New Year's Resolutions!

Wow... It has been a while since we last posted on our blog! With the new year, we plan to be more diligent in our blog-writing. It's a very exciting project! :)

There have been some changes to our little Branch in Woodstock, Ontario! We now have six active young women in our Branch (4 Laurels, 1 Miamaid, 1 Beehive)! It has been an exciting year for us all as we have experienced the joy of watching our little Branch grow! It has definitely been amazing for me, as one of my great friends, Meghan, was baptized this year, and now joins us on Sundays to worship with us, and frequently attends Branch and Stake activities... It's so nice to have her there with me. Welcome to the family, Meghan!! :)

This morning we all woke up to a brand new year! And we all know what goes hand-in-hand with a brand new year: New Year's resolutions! Sister Dussault taught our lesson in Young Women's class today, and, of course, we learned about setting goals. This morning we talked about setting short-term goals to meet our long-term ones.

After an opening prayer and a lesson on goals, we ripped open the box of New Era, Friend, and Ensign magazines (which I love, love, love), and ... CUT OUT PICTURES FROM THEM?! Okay, to be honest, this was kind of hard for me to do at first: I didn't know if I wanted to cut pictures out of my favourite magazines that I love reading!! However, after a moment or two, and a little chat about how the magazines' material is available on the Internet any ways, we popped out the scissors, and got cutting.

"And what were they cutting, exactly?" you might be asking yourselves. WELL, let me tell you! Sister Krista shared this wonderful idea with us (which she apparently does every year - and I think that's amazing). Every year, she makes a collage of pictures which represent (or remind her of) the goals and resolutions that she set for the coming year! Neat idea, huh??

So the plan was for us to go through these magazines (which contain spiritually uplifting media - perfect for this activity!), and find images and words which represented the goals and resolutions that we had set for this coming year. This was really good for me, actually: I've been trying to set some goals for this coming year, but I wanted to set goals that would help me in the "big picture" - the "grand scheme," or, in other words, goals that will aid me eternally.

While I'm here, and we're talking about goals... I want to share this! I love our Stake President, he's an amazing man, and he loves the youth! This year, at our New Year's Eve Eve (yes, that's two "Eve"s) dance, he spoke to the youth about setting goals which, as I was just saying, would help them eternally. He taught the youth an important method for setting goals. It goes something like this:

1.) Firstly, think of the top five life goals that you have. (This could include getting married in the Temple, serving a mission, going to University, etc.) Write them down on a piece of paper.
2.) Next, write down five smaller goals that you can achieve or work on in the next year which will help you to meet those life time goals. (For example, if one of your life time goals is to serve a mission, one of your smaller goals might be to establish a habit of daily prayer, or scripture study - or both!)
3.) Now, this part is important. Imagine that you only have 6 months left to live. (He explained that this sometimes becomes the case for some people - cancer patients, for example, are sometimes told that they only have a short amount of time left to live.) What sort of things would you want to do in your last six months of living, if you knew you were going to die at the end of those six months? When he said this, I had to take a step back and think about what sorts of things matter enough to me for me to fit them into that six month period. President McBride explained that we don't know when our time is going to be up: we may have six months left to live, decades, or just days. WE. DON'T. KNOW. Looking at this side of things, you may want to change some of your other goals around. Think about what matters most.

Well, we wish you all the best in your New Year's resolutions and goal-making! :) Always remember, no matter how bad you mess up while trying to achieve your goals and keep your resolutions, never. give. up. Always keep going. You're worth it! :)

Happy New Year's! :)

-Kathleen Smith, Woodstock Branch YW's