Persistence: My Word for 2017
The Christmas presents have all been opened, the grandparents have all been visited, the cousins have been played with, and the tree…..well, the tree is still up. It’s pretty. I’m reluctant to take it down.
And today is New Year’s Eve. Time to pick a goal, a resolution, a plan!!! Or as my adorable little boys say, “It’s time for our New Year’s revolution!” That makes me smile every time.
I may not have daughters, but I have adorable nieces.
So did you set goals? I have goals in mind, but this year I’m focusing more on this word: persistence.
For me, that’s about persisting in what I know is the right thing to do, even when I’m not seeing immediate results. I’m often guilty of throwing in the towel when results aren’t as big and quick as I want them to be. I get bored with a thing and move on to another. That’s not a highly productive way to live.
Fishing takes persistence too. The boys enjoyed fishing this Christmas, but they didn’t catch anything this time.
I want to be more persistent:
-With Bible reading and prayer
I have found this to be most effective when done in the morning, and mornings are rough when you are raising children. One thing I am working on is getting up earlier to get this done before the morning rush, but when I fail to get up early, Bible time has to move to 8am, and that’s okay. Late is better than not at all.
-As a wife
The hardest part for me sometimes is just being “nice.” Bahhhh. Niceness. But niceness is extremely important in a marriage, in any relationship. I want to be right more than I want to be nice. I actually need to stop being so persistent about being right!
-As a mom
The hardest part for me is sticking with a plan. I’ll assign chores, and I’ll make sure everyone’s dong their assigned chores for about a week, and then I start to slide, especially about the “kitchen helper” chore. They need to do it. It’s good for them. I need to persist in making sure they are there to help me with dinner and not be lazy by doing it myself.
Yes, sometimes simply doing it yourself is actually the lazy way out. Training a tot to do a job is much more work than just handling it for them.
I need persistence with discipline too. It’s such a drag, but the kids are so much more pleasant to be around when you do it consistently instead of hit and miss.
-As a blogger
There should be a schedule. Posts should come out like clock work instead of so very mixed bag. I know there should be a schedule. I can’t promise a schedule, but I will make one. I can’t promise to stick to it, because I am a scatter-brained, free-spirited mom of four.
-As a writer
I’m hoping to enroll JD in part-time pre-school a couple of days per week. This will help me get more writing done, and I can start going to the dentist again.
-With my health
I’m using a Fitbit Charge II to help me get into better patterns this year, and I’m loving it.
-With my house
I’m good about getting dinner cooked each night, and Alan has now taken over the laundry. That goes a long way. However, I need to be more persistent about spending an hour or two each day cleaning house. Yes, in our phase of life it requires that.
So who’s ready for 2017? What would you like to accomplish this year? Do you have a word? Our pastor gave us a list on Christmas day of words we could pick from. It was a helpful list. I lost that list, and I can’t remember them all. Persistence was on there. I think it had several fruits of the spirit, so I will do my best to re-construct the list:
Words to Focus on for 2017:
faith
hope
love
faith
persistence
joy
peace
goodness
self-control
kindness
Happy New Year’s! I hope it’s a happy one! I’d love to hear about your goals.
Did you blog about your goals? Link up below. We’d love to read it!
Such a great word of the year! I’m also very bad at keeping up with chores for the kids. The oldest is definitely ready, but it becomes a battle since the younger two aren’t really able to help out that much. Best of luck in 2017 and thanks for joining us at the #happynowlinkup!
Thank you! NO one else seems to want to admit that they have trouble monitoring their kids’ chores. There are always so many things to think about!
My word is actually perseverance, so I love your choice. It’s often difficult to persevere or persist with things, but I do hope to make it work more in various aspects of my life this year.
-Lauren
Your word is so close to mine I keep messing up and accidentally calling my word perseverance. But last year was my year of perseverance, though I certainly didn’t plan that! Here’s hoping your year of perseverance will turn out to be smoother than you expect. Happy New Year!
I like this word, it really makes all the difference. I am not always the best on this, but persistence… kind of says it all, right? I am trying though!
Happy New Year my friend. I am just so glad 2016 is ovah, Buh-bye! Hello 2017!
Thank you. Now I’m going to be persistent and try to get the linky thing to work so I can join your happy now blog hop. It occurred to me today that I should try it on my iPhone since my computer won’t do it. Happy new year!!
I like the idea of a revolution, over a resolution! One year my word was consistency, which is somewhat similar!
Our tree has been down since the 26th but we put it up over a month before that and the pine needles were invading the house.
I didn’t choose a word this year, but persistence is pretty close to what I would have chosen. My goals involve writing more seriously and my resolution involves discipline. I think they’re related. 🙂
I can definitely relate to those. Discipline is definitely not my strong suit….and something my husband probably wishes I had more of! Good choice.
Great List! Kindness and Self-control are two great traits that I can focus on in 2017. Hubby and I are waiting to adopt a little bundle of joy . Sometimes waiting makes me unkind and out of control. Perhaps patience should part of my list too, lol.
Kindness and self-control—love it. Best of luck on the adoption. That sounds wonderful. You are already showing so much love and kindness in that decision. Patience should be part of my list too, but when I try to focus on too many things I lose all my focus entirely. Ha!
A motivational post indeed. I am all about me some New Year’s Resolutions. I’ve even made myself a little habit-tracker this year. We’ll see how it goes! I’d love to see a post about how using a Fit Bit has improved your health (or not improved your health). Enjoyed the post – I like the idea of picking a word for the year.
Thank you. And I would really like to see this habit tracker! I will definitely be writing a Fitbit post. Happy new year!!
great resolutions and great family…GOD bless u
Thank you! God bless you as well!
Persistence is a great word! I am still working on my word to live by, so hope to have it soon! I have found a great little bible study titles Walking with God in the seasons of Motherhood and love it! It helps for me to do this first thing in the morning also, but I am having trouble waking up early to get this done lol!
The waking up early is the hardest part for me too. Oy! Happy New Year, April!