2011, In Review

2011 was a great year for the Bowmans... and that is putting it lightly! Some highlights include our beautiful, wonderful baby Jack, my new job: stay at home mom, learning and growing and strengthening our marriage in so many ways that are noticeable daily, paying off our debt, and a new church. If you've been following along here, you know that sometimes have been tough, there has been heart ache and tears, but there has also been so many answered prayers and so many reasons just to sit at the Lord's feet and say "thank you" a hundred million trillion times. We're ending 2011 on a mountain top for sure!

Billy Phenix who is the campus pastor at Buckhead Church tweeted this PDF for married couples to talk through-- Chad and I took advantage of it on one of our hour long drive through the Texas hill country this past week-- it was so cool to talk through 2011 and plan for 2012. It was funny because most of the time our answers were different, but it was great to get into Chad's head a little and be able to compare notes. I really recommend making time to do this with your other half, and aim to do it THIS week... because let's be honest, it's just a matter of time before we're onto the next thing.

On Sunday, our family pastor, Matt, who happens to be my Danielle's husband, Reed's dad, and one of the 4 men in our small group, preached a really great message to kick off the new year. It's really worth a listen! (The video is not up yet, but you'll be able to watch it here in the next day or so.) The main point is using our past, and present, to move to the future, but how he ended was really a kicker for me and Chad, and I'm still mulling over it regularly--  he quoted Colossians 3: 1-4, which honestly are verses that a really familiar to me but this time, God really used them to poke at my heart (man, how I love the power of scripture!):

¹ Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. ³ For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ, who is your^[a] life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Matt zeroed in on verse 4, where it says "who is your life"-- he went onto challenge us NOT to make spiritual goals and physical goals and relational goals, separately-- but instead, make Christ our life-- meaning the He is in everything, He is who we are and who we're about-- Christ is the end all, be all.

Oh that just gets me all rattled, in a great way-- what would my relational goals and physical goals and family goals look like if Christ was my life? I wouldn't need spiritual goals, because apart from Him, I'd be nothing! So as I proceed over these next several days, and think through what I want 2012 to look like, that's where I'm heading... I want Christ to be my life!

So there are several things on my list of goals for kicking off this year-- hopefully by March, I can say these following things are done--


1) Read Mark Driscoll's new book, Real Marriage, with Chad... and actually finish it, together, working through it along the way. (We're really great at starting books together and never finishing them... we have quite a collection on the shelf in our room if you'd like to borrow any!)
2) Have Jack sleeping through the night (again!)
3) Get Max back into big boy underwear and get rid of his paci
4) Be more assertive when it comes to my family- stop saying "yes" if it's not what's best for this stage of life I'm in now-- which is a wife and a mom of young children, first and foremost. (Sandra Stanley, along with Andy, did a great talk (the whole series is great, but Part 4 applies here) on this a while back-- I have to re-listen regularly to remind myself that “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?” Nehemiah 6:3)
5) Reach my goal weight, go to the gym 5-6 times a week, cut out sugar for the month of January
6) Make time to continue writing my book
7) Become a better steward of the food we buy- not let things go to waste
8) House projects: switch bedrooms, re-do closets, make garage into playroom, purge things we don't need

And that's just getting me started.... BUT what would these look like if Christ was my life? How would that change my attitude and my motives? And can you even imagine the state of my heart? And what it would do to my fears and my worries? What if scripture was all over my brain and I was cleaning up pee and changing wet sheets? Oh, it'd be nothing but goodness, that's what!


So here's to 2012-- and making Christ my life!