As we move into a fresh new year, I’m acutely aware of good intentions and the frustrations we feel when things don’t go to plan. Part of the frustration comes from a feeling of wasting time, or not accomplishing what we wanted when we wanted it by.

I’m so painfully aware of the passing of time right now. I love this photo we snapped in November of the Museé D’orsay’s clock face from inside. If you look closely, you can see Sacre Coeur and the breathtaking city of Paris – full of life, comings and goings, love and heartbreak, birth and death, all through the lens of time, as she ticks steadily onward.

Our plans and intentions were to come back to Colorado on Thursday. That didn’t happen. The flight was cancelled due to the weather. And the next flight they could get us on was Saturday. However the snow also started falling Friday morning in Nashville, which, while beautiful, looked like even more altered plans.

Keep in mind this trip started with me coming down with a terrible stomach bug on Christmas day, the morning we were supposed to fly out. Two days, and plenty of ginger ale and jello later, we finally made it out to Tennessee.

Despite all the changes, delays, cancellations and frustrations, we were able to make it home Saturday, and we enjoyed some precious time with family and friends in Tennessee, including the incredible and generous Mike and Christina Stainbrook who allowed us to stay for two extra days in their lovely Nashville home when our flight was cancelled.

One thing our delayed departure affected was my acupuncture appointments. I’ve been doing acupuncture since November, but find myself frustrated by the times I’ve had to miss treatment. Two weeks in November when we were out of the country, once over Christmas, and now the first week in January. Also because I was so sick over Christmas I wasn’t able to take my supplements, chinese herbal tea, or track my temperature. While these are not huge things, they all contribute to my feelings of discouragement when I feel like I’m not doing everything I could be to help myself conceive.

Ultimately I’ll do what we all so when we fail and things don’t go as expect, I’ll hit the reset button for tomorrow. There’s a beautiful quote from Anne of Green Gables, books that fed my soul when i was younger, and films that I was lucky enough to watch again with sweet friend Christina over our snow days:

“Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?”

So may that encourage us all friends, if your new year’s resolutions aren’t quite going to plan. Tomorrow is a new day, with no mistakes in it yet.

Speaking of resolutions, one last thought, we haven’t done resolutions in a few years, the past two years I love using a friend’s (Lore Ferguson Wilbert)  list of questions to think through the previous year, and the year to come. I’ll post them below if you’d like to copy and use them. Set aside an afternoon or day for them. I promise it’s worth it.

New Year’s Questionnaire

1. If the last year could be summed up in one word, what would it be?
2. What are two or three major themes that kept occurring?
3. What did I accomplish this year that I am most proud of?
4. What do I feel I should have been acknowledged for, but wasn’t?
5. What disappointments or regrets did I experience this year?
6. What was missing from my year as I look back?
7. What were some major life lessons I learned this year?

Declare 2016 completely over, thank God for what He accomplished, His faithfulness, and the things He did in me.

8. What would I like to see happen in 2017?
9. What struggle or obstacle would I like to see overcome?
10. What new territory needs to be explored spiritually, physically, emotionally?
11. What are some things that MUST be done in order to move my life forward?
12. What do I want the theme of 2017 to be?
13. What do I want to ask for and pray actively for in 2017?
14. What’s one thing I can do this year to increase my enjoyment of God?
15. What’s the most humanly impossible thing I will ask God to do this year?
16. What’s the single most important thing I could do to improve the quality of my family life this year?
17. In which spiritual discipline do I most want to make progress this year, and what will I do about it?
18. What is the single biggest time-waster in my life, and what will I do about it this year?
19. What is the most helpful new way I could strengthen our church?
20. For whose salvation will I pray most fervently this year?
21. What’s the most important way I will, by God’s grace, try to make this year different from last year?
22. What one thing could I do to improve my prayer life this year?
23. What single thing that I plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? In eternity?
24. What’s the most important decision I need to make this year?
25. What area of my life most needs simplifying, and what’s one way I could simplify in that area?
26. What’s the most important need I feel burdened to meet this year?
27. What habit would I most like to establish this year?
28. Who is the person I most want to encourage this year?
29. What is my most important financial goal this year, and what is the most important step I can take toward achieving it?
30. What’s the single most important thing I could do to improve the quality of my work life this year?
31. What’s one new way I could be a blessing to my pastor (or to another who ministers to me) this year?
32. What book, in addition to the Bible, do I most want to read this year?
33. What one thing do I most regret about last year, and what will I do about it this year?
34. What single blessing from God do I want to seek most earnestly this year?
35. In what area of your life do I most need growth, and what will I do about it this year?
36. What’s the most important trip I want to take this year?
37. What skill do I most want to learn or improve this year?
38. To what need or ministry will I try to give an unprecedented amount this year?
39. What one biblical doctrine do I most want to understand better this year, and what will I do about it?
40. If those who know me best gave me one piece of advice, what would they say?
41. Would they be right? What will I do about it?
42. What’s the most important new item I want to buy this year?
43. In what area of my life do I most need change, and what will I do about it this year?
44. How is my prayer life? Is it marked more by duty or delight?
45. Is my approach to the Lord one of grateful communion or mere rigid formality?
46. Why don’t I pray more consistently, earnestly, passionately and expectantly?