Laurel Wreath is collecting new year’s meditations here. I think today’s the last day, so I wanted to jump in.

I’ve thought about this for several weeks, and I finally sat down and wrote out my GOALS for 2007. I divided them into five categories:

1. God (Growing my faith and sharing it with others)
2. Family (Husband and children, extended)
3. Friends (local, distant)
4. Self (personal goals)
5. House (projects we’d like to accomplish this year around the house and yard)

Instead of posting this list though, I printed it out and put it in my journal. It will be something for me to refer to privately throughout the year. I’m excited to see how God will work in these areas of my life — and I’m going to commit to the discipline required to meet several of these goals.

It does me no good at all to write down vague, general goals without turning these into monthly, weekly, daily, and even hourly lists of tasks. I’ve not gone that far … but I do have daily lists that give my day structure and prevent me from thinking, “Where did all my time go?”

Discipline doesn’t come in the big areas; it comes in those tiny 15-minute increments where you decide whether to wash the breakfast dishes or “check email real quick.” I’ve lived and learned and am still in the midst of trying to be more disciplined with my time!

Here, I wanted to state publicly (for anyone who reads this) that my goal this year will be to put FIRST THINGS FIRST.

For me, here’s a choice I’ve made: I’m not going to read or write anything until I read my daily Bible passage and write a response in my journal. Even if I get up at 4 am to catch up on writing (which I do sometimes), I’m first going to pry open my eyes and read the day’s passage (which is reading the whole Bible in a year, chronologically). It’s too tempting to check email, check a blog or two — then suddenly the house is up, the day is off and running, and I haven’t read God’s Word for the day.

I love my new Bible, and I’ve made this fresh commitment, fully aware that this will cut into my writing time. But I’m praying God will bless it because my heart is to please Him by putting His Word first in my life.

Secondly, another FIRST THING FIRST is to take better care of my health, seriously. This means filling up with water all day (ten glasses for me, according to my weight), so that I don’t stay dehydrated and crazy for sugar. I knew I was starting to put on some weight last month — but I avoided the scale. That’s pure denial for me. I finally got on it Monday, and discovered to my horror that I’d gained six pounds! Nothing like a dose of reality to get me up and running. Literally.

Last month, after much prayer, I decided to turn my Lively Women blog over to someone else. Kristin King is the new b5 media blogger, and she’s doing a fantastic super-lively job over there! It was a great place for me, and I learned so much about women’s health and wellness through writing about it — but after six months, I realized that in order to be a lively woman, I needed to quit writing so much and go live it! In other words, get off the computer and go exercise.

I worked out at Curves this morning and had a great time laughing and swapping stories with the ladies who were working out there. I don’t know if I burned 500 calories, but it was a small step for me to get back in shape. I felt blah before I worked out and great afterward! I can’t go every day, but on the days I don’t go, I’m going to get back on my treadmill and RUN.

Running burns calories so much faster than walking, I’ve learned. And the simple truth to losing weight — no matter how many millions of diet plans are out there — is that you have to burn more calories than you consume. That’s it. If I had a safe place to run outside, I’d rather do that — but I don’t now. And today is cold and rainy where I live. I worked out at Curves while the rain came pouring down.

No more excuses!

Here’s what I’ve discovered:

God’s Word + Laughter + Exercise = Happy Me

Happy Me = Happy Family

Skipping God’s Word + Stress + Sugary, starchy foods = Unhappy, Frumpy Me

Unhappy, Frumpy Me = Unhappy Family

There you have it. It took 15 minutes of writing here for me to reduce my goals this year to three: Bible Reading, Laughter, and Exercise. Putting first things first.

Have you written your goals out yet? Are they measurable? Have you reduced them to daily tasks? Let’s encourage each other to take baby steps each day toward becoming the best we can be for the glory of God.

If you’d like to join in at Laurel Wreath, write your goals somewhere and leave a link here.