God's new year for me

Before I begin, I wanted to post a yummy recipe!

Healthy Baked Chicken
Ingredients:
3 raw chicken breasts
1 tablespoon spicy mustard
1 cup plain soy milk
2 cups crushed special k-protein for bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
olive oil for drizzling

Pre-heat oven to 375. Crush special k (will end up using about 3 cups non crushed to get 2 cups crushed.) Set aside in a bowl or plate. In a separate bowl add soy milk, spicy mustard, salt, and cayenne pepper and mix. Take chicken and dip it in wash, then coat in bread crumbs. Place on a pan and drizzle with olive oil. Bake 35-45 minutes until chicken is cooked through!

I paired this with sweet potatoes I chopped up and drizzled with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic that I cooked at 400 in oven for about 30-35 minutes. And steamed broccoli! Delish!

Ok now onto the blog post. I was pondering "my" new years resolutions this morning and trying to figure out what I wanted 2012 to be for me. 2011 was quite a huge year for me! Ran some races,  got engaged, got married, moved into my first apartment, had a 1 year anniversary with my nanny family, found a church to call my home, became leaders in Velocity, and I fell in love with Jesus! I would say quite the eventful year!! I am so thankful for having such an amazing year! And I was thinking now how could I top that off?! What could I do next year? How did I want to work on my running goals? So far I had come up with I wanted to run 365 miles total next year. Not a mile a day, I will fail fairly quickly! But a mile for every day of the year. And Antonio and I are working on our health and our outer bodies. So far that was as far as my mind had really wandered besides going on a honeymoon.


 I was reading a friend of mines blog and she is doing this program called world race. They go to 11 countries in 11 months and minister to people there for a month. She left in September and as I was reading her blog, I was truly inspired. What courage it takes to give up everything, literally. It's not a week or two or a month mission trip, it's 11 months. You have to quit your job, and have no income for 11 months. Leave family and friends and not see anyone for basically a year including training. I mean it is a tall order and not something you just run off and go do. And I commend her for deciding to do something so bold like this. Giving your life up to God for a year, no questions asked. Amazing to me. I could only dream to ever be at a place where I could say ya, sure let's do this God. But honestly, the thought of this terrifies me and I really don't think I could ever do it! But in reading some of the things she had to say, it just really got me thinking.

You hear about people going on mission's trips and experiencing God so intensely and that it changed their lives etc. And I can see the change in Kelsey already and I thought to myself, man I really want to experience that! So I have already announced I want to go on a missions trip at some point, just when the opportunity was right. And reading her blog makes me want to go even more. But then I started thinking about my new years resolutions. And the thought occurred to me that they weren't God's resolution's for me. And they had nothing to do with God. And that I was looking for something to make me experience God, not relying on myself to experience it wherever, whenever. And although it is a goal to go on a missions trip somewhere next year, I am not relying on that to be the only life changing experience I have.

I was reading scripture today in Habakkuk and Nahum and it's all over the place about people living for this world and not God's. And what will happen to you if you live for the world and not him. If you worship idols or focus on becoming rich for the sake of being rich. And of course people read things today and go oh well I don't have a little carved statue in my house I am not worshiping idols! But in fact, an idol is something that gets in the way of you and God and you focus on it more then God. This could be TV, video games, partying, drinking, drugs, sex, and so much more. Just anything that is pulling you away from God is an idol. And for some reason that just hit me today like a ton of bricks.

"What good is an idol carved by man, or a cast image that deceives you? How foolish to trust in your own creation-- A god that can't even talk! What sorrow awaits you who say to wooden idols, "wake up and save us!" To speechless stone images you say, "Rise up and teach us!" Can an idol tell you what to do? They may be overlaid with gold and silver, but they are lifeless inside. But the Lord in His Holy Temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him." Habakkuk 2:18-20

Woah. Just Woah. I had never read these verses before in my whole life of reading the bible! And it could not be laid out anymore for you. And I just thought about how much time I spend watching TV, or on the computer and how much time I spend with God each day and compared it. And honestly some days there wasn't even anything to compare to. Some days TV/Internet was all I did, and no time with God. Sometimes it was just God and no TV/Internet. But usually it was both, but TV/Internet won by a landslide. And I never thought of these things as idols, but I thought what if I cut those back or completely out during times of the week or limited myself to an amount daily. How much more time would I have for God? And it just blew me away at the vast amount of time I would have for him. And how I had somehow let TV/Internet become idols for me. And how we look at TV/Internet to teach us things. To tell us what to do, or how to make money or save us from our boredom and wind us down on a miserable day.

But when this world is over.. NONE of what tv, internet, movies, games, books, teachers, parents, friends, NONE of what they taught me or showed me will matter. I will not need to know how to cook or tie ribbon in heaven. I will not care if my hair looks good, or if what I am wearing is cute to those around me. I will not need to know how Oprah or Ellen likes their coffee. I will not need to know how to play a video game, or how to type 79 wpm. All this crap I am "learning" is not even going to matter in the end. Now I am not saying squander your life away to nothing. School is important and having a job for survival is key. But I am talking about all this crap we think we ought to know about or to learn how to do. And letting ourselves make learning from them our focus. The one who created us, is our teacher. And he is screaming at us and telling us LOOK I am here in front of you. All you need to know is what I am going to tell you. But yet you don't want to listen to me? I made you, I put you on this earth. You want to know about those rivers and oceans and birds, ask ME. I made them!! Why would we want to learn about life from another person who is just here like us? When we could know about life from the one who made it himself?

For me, it was something personal and blatantly obvious I felt like God was telling me. Even though I have cut down on tons of drama shows, which has defiantly seemed to calm my life down, I feel as though I still am not making enough time for God. And never realizing what we could make out of idols, I am seeing more clearly that it can be something right in front of you, that you may not even be realizing. Out of a day, how much is that spent on spending time with God or focused on God in some way shape or form. Maybe even talking to God? Be honest and give yourself a percentage. And then what would you like it to be? Realistically we aren't all monks and can sit around praying 24/7. But out of that free time you have, what are you spending it on? This year I am wanting to make things way more personal and I want that hunger for God, and want to be continuously satisfied in Him.

So whatever God has in store for me this year, I am up for it and I am excited to see what happens!

Now goals that I would like to work on personally, with God's help:
1. Run 365+ miles total. A mile a day isn't happening, but I figured that's a likely goal to obtain.
2. Get in better shape. (working on!)
3. Go on a missions trip.
4. Continuously work on my marriage and still continue to grow and find out new things about each other.
5. Try to be more patient in all areas.
6. Way less TV watching.
7. Be more crafty!
8. Actually put my clean clothes away! Ha! They live in the laundry baskets, I hate folding laundry!
9. Blog more
10. Find more new hobbies!

Ok that sounds good for now!

On a side note, I was what felt like deathly ill all weekend. Think it was just the flu, but Saturday was rough. I lived in the bathroom and was up till about 4:30 Sunday morning till I could even lay down to fall asleep. I felt better yesterday and thought I was in the clear till I got up this morning and tried oatmeal. Stomach said NO way! It is not ready for more solid foods, so back to chicken noodle soup and crackers.. not exactly what I call a good cheat on my diet! I did manage to sneak in some mac and cheese today! Shh don't tell! I deserved it after my weekend of negative calories! It was cute however, Antonio took care of me and bought me soup and made a make shift table for me next to the bed! It is nice to have someone to take care of you when you are writhing in pain and can barely get out of bed!

And then I find out I most likely have runners knee! Argh! What is going on with my body? Finally am almost done with all the coughing crap, then this flu, and now runners knee! I am falling apart! Wondering if this means I need to rest? Just trying to give my body what it needs for now. Frustrating it is all happening right now during my diet and workouts and messing with them! Oh well, good thing May is far away!

That's all for today! Ready to go home, put up some vday decor, make some french onion soup-minus cheese and crouton of course so really french onion broth with onions. Think my stomach wouldn't mind a different soup! Then off to bed. Didn't get much sleep last night so I am beat today!