New Year....... New Me

I am truthfully so excited to start a new year.  I recently watched the mormon messages on the New Year and can definitely say that they are exactly right!  Never look back.  What has happened, has happened, now is the time to move forward.  So I am.  There are some aspects of my life where moving forward will be a bit of a challenge for me, and others where I am just downright excited to move on.  2010 is definitely a year that I would like to forget. The trials that I have had to face this past year are not ones I plan on repeating. I learned a lot and for that I am grateful.  My goal this year is to become a better me.  It is most often said that the Lord works in mysterious ways.  He definitely worked in mysterious ways for me this year - I couldn't have had better outcomes. 

Some of the wonderful things the Lord has helped me with this past year are:  weeding out the negativity and pessimism, helping me find out who my friends are/aren't, more strength in standing up for what is right, to not believe everything I am told, search out the truth, forgiveness, stronger appreciation for the good influences in my life, and re-prioritizing.  I have been chastised, humbled, hurt, lonely, and exhausted.  It is because of those things that I have been teachable.  I am not perfect..... actually, I am quite far from it.  The important thing is that I am trying to do the things that the Lord asks of me and to become a better me.  I am seeking out those who are positive, uplifting influences.  Motherhood is definitely something I have difficulty with, so I am seeking ways that I can improve and better teach and serve my children.  Somehow I feel that I have been caught up in playing the part of a "lemming" during my time in this area when I have been raised to be a "leader".  My parents taught me what is right and wrong, it is time I start leading my life instead of letting it (and the people in it) lead me.  I've lost site of myself over the years and I am determined to get myself back.   Deployments change people.  Unfortunately for me deployments didn't change me for the better.  I got so caught up with how lonely I was that I didn't take the time to make the most of what I had. 

I am so blessed to have the opportunity to start a new year and start a new commitment to myself to become a better person.  My goal is to become someone that not only KNOWS Jesus Christ but is the kind of person that I would want to be friends with.  I am going to be grateful for the talents that I have and learn how to improve from those who are more accomplished than I.  I will CARPE DIEM and have a life full of JOY in 2011!!