19 days...

In 19 short days, I will hit a major milestone in my life. I will turn thirty years old. It's hard to believe this is already here when I feel like I just turned 20 a few moments ago. As I mentioned before in the blog, thirty has me really thinking. It has me thinking about the things I wanted to accomplish by thirty, taking stock of what I have, in reality, accomplished, and what I hope to accomplish in the next year of my life. I am one of those people that wakes up every day hoping to be better than I was the day before in whatever aspects I can. I try to make sure I am staying true to my priorities and that I am constantly working on being closer to the image of Christ. I don't always achieve this and I often fall flat on my face to be honest, but I don't want to ever be okay with that and stop pursuing the new/fresh/better me.

One of the projects I have taken on for my 30th year is something I am calling "My 30 at 30" project. I am choosing 30 things that I want to really work on/change in my 30th year and am going to stay accountable to get them accomplished or at least worked on. We all say something every single year in our resolutions that never get done so I am using this time to treat this as a MUST DO list. I am in full belief that if we really want something, we will do it and not until. That being said, my list is full of things that I have been wanting to do for years but have never really committed to and I am using my 30th year as a jumping off point for actually getting these things worked on.

Some of them are personal and won't be shared completely on the blog, some of them are smaller and just need to be a breaking or creating of habits, and some of them are paramount to me being the healthiest I can be in every aspect and must be committed to beyond what I have ever been before. I would tell you at any given point if you asked that my first priority in life is my relationship with Jesus. I would follow that up with my relationship with my Husband. My third priority, I would tell you is my health. On and on the list goes sounding oh so noble and correct. I would tell all of those things but what the reality would be is that I want my first priority to be my relationship with Jesus. I want my second priority to be my relationship with Anthony. I want my third priority to be my health and relationship with my self. Are those things true?

NO!

It goes more something like this:

1. Facebook
2. Television Shows
3. Eating what I want
4. Career
5. Worrying about all of the priorities that aren't getting paid attention to.

As you can see, I have some work to do! I think if we were all very honest, we say that things are a priority but often times, they just aren't. In our minds, hearts, and souls..they really are important but not until they are suffering unfortunately. I have decided that to start this project, that is the place to begin. My priorities are very simple yet they are not being paid attention to.

So...

I am starting at the very beginning, a very good place to start! As I said before, my first priority is (I want it to be) my relationship with Jesus. This doesn't just mean going through spiritual motions and doing meaningless rituals to feel better about my relationship with Christ. It means legitimately making it the first thing in my life every single day.

Now you may ask yourself what that looks like to me. For me, it is a fairly simple equation.

Matthew 6:33 says "Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all of these things will be given to you as well.

I figure if that's true, then the other 29 items on the list will be easy if I am seeking first the Kingdom. Yeah right! Unfortunately, anything we are supposed to do is not designed to build comfort, but character. So the first item on my list is going to stem right from seeking first His Kingdom and His righteousness. If we want to be exactly like someone else, what do we do?

I would think we do the following:

• Spend time with them
• Study them and their character
• Spend time with those that know them
• Act out what they do

Since this is true, I decided my first step of spending time with HIM will be my prayer life. We all, as Christians need time with our heavenly Father. Not just to list the many things we need help with although that is okay too but to just BE with Him! I decided that each step of my thirty at thirty will be written in the same manner of committing to do something concrete and solid so that I am not feeling tempted to "technically" do anything.

So...without further ado...

1. In my 30th year, I will spend my first moments in prayer each morning when I wake up and my last moments of my day before bed in prayer.

I do not want to put a time limit on my prayer life just for the sake of keeping it fluid so that as I grow more in discipline to spend time with Jesus, that I don't watch the clock. I would just like it to naturally progress. The main idea in this endeavor is to make sure I make Jesus my first thought of the day and my last thought of the day and spending time with Him will help me be more like HIM!

Let the games begin!