2017- Week 1

As we head in to a new year, I had to go back and re-read through the goals that I set for myself at the beginning of 2016.  Hmmm  . . . I guess I should have had those memorized.  I think I made some improvements in some areas, but not nearly as many as I would have liked.  The beginning of the year is always a bit hard for me because I get a lot of energy and expect SO much of myself.  Of course, I'm definitely not superwoman and I often can meet my own expectations.

As I have thought about goals for this year, one thing keeps coming back to me. . .  I want to be more positive.  I can be a pretty competitive, jealous person.  I also am hard on myself (and others).  The result of these things is that a lot of negativity comes out of my mouth.  So, I really want to work on that this year.  I want to try to see others as God sees them.  I want to give people the benefit of the doubt.  I want to try to see things from someone else's side.  I want to not compare and not complain. I know that it would take a lifetime to completely correct all of these issues, so I'm going to take small strides.

1.  Try to say positive things to my children and only say negative things when I absolutely have to to correct behavior.  I am really hard on my kids.  I am competitive and it is hard for me to bite my tongue.  I'm going to try though.  They need to hear uplifting things from their mother.

2. Try to not gossip and not worry about other's business.  Give everyone the benefit of the doubt and worry about my life, my family, my actions.

3.  Not compare.

Sister Melissa Wall gave a talk in church today about parenting.  She talked about how people can change and we shouldn't "pin" identities on our children.  I really believe this and I yearn so badly to be a better parent.

I hope in 2017 that I can also become a better mother by being a better spiritual mouthpiece in our home.  I often feel like I can't share gospel knowledge because I don't know enough.  I need to get over this.  My kids need to know it's important to me.  It will be harder to teach them this if I don't start making a strong point of it now.

And lastly, like always, I hope I can be better at taking photos of my kids.  I'm trying to keep a camera downstairs and available.  I hope that helps.