Looking back on 2015's Goals

 I wanted to review my goals from last year so that I might have a more realistic view to set my 2016 goals. Seeing how it's February 14th and not January 1st you can see that I've chosen not to go with the fad of New Year's resolutions but have opt for what has been most stable for me; that is, not be restricted to societies version of success. For me success has been to satisfy the spirit of my goals rather than the letter of them. Example is the removal of coffee from my year, some would say I utterly failed, and they are welcome to their opinion, it just isn't relevant to my goals. My success is personal and motivates me no matter how small the goal. I hope you enjoy seeing my progress as much as I have thoroughly been encouraged by it all.

Running

I had a running goal of a 5k in under half an hour, I ran the 5k, but due to it being combined with a marksmanship competition, it was far from the half hour half of the goal. I joined the Knight's Cross Country team in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. They inspire me every week of season and off season. I remember the first week of running with them, we were to run a warm up mile (previously my best run was round 1.3 miles), 6 half mile repeats (that is we ran a half mile, rest for 2 or 3 minutes, run another half mile), then a cool down mile. If you kept count that was 5 miles during the practice. I was slow and only ended up logging 4 miles, but that was 3 miles further than any other day I'd ever done. In my book anything that is 400% improvement is AWESOME! I think the longest day on the 2015 season was 6 miles in practice, but the most brutal day for me was the day of the timed mile. I warmed up with 1 mile before the team arrived, did their 1 mile warm up, 1 mile timed, 1 mile cool down. Because, again, I'm slower than the team it seemed that I didn't get chances to stop running and breath, but I didn't give up. That was my personal goal, to never quit, no matter what. It burned, let it, I never quit.

Facebook and Twitter

I made the goal of staying off Facebook and Twitter for a whole year. That one was the easiest of all my goals, literally because I didn't have to do anything to maintain the goal. I loved it, it was awesome! I've logged back in on Facebook but hardly go on there, I turned off the notifications so that they wouldn't drive me nuts. I have Messenger, and that's been interesting. I wish people could see how much they chat each other instead of actually verbally speaking. You can tell me all day how you could survive a month without social media, but until you DO IT, then you are all talk and no walk. Are you going to talk the talk or can you stand to walk the walk?

Coffee

No caffeine for the year wasn't one I kept up, I did back off the amount a lot, but not a 100% purge from my life. I have no regrets with that one. I'm happy with my current consumption of coffee. But I'll say this of going off of caffeine for a while, I realized what addiction is and what it means to break it off.  Migraines, weakness, cravings, the whole deal, and it was amazing to discover what it feels like to be addiction free! Now, coffee, soda, teas, it is a choice a decision based on my mind instead of an impulse or "need" for the hit. Caffeine is again effective for a stimulant rather than just a taste.

Reading and Praying

My goals for reading my Bible and Praying more were successful! I am thankful for those goals, and will always be working on them. I not have a print out that allows me to color in bubbles when I read each chapter in my Bible because I don't like trying to read "straight through the Bible in a year", I'd rather soak up the word than blow through it. If you can read that fast and absorb the Truths, then that's epic! But I wonder how many do it for the bragging rights of "I read the Bible in a year, can you?" instead of trudging through a book and digging in deep to grow. Grow your roots deep, seek the deepest water, then you can weather the roughest storms.

Writing

I had a goal of writing and keeping a journal for the year. I did! I was and am soooooo happy about my progress and consistency. I was given a journal for my 24th birthday this year and I've been using it as a "convictions" journal. So when I am convicted about something, for example needing to be more consistent with my prayer life I'll write it in my journal with a date. Hopefully as I go through the year I will be able to go back and read the convictions and see how God has grown me in them.

Happy Valentines Day!

"I am my beloved's,

and his desire is for me."

Song of Solomon 7:10

I don't want to rock the boat,

I mean to sink it.

~ Andy Mineo

2015 DR Discipleship Trip Day: 5

Location: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Lazy Jessie today...I got up and Andrew and Knepps had already finished laundry and breakfast was set out and everyone was up...wow...it was weird...but nice to sleep late.

After breakfast we sing for a while then started our first (half) real study on I Thessalonians. I say half study only because it was under 2 hours long. It was very good though!! After the study we went out for lunch at Barra Payan. Best sandwiches and juices ever. Seriously.

It was here that Mr. R got a call about Jenn's tests. They've not been done in time for results to come before they would have to fly. So the likelihood of her coming is rapidly dwindling.

In the lovely humid and hot streets of Santo Domingo we walk back to our apartment and by the time we arrive we're beat. All of us ladies go to our beautifully air conditioned room and lay on the cold tile as if we were dead bodies. This sparks ideas about pranking Dominicans.

Our prank:
Run near Dominicans, drop to the ground, outline each other with chalk as a dead body, jump up, and run away to the next group of Dominicans until the city of Santo Domingo has like 20 chalk outlines.

See, the Dominicans would never do such a thing because they'd never be so shameless as to do it, it would undermine their need to appear proper and powerful.

We laid on the floor probably 45 minutes total as each went and showered as the wanted to move from the cool floor. Janie explored the house to find the toilet paper, this was very helpful to know about.

It was while we were "chilling" on the floor that Mr. R came to notify us that he would be going with Patrick and Emanuel to get 42ish pounds of coffee to bring home. Yes. 42 pounds. Of coffee. Café. 42 pounds of coffee.

When the guys came back we again broke into two groups, one went to get souvenirs and the other went to the church to have WiFi and/or practice with the church band. I was in the group that went to the church. But before we went we (me, Rogers, Knepps, Andrew, Connor, and Josh) had our own jam session.

We started with hymns, then it got silly....

Video by: Connor

After this we wanted to do something more serious...we wanted to do something more patriotic on our beloved country's birthday, so we sang our national anthem. First we sang it in a minor key, and discovered we are actually surprisingly quite good at singing minor keys with harmonies and all such nifty additions to music. So then we sang it in it's major key...then in typical American fashion we went out on our balcony and sang it like it was meant to be sung.

Happy Birthday America!

We sang in minor key,
We sang in major key,
And on the balcony.

When we finished singing it was time to head over to the church. The walk was less hot this time and since we were a smaller group it was faster...well that we didn't have as far to go was helpful too. The church looked awesome in it's new colors. It was so fun to walk in and realize that what was meant to be a blessing to the church is really a blessing to us.

Being at the church is also nice because it has WiFi, which leads to my last thought for tonight's blog post.

We are leaving Santo Domingo on Monday. This means that TOMORROW (Sunday) is the last day for the next FIVE (5) days for the team to have WiFi or get calls. So if you want to contact your kids, you must do so tonight and/or tomorrow night.

After that we'll have a chance to get wifi a bit again, but not as consistently as we have been for this first 6 days.

love,
Jessie Bear

Proverbs 16:3

"Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established."