The end of one year and the beginning of another provides us with a natural time for making new commitments that we would like to carry out over the next year.  One of the key principles of goal setting is evaluation. At the end of December every T.V network and radio station out there has a countdown of the top “Something.”  The yearend countdown has infiltrated our culture to the point that a person could go insane from over exposure, and do something crazy like make up his own top ten list and force everyone to read it.

My Top Ten Moments from 2011

10. Finding Out Amanda Was Pregnant

• ·         Nine months is way longer than it sounds.

9.  Seeing my parents with their first grandchild

•    I think my mom would have stayed with us until Mallory graduated from high school if we let her.

8.  Suckering Pastor Robb into trying to drink a gallon of milk in an hour

• ·         This was followed by the much less satisfying… Listening to Pastor Robb try to convince himself he could do it if he did things a little differently next time even after he failed miserably.

7.   Making a toy chest from scratch for my daughter

• ·          I think the handyman gene skipped my generation…

6.  Watching the Yankees Lose to the Tigers in the ALDS

• ·         For one year I have bragging rights over all Yankee fans!

5. Witnessing the Lions and Eagles trading places in the NFC

• ·         I have bragging rights over Eagles fans too!

4. Hearing the Nurse say…. It’s a Girl

• ·         The next phrases out of my mouth were,  “Are you sure?”, and “I guess we need to buy a shotgun.”

3. Getting to the point where I could run three miles without stopping

• ·         Considering I couldn’t run to the end of the driveway when I started this was quite the achievement.

2. Watching the Lions play on Monday night for the first time.

• ·         Before this year I was begging to think the NFL would give the lions to another city… Pastor Robb constantly reassured me that nobody would want them, so I had nothing to worry about.

1. Witnessing the birth of my first Child.

• ·         Something I’ll never forget… Ever!

I hope you enjoyed my attempt at comedy. On a serious note, it is important that before we set new goals, and move on to the next year that we take time and evaluate the previous year. Think about what you did particularly well, where did you drop the ball, and how could you have done better. I would encourage you to not look back on just your family life or your professional life, but your spiritual life as well. I can think back to times this past year where I was really cruising along spiritually and times when I was struggling.  It is important that I look back on those times and figure out what I did right and what I need to work on. The Christian faith is a journey and in order to make sure we are progressing on that journey we need to sit down and honestly evaluate our spiritual lives, and then set new goals we would like to achieve spiritually over the next year.