Amen.

Love your iphone (or ipod touch, your smart phone, or whatever your technology of choice is) like I do?  Then read this...

Beware: The Bible Is About to Threaten Your Smartphone Focus - Desiring God

www.desiringgod.org

I admit I am very distracted by my iphone.  And my computer, and my kindle, but especially by my iphone... and have I have been really bothered by that.  But this is a brilliantly simple strategy!  

I love finding practical information (on my iphone) I can actually use!  Now I'm off to spend some time on my Bible app to review yesterday's sermon topic...

looking ahead

Through no fault but my own, I've been trudging through this past week, making up for the fact that I didn't keep up with my book work last year. I need that data to file my sales tax return which is due Saturday, so I've been slogging away entering all the data that should have been entered weekly and monthly. It hasn't been one of my more exciting weeks!

It's a good thing I've made discipline one of my touch stones this year, as evidenced by my lack of it last year. I didn't keep up with my book work last year (even though that was a goal I had made for myself!) because I find bookwork tedious and boring. And, if I pushed it off for another day, there were no immediate consequences.

This year, I've recruited the help of artist friend Bonnielyn Brankey to hold me accountable in keeping my books up to date each month, and I in turn have promised to keep her accountable in blogging at least weekly. I'm excited about this because I've had friends keep me accountable in other areas of my life, and it has really helped.

Why the picture of the brayer and printing ink? Just before Christmas I ordered some printing supplies so that I could do some exploration with nature printing - i.e. making leaf, flower prints, etc. on my handmade paper. I have been really eager to try this, and I set up my new supplies with in eyesite of my computer, as motivation to get my tax work done. Next week should be much more interesting!

My focus word for 2009...

Discipline. (yawn) It's not too exciting, is it? But when I look back on where I've been, where I've ended up, and what I could have achieved, I've realized that this one element is key - not just in my art life, but in every single area of my life.

Friends who know me well will be amused, because discipline has never been a strength of mine. I prefer to base my actions on whatever I feel like doing at the moment. I love being flexible and spontaneous, not rigid and calculated. Being a "stay at home mom" has been like winning the lottery for me, because no one tells me what or when to do anything, I plan my days according to whatever I feel like doing.

But, this freedom has its downfalls, and God has been kindly pointing out some glaring deficiencies in my life over the past year, all of which involve my having great difficulty saying "no" to myself, and yes to something that would be a wiser, or more unselfish use of my time.

The most glaring area of my life that lacks discipline involves my use of time - especially in relation to the Internet. I love, love, love, checking my email. I love reading blogs, too many blogs. I love checking out CNN, USA today, Fox News, the Weather Channel, Lifehacker, ebay, MSNBC...the list could go on and on (and some days it does). I need to wrestle with myself and come up with a workable way to be more disciplined in my use of the internet - the amount of time I could free up would be huge.

I really love myself, and love giving myself whatever I want at the moment. Another snack? Sure. A free afternoon? No problem, you can fill that order and do the laundry tomorrow. That growing pile of bookwork? It can wait, and besides it's so boring so go ahead and ignore it another week or so...

Basically I divide my life up into these five areas: spiritual (my relationship with God), family, home(and garden), others (church, friends, etc), Elizabeth's Flowers (my art and online businesses). Each of these areas would benefit greatly from me saying "no" to myself, and my whims, and "yes" to whatever would help me achieve my goals in these areas.

I do foresee one major problem with my quest to become more disciplined. What will motivate me enough to override my long ingrained natural tendencies? The newness of the challenge might for awhile...but what about during the long haul? Do I even have a chance at becoming more disciplined consistently? Knowing me, and my track record, my answer would have to be no. Not in and of myself. I don't have enough "will power". But, while reading a blog this morning (there I go again), I came across the answer. I need to love someone else more than me. I'm going to give this a try.

Looking forward, looking back

Back when I was working full time as an Occupational Therapist in a rehab clinic, I absolutely hated doing my yearly reviews. I was all about living in the moment. As far as I was concerned the past was the past, and the future was safely in God's hands, so why waste time struggling to come up with impressive sounding goals? I intended to "do my best," and I was eager to move on to the next thing, not waste time muddling through priorities, facing past mistakes, etc.

Thankfully, I've come to see the value in reflection, and the wisdom of bravely facing past mistakes and areas of weakness. It's not comfortable, not fun, but necessary to move on to a higher level, in any area of our life.

So, off and on during the past few days (when I haven't been playing on our new Wii) I've been looking at various areas of my life with a critical eye, and writing down the areas I've fallen short. But, I'm also making sure I record and acknowledge my achievements with gratitude as well.

I have come across two great resources that have helped me in my yearly review that I'd like to share with you. For looking back at the art side of my life, I'm using Alyson Stanfield's Acknowledge yourself and celebrate! list.

More importantly, I have been taking a hard look at my spiritual life, and am working my way through these Questions to ask at the Beginning of a New Year. I am going through this list somewhat superficially right now so that I can see where I need to make concrete goals, but will review parts of it in depth later on.

I'm also narrowing down what my focus word of 2009 will be (ala Christine Kane's blog). Only a day and a half left to decide...what will yours be?