At the very end of 2010, I wrote a post about some goals I would like to achieve in 2011. The nice thing about a blog is that you have a record of everything you post, so I can't weasel my way out of the resolutions goals I made for myself! You can view the original post here, but I made five goals for myself. They were:
1. Be a better husband to Jenny.
2. Put off inappropriate talk.
3. Read 52 Books
4. Teach more at church
5. Read through Calvin's Institutes
So let me review 2011 and see how I did...
1. Be a better husband to Jenny.
This one is difficult for me to assess myself, since Jenny would probably be more apt to answer, however in self-evaluating, I would say there are some areas that I did well at and others I am still growing in grace. I think I did well in serving Jenny during her pregnancy and her delivery. I did my best to make sure she didn't have to do much around the house and that she could just relax. I also was quick with the back rubs when she had pains. During her hospital stay and lengthy delivery, I did everything I could to make her feel loved and alleviate her pain. Some areas where I still struggle - patience. I still get frustrated easily over silly things at times. Also, I still say things that are not the most edifying to her, such as complain about how she did things. I will say that I want to continue to improve to be a better husband by the Lord's grace.
2. Put off inappropriate talk.
By far my worst habit is that I still swear at times. I've done it for so long, it's a tough one to break. Regrettably, I did not fare so well on this goal, but I am determined to pursue it.
3. Read 52 Books.
Talk about humbling. I failed miserably on this goal. I think at last count I was somewhere around 17 in July. Now I will say that it's not like I didn't read anymore after July. My reading consisted more of reading articles or parts of books. Also I was teaching a lot more, so I read through commentaries slowly. In the end though, I don't like to hear excuses, so I won't even make any here. I failed on this goal and it was one I really did want to accomplish. Bummer.
4. Teach more at church.
Finally a goal I accomplished! My pastor has essentially placed myself in a rotation with him for teaching Sunday school. This means we take turns teaching. It's not really a he takes one week and then I get the next and so on, but for example, we taught through the book of 1 Peter. He taught chapter one. Then I taught chapter two. It usually take us around 3-4 weeks to get through a chapter. Now we are working through the book Let the Reader Understand and in similar fashion, he taught chapter one and I just finished teaching chapter two. So as you can see I am getting some very consistent opportunities to teach, which is something I enjoy very much.
5. Read through Calvin's Institutes
I actually was doing pretty well on this goal as well. As you can see, I had read and blogged all the way through Chapter 1, Book 14 and I was enjoying it! The reason I stopped was because we started going through the book as a church on Sunday evenings. Of course, this is a tremendous blessing to be able to read and discuss with my church family. I do intend to pick back up in blogging on each chapter since we are almost caught up to where I left off.
So those were my goals for 2011. I would say I was about 50% successful in them, so depending on if you're an optimist or pessimist, I did well or I failed. Ha ha. I enjoyed doing this and I already have some ideas for goals for 2012. I will try to post those tomorrow on the last day of 2011, so check back then!
1. Be a better husband to Jenny.
2. Put off inappropriate talk.
3. Read 52 Books
4. Teach more at church
5. Read through Calvin's Institutes
So let me review 2011 and see how I did...
1. Be a better husband to Jenny.
This one is difficult for me to assess myself, since Jenny would probably be more apt to answer, however in self-evaluating, I would say there are some areas that I did well at and others I am still growing in grace. I think I did well in serving Jenny during her pregnancy and her delivery. I did my best to make sure she didn't have to do much around the house and that she could just relax. I also was quick with the back rubs when she had pains. During her hospital stay and lengthy delivery, I did everything I could to make her feel loved and alleviate her pain. Some areas where I still struggle - patience. I still get frustrated easily over silly things at times. Also, I still say things that are not the most edifying to her, such as complain about how she did things. I will say that I want to continue to improve to be a better husband by the Lord's grace.
2. Put off inappropriate talk.
By far my worst habit is that I still swear at times. I've done it for so long, it's a tough one to break. Regrettably, I did not fare so well on this goal, but I am determined to pursue it.
3. Read 52 Books.
Talk about humbling. I failed miserably on this goal. I think at last count I was somewhere around 17 in July. Now I will say that it's not like I didn't read anymore after July. My reading consisted more of reading articles or parts of books. Also I was teaching a lot more, so I read through commentaries slowly. In the end though, I don't like to hear excuses, so I won't even make any here. I failed on this goal and it was one I really did want to accomplish. Bummer.
4. Teach more at church.
Finally a goal I accomplished! My pastor has essentially placed myself in a rotation with him for teaching Sunday school. This means we take turns teaching. It's not really a he takes one week and then I get the next and so on, but for example, we taught through the book of 1 Peter. He taught chapter one. Then I taught chapter two. It usually take us around 3-4 weeks to get through a chapter. Now we are working through the book Let the Reader Understand and in similar fashion, he taught chapter one and I just finished teaching chapter two. So as you can see I am getting some very consistent opportunities to teach, which is something I enjoy very much.
5. Read through Calvin's Institutes
I actually was doing pretty well on this goal as well. As you can see, I had read and blogged all the way through Chapter 1, Book 14 and I was enjoying it! The reason I stopped was because we started going through the book as a church on Sunday evenings. Of course, this is a tremendous blessing to be able to read and discuss with my church family. I do intend to pick back up in blogging on each chapter since we are almost caught up to where I left off.
So those were my goals for 2011. I would say I was about 50% successful in them, so depending on if you're an optimist or pessimist, I did well or I failed. Ha ha. I enjoyed doing this and I already have some ideas for goals for 2012. I will try to post those tomorrow on the last day of 2011, so check back then!
1 comments:
I was so going to do that too! (I am making my list of goals for 2012. I can say that you have been a wonderful husband to Jenny, I do see that and everyone has little areas they can improve in, but if my opinion counted, you succeeded at that goal. Well done!
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