2015: The Year of the Body

Remember how I announced that 2015 was going to be the Year of the Body? 

I'd actually prefer that you didn't.  Because that could save me some vulnerability and more awkward openness than I'm comfortable with right now.  

I told you I'd flesh it out a little bit in a future post.  I guess I've got a bit of time on my hands now.

I got all technical and made a purpose statement for 2015.  Because I can do that.

My intention for 2015 is to wholeheartedly embrace health, fellowship, and sacrificial servanthood as a way to glorify God in my body, in the body of Christ, and in the manner that Christ's body was broken for others. 

Sounds like fun, huh?  Especially that sacrificial servanthood part?

I know my propensity for over-verbalization when it comes to ideals and goals, so I'm going to keep it brief and bullet-pointed.

• Body: Health.  We've been hit so very hard this last year with more illnesses than ever before. This year we'll reclaim our health through various means.  A quote from Sally Clarkson is inspiring me:  "We need women to do the work now, so that they have something to talk about later."  I know what I need to do for optimal health.  I just need to do the work and quit researching obsessively.  I've got some fun things lined up and am really excited about helping Michael accomplish some of his health goals for the year as well.
• Body: Fellowship.  This year, I plan to intentionally interact with those that are placed in my path.  I plan to not only interact, but speak into and lean into the lives around me so that I can be a blessing to others.  We really took a year off after changing neighborhoods and churches and just let ourselves be tended to and nourished...and now it's time for us (me) to start ministering to others in my church and in our neighborhood.      
• Body: Sacrificial Servanthood.  This is the one where things could get awkward and messy.  Basically speaking, being a mom is hard.  Being mom to a child with a traumatic background is even more difficult.  I've been contemplating the story of how the shepherd left the 99 sheep to go search after 1 lamb, and that's what we both separately have decided to do this year.  I need to focus in deep and intentionally on my one lamb (while not avoiding the others) in order to win his heart back.  When he first came home we embraced some popular conservative parenting philosophies regarding discipline and ended up with a child who obeyed out of fear of consequence rather than a child who obeyed out of love for his parents.  (We fortunately made a shift before our second little "lamb" came home, and he does not struggle with this as much.)  This year will be a year of relentless pursuit.  Where the sacrifice comes in is parenting him in this way will require a sacrifice of time, "breaks" that feel justified as a mom, a sacrifice in saying what I want to say when I want to say it and how I want to say it, and a sacrifice in looking like a "good parent."     

So, 2015: The Year of the Body, I'm (almost) ready for you.