I think I might actually hit everything under this category this year.

How about you? How's it going past the mid-point?

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

New Year's Resolutions

In 2010, I had twenty New Year's resolutions. Yes. Twenty. Really.

In 2011, I had ten. And I felt very pleased with myself for my restraint and brevity.

This year, I just have four.

Last year, my word for the year was "attend". I thought all year of Psalm 123, especially verse 2, which says:

Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us.

I wanted to attend, to pay attention.  Because I learned years ago, in mountain biking, that you go towards what you look at.

At the beginning of 2012, I don't feel like I'm even close to finished with last year's lesson, but I have a new word: faithfulness.

I feel like I don't need a great new vision for my life or startling new insights into what I'm supposed to be doing. I know what I'm supposed to be doing.  This year, I just want to do it. I want to be faithful.

My verses for this year come from the first chapter of 2 Peter:

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 

And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 

And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 

And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. 

For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The italicized bits are the progression I want to work on this year, and the bracketing verses explain why the middle part is both good and possible.

I'm fascinated by that progression. By faith, we believe in those "great and precious promises" and what should we add to that faith? Virtue. And what does virtue lead to? Knowledge. George McDonald said that obedience was the key to understanding and I think he's right. There are so many things we don't understand until we're actually practicing them.

And to knowledge is added temperance or, in some translations, "self-control". And then patience, and then godliness and then (here's where it just makes me want to weep) brotherly kindness and to that, charity. (And the greatest of these is love.)

I remember when these verses just read like a list to me, but now they seem like a gift. They're specific, they're instructions, they're a how-to. I mean, that's not all they are: they're a description of sanctification.

But I think it's not just descriptive, I think it is - at least the first part - prescriptive. Do this.

But it is still descriptive: this is the road that the saints of God walk and this is what they gain.

And the promise at the end:  "For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." Now there's a promise for you. Wow. Makes me want to cry all over again. For joy at the mercy of God.

The Resolutions
So, four resolutions.  Here they are:
1) Love and obey God.
2) Love Adam.
3) Love my kids.
4) Write.

Everything else either falls under those or comes after those. E.g., housekeeping is an expression of love to my family. (And to myself, a bit, and taking care of myself would fall under all three of the first categories actually, but mostly the first, because the first resource God has given my to steward is myself.)

But these for things. I think they are the most important ones in my life right now. And really, the last three come out of the first one. And the first one feels a bit strange for a resolution, but it's really what I want most. And it should go without saying that all of these are resolutions I make in the spirit of those baptismal promises in the prayer book, i.e., "I will, with God's help." Not with my own strength, not ever.


I'll be honest and say I have a few more practical resolutions, but they're just out-growths of these four simple ones. I have a word-count that I'm aiming for each day, I have a household chore list I'm checking off.  But they're tools now, not goals.

Maybe that's the gift of last year's word "attend". Now I am attending, and now I know that what's important is first to fix my eyes on the Lord, and that the actions follow the attention. With God's help.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Books Read in 2011

In 2010, I pushed myself to finish almost every book I started, so that I could list it as "read". This past year, I decided that was silly, and I put down a lot of books that just didn't hook me, and as a result, 2011's list is shorter than 2010's.

But it was a good year of reading. There are a few books on here that I read before I figured out that I should just put them down, so I'm not championing everything on this list, but most of them were pretty good. There's so much treasure out there!

Highlights include a few new books by favorite authors which reminded me of just why they're favorite authors - specifically the books by Elizabeth Moon, Lee & Miller, and Bujold. I discovered some new authors, and I also had the pleasure of reading a book by a friend (Cynthia Ruchti's "They Almost Always Come Home", which was the sort that shocked me when I'd set it down, because I'd discover that I'd read about a hundred pages at a gulp - she's just that smooth).

I revisited old friends, like Dorothy Sayers' "Are Women Human?" and Essie Summers' "My Lady of the Fuschias".

Dallas Willard, Lars Walker, and Tennyson also stand out as highlights. Rowling and Lewis too, of course.  Really, there's just so much good stuff out there.

So, here's the list of books I completed in 2011 (full disclosure, I count audiobooks in my list, if I really listened to the whole thing):

 1) Lewis, C. S. That Hideous Strength

2) Ugel, Edward. I'm With Fatty: Losing Fifty Pounds in Fifty Miserable Weeks

3) Martini, Adrienne. Sweater Quest: My Year of Knitting Dangerously

4) Lee, Patrick. The Breach

5) Sass, Cynthia. Cinch! Conquer Cravings, Drop Pounds, and Lose Inches

6) Campbell, Diana. The Reluctant Cyprian

7) Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

8) Brooks, Caroline. Marchman’s Lady

9) Fallon, Siobhan. You Know When the Men Are Gone

10) Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

11) Sayers, Dorothy. Gaudy Night

12) Bujold, Lois McMaster. Cryoburn

13) Kang, Joshua Choonmin. Scripture by Heart: Devotional Practices for Memorizing God’s Word

14) Brown, Harriet.  Brave Girl Eating: A Family’s Struggle with Anorexia

15) Moon, Elizabeth. Oath of Fealty

16) Oliver, Lauren. Delirium

17) Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

18) Kunzman, Robert. Write These Laws on Your Children: Inside the World of Conservative Christian Homeschooling

19) Moon, Elizabeth. Kings of the North

20) Sanderson, Brandon. The Way of Kings

21) McCafferty, Megan. Bumped

22) Pearl-McPhee, Stephanie. Yarn Harlot

23) Summers, Essie. My Lady of the Fuchsias

24) Summers, Essie. Daughter of the Misty Gorges

25) Eastin, Staci. The Organized Heart: A Woman’s Guide to Conquering Chaos

26) Lee, Sharon and Miller, Steve. Saltation.

27)  Lee, Sharon and Miller, Steve. Mouse & Dragon.

28) King, Stephen. On Writing.

29) Hale, Shannon. The Actor and the Housewife.

30) Willard, Dallas. Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God.

31) Grant, Mira. Feed.

32) Briggs, Patricia. Moon Called.

33) McGuire, Seanan. Rosemary and Rue: an October Day Novel.

34) Walker, Lars. The Year of the Warrior.

35) Creasy, Sara. Song of Scarabaeus.

36) Wainger, Leslie. Writing a Romance Novel For Dummies

37) Grant, Mira. Deadline.

38) Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

39) Lee, Sharon and Miller, Steve. Ghost Ship.

40) McGuire, Seanan. A Local Habitation.

41) McGuire, Seanan. An Artificial Night.

42) Ruchti, Cynthia. They Almost Always Come Home.

43) Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

44) Heyer, Georgette. False Colours.

45) Pearl-McPhee, Stephanie. Free-Range Knitter.

46) Tennyson, Alfred, Lord. In Memoriam.

47) Kelly, Carla. The Lady’s Companion.

48) Bujold, Lois McMaster. The Curse of Chalion.

49) Vaughn, Carrie. After the Golden Age.

50) Scalzi, John. Old Man’s War.

51) Thane, Elswyth. Letter to a Stranger.

52) Kennedy, Diane. The ADHD-Autism Connection: A Step Toward More Accurate Diagnoses and Effective Treatments

53) Sayers, Dorothy. Are Women Human?

54) Bujold, Lois McMaster. Paladin of Souls.

55) Lukeman, Noah. A Dash of Style: The Art and Mastery of Punctuation.

56) Walker, Lars. West Oversea.

57) Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

58) Pearl-McPhee, Stephanie. Knitting Rules! The Yarn Harlot Unravels the Mysteries of Swatching, Stashing, Ribbing & Rolling to Free Your Inner Knitter.

Here's to another year of good reading!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell