Hi, 2015!

Happy new year! Can't quite believe it is 2015. 2014 went very quickly. There were some terrific ups

Miss you, puppy. xxx

and downs last year, but it was mainly positive. The downs were pretty intense too though. An example: my dog of 14 years was put down due to a traumatic fall. Really missing him.


However, this year is going to be a super great AND productive year. Honest! My new year's resolution this year was to read the Bible in a Year, so I'm using a plan on the Bible app. It's quite interesting, and it's opened my eyes a bit over the last week. In the first devotional, it listed 5 of the most common new year's resolutions:

• Get fit;
• Lose weight;
• Reduce drinking;
• Stop smoking;
• Get out of debt

Yep, they sound familiar. I was interested to research these, and came across the Time.com article "Top 10 Commonly Broken New Year's Resolutions". Lo and behold, it included all five of those things, with the additions of "spend more time with family; travel to new places; be less stressed; volunteer; eat healthier and diet and learn something new." (I've highlighed be less stressed because I thought it was a hilarious resolution - how can you forsee your year being unstressful?!).

Calvin and Hobbes say it how it is

Some of these resolutions are understandable. It would be lovely to get fit, volunteer, go jetsetting off somewhere or spend more time with the family - but this also helps us to highlight where exactly we went wrong last year.

People say, "new year, new me" when 1st January comes around, and seem to look back at all the negative parts of the previous year when saying this. Is the phrase true? Can we just instantly change all our bad bits?

Well, no, not really. There's always going to be bad bits, but why can't we just focus on the good bits? At the end of 2014, after all the sad bits, I kept saying, "what a naff year this year has been". Erm. It wasn't? It was the year I got married! It was the year I had blessing after blessing piled upon me and I didn't stop to reflect on how great those blessings were!

Another example, a friend (who will remain nameless) messaged me one night last week saying how sad they were. Feeling for them, I messaged back, asking why, and she replied saying that she was down about which direction her life is going in, her appearance and her being single. Again, the bad bits of 2014, which she was worried about continuing into 2015.

Well, I was fairly shocked about this message, as my friend was one of my most successful friends in terms of job, with the most incredible, lovely personality, and I personally think her appearance in beautiful! And it is sad (and actually incredibly surprising) that she is still single, as she has literally everything going for her, but this year will be a year of self-realisation for her after her having such a hard relationship before - I just know it!

But we don't in anyway need to change who we are this year. Happiness does not derive from that. As a Christian, I believe happiness comes from living everyday with God at the centre of it all. We are the way he made us, and he blesses us (although we don't always see it). Yes, we will come across sadness, loss, pain, loneliness and illness, but through it all, He is there, with his arms wide open. He knew our plans for 2015, even before we had started it ourselves. You can lose that weight, reduce your drinking, get out of debt or try and be "less stressed", and give up half way through, or you can actually start living! Well, that's what I am going to do anyway.

New year, new outlook.