Last night we our weekly teen girls' small group Bible study. I told the girls to set their standards high and to be careful not to grow complacent in their faith. At the end of small group, I had them write letters to their future selves (which I'd mail to them in a year), reminding their future selves of how God worked in their lives in 2008, and setting some spiritual goals for the new year. The girls asked, "Bev, what are your goals for 2009? Are you going to write a letter?" And I realized that I hadn't thought about it for myself. Haha, ironic.

It's funny how God can take totally incompetent, inadequate people and still use them for His purposes. :)

So I wrote a letter to my future self.

I'm not a big fan of "making new year's resolutions," but I do think it's important to always strive for something better. In Philippians 3, which we studied that night, Paul encourages us to strain toward what is ahead and press on toward the goal, which is Christ himself. I liked Melody's goal, which she made into a catchy slogan: "more than yesterday." Each day, she wants to improve herself to become a better person than she was the day before.

Last year, I'm not sure, but I believe my resolution was that if God was my best friend like I claimed He was, I should spend time with Him consistently every day. (This is why a blog helps -- you can actually go back and read what was going on in your head at that time.) I think I've somewhat reached that goal -- I've gotten in the habit of spending time with God every night, reading my Bible and doing my devotions. So this year, I want to take the next step and strive for something better -- I want not just to read my Bible, but I want to be transformed by the words that I read. Sometimes I read my Bible like it's a bedtime story, and then I think, "Oh! What a nice story," and then I fall asleep. But I'd like to really read God's words, let them sink in and change me -- what I say, how I act, what I feel, what I do.

And my second resolution is regarding prayer. My prayer life is severely lacking. Paul (the pastor at our church, not the author of the epistles) is teaching a new Sunday School class on prayer, so I'm looking forward to that.