I know having a “one word” goal for a new year is something a number of people do. At least I see people online talking about it. I’m not sure I ever did this before last year.  Last year I wanted to focus on my parenting so I made my word for 2013 to be “Intentional“.

However, I’ve honestly thought 2014 should be a continuation of that focus… “intentional – part 2“?

But then I got to thinking that while having good intentions is important, sometimes… many times having “good intentions” is where a lot of things end. Right?

It’s one thing to have “good intentions” but those don’t mean a whole lot unless they are followed through. Here’s a good example. A year ago- about this time I was looking for a place to take my son who wanted to try making pottery on a spinning wheel.

The only place I knew of that might have offered something close to this activity (making your own sculpture) was closed temporarily. I’m not sure if I ever checked back with them, but I know I discussed the likely hood that we might not be able to do this activity (due to his age).  I asked him  if we could go to a pottery painting place. I knew of a couple places like that.  He accepted.  And guess what?

I never followed through.  So much for good intentions.

While I have a number of good changes (or intentions) for 2014 that I plan on implementing, and I’ll share many of these with you soon, I wondered if there was even a “one” word description that was worth the bother of narrowing down. So like most things in my life, I prayed about it and the word that almost immediately came to mind was this one…

… faithful.

And that was before I really realized how ironic it was that last year I started out to be “intentional” and yet ended the year “unfaithful” – at least with my plans to follow through with my son’s request. I’m sure there were other things I was unfaithful with too.

My Word & 2014 Plans

“Faithful” is my buzz word for the new year – as in I need to work at being faithful.

Below I share my list of 2014 changes:

#1 – I picked out an old 3 ring binder and gave it a new use: Our Homeschooling Bible & Discipleship Notebook (for the boys).

• I created this free printable pdf of all the verses I could find in Proverbs that referenced “the fear of the LORD” – because God gives us so much wisdom in these verses.

At the end of the list of verses I added Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”  –  I’m sharing! You too can download and print this free printable here.

• This year I’m planning to read through the bible with the boys while they either (a) read along with me and/or (b) color in the Good & Evil coloring books I bought them.

• I’m not going by a strict schedule though, I did pick this schedule to use. It breaks down the books of the bible per day like this:  Mondays “The Law” (Genesis, etc), Tuesdays “Historical” books… and so on.  I printed this out and placed it in a sheet protector.

• I also printed out our church’s weekly prayer request list and put it in a sheet protector.

• I may add a “ministry”section in there to keep me accountable for being active in teaching the boys to be “thinking of others” and “serving others”. I’ve been looking into affordable options for sponsoring a child too (more on that later).

#2 – We have new charts to teach discipline and accountability in the areas of personal hygiene and chores, getting school work done, and regular physical exercise. I got these charts free from this source.

(Still in the talks)  #3 –  My husband and I are talking about starting the boys on an allowance based on chores completed. The money would go towards anything they “want” to buy for themselves or others (birthday gifts) as well as some into savings and some to church (tithe) and towards helping sponsor a child, if we do that.

#4 & #5 – Start a regular “family game night” on Fridays. I figure once we get use to having a set day and time for this it will be easier to reach this next goal: To have people over (fellowship)! We’ve really fallen off the wagon in this area. So maybe with this plan we’ll be prepared mentally and otherwise to plan to have friends over once a month.

#6 – Give each of the boys a night out with just one parent. Since we have only two kids this would be easy. While it’s Jack’s turn to go out with me, Brendan and dad can do something together. This way if the boys ever need to talk with one of us alone he has that time.

Don’t forget your free Proverbs printable here.  I plan to have more free parenting printables down the road.

Please feel free to share your 2014 plans with us in the comments!