“No, this is not the beginning of a new chapter in my life; this is the beginning of a new book! That first book is already closed, ended, and tossed into the seas; this new book is newly opened, has just begun! Look, it is the first page! And it is a beautiful one!”
– C. JoyBell

Happy 1st day of June! It really is hard to believe it is already June of 2016. How in the world did that happen? I guess we were having too much fun, huh?

Well, a recap on the month of May, about halfway through I set a goal to try to blog daily. I only missed 2 days…and that was because of wedding craziness for my sister-in-law. But it’s a new month, we’re getting in to Summer, and now is the perfect opportunity to go back and refresh myself on the goals for improvements I made at the beginning of the year. So, here they are and here’s my progress:

1.Be less anxious- go to God more- during the good and the bad.
– Honestly, and this is a HUGE answer to prayer and praise to God. I feel like this is one that I have improved on the most. I used to have serious anxiety issues. I would get overwhelmed with life (especially in stressful times of times when I had a lot on my plate) and I would allow myself to shut down and just not do anything. Unfortunately this would create a cycle of burnout. I’d be on shut-down mode for about 2-3 weeks, then wake up and get to super work on things. But then, even though I was caught up, I’d be burned out again. I made this goal for myself at the new year, and literally…day of, things started happening that started stressing me out and pushing me to shut down. I remember, when I went to bed that evening (Jan 1, 2016, SUPER early in the morning) just telling God I couldn’t do it anymore, that He had to deal with all the craziness going on…but the anxiety didn’t go away. Then, I thought, “you know, craziness is always going to happen, do I expect God to whisk it away every time? Is the focus of my prayers on the right thing, or should I be praying about my anxiety rather than the circumstances causing my anxiety?” I stopped and prayed for God to remove my anxiety and help me to trust Him. Within seconds, every muscle in my body relaxed and I finally fell asleep. I truly believe God performed a miracle in me that night. My anxiety levels are at an all-time, 7-year low. This is not to say that everything is rainbows and butterflies or that I never worry, but I’ve stopped focusing on the circumstances and I’ve started trying to focus on obeying God’s command of “Do not be anxious…”

2.Fall more in love with Christ, grow in the desire for everything I do to please Him.
– Ugh…I deserve an F on my goals report card for this one. Not that I don’t love God, but I feel like I’ve allowed myself to become distracted by everyday life or exhaustion. I’ve traded too many days of an “extra five minutes” in bed for time with God. This is something I feel God nudging my heart on. I think this is one of my goals I’m going to focus on more this 2nd half of the year…It’s not that I have to do this, but I want to. I want to love and please the God who sacrificed everything for me.

“Do you know that nothing you do in this life will ever matter, unless it is about loving God and loving the people he has made?” – Francis Chan
“We never grow closer to God when we just live life. It takes deliberate pursuit and attentiveness.” -Francis Chan

3. For David and I to grow in unity together and in God.
– I feel like we’ve grown together quite a bit this year. After almost 5 years of marriage we are finally falling into sync with each other. We’ve always referred to ourselves as #TeamGeiger but this year is one of the first where I feel like we have both worked to support each other in the good and bad, and in Christ. I never understood when people said “I love you more than the day I married you”…but it’s true. The more you work through the hard times and work to learn your spouse daily, the more you grow together and learn to value and truly love them…not just the mushy gushy love, but the drop everything, no matter what, for them love.

4. Read and write more, watch less TV.
– I feel like I’ve improved on this whole-heartily. I still have my shows- Castle, Elementary, Criminal Minds, Blue Bloods (clearly I’m a crime fan), but I watch those shows FAR less often than I have in the past. I’m reading a lot more. I’ve already made it halfway through my Goodreads goal for the year and I’m working on reading a few (and by a few I mean 9) more books to hopefully finish over the summer. Obviously, I’ve been writing more, especially with this blog. But this was also inspired by a request that was made of me at my church. I was asked to help write the script for our church’s VBS movie. It seemed overwhelming at first, but once I started it was incredible. It was like watching a movie in my head. I so thoroughly enjoyed it that I decided to pick back up on my blog and to push myself to be consistent and serious about it- which I feel like I have finally have begun to do.

5. Be more organized and disciplined- be content with what I have and become more generous.
– Again…bleh. I feel like I’ve begun learning to be more content and generous with what I have- especially when it comes to time- but I can’t say that I’ve become super organized or super disciplined. It’s a work in progress, but what matters is that I’m pushing forward.

So, I challenge you, think back to your goals for the year and reflect on your progress. Celebrate the growth and pick up where you’ve slacked. The year’s not over yet, people!

“The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become- because He made us. He invented us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be…It is when I turn to Christ, when I give up myself to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own.” – C.S. Lewis