Happy New Year from DIYtheGoodLife.  As we begin this new year, it holds many promises of challenges and expectation.  We all have all our plans and best intentions for the year.  However, there are already deadlines for us to meet, expectations on our time.  Regardless of how today, the first day of the year, ends, the fact remains that we still have our life to live and this year will likely not be all that different from last year.

What we from DIYtheGoodLife bring into this year, and hope to encourage you to take with you as well, is that the destination is no more important than the journey.  If our goal is a vacation, to get a promotion, lose weight or serve a developing nation, it doesn’t matter if you accomplish your goal while the journey there is plagued with frustration, bitterness and sadness.  Every moment of our lives count.

Over the Christmas break we drove up to my in-laws house and, true to form, the LA traffic was alive and well.  My wife and I had been having some great conversation when my son noticed we weren’t moving very quickly on the I-15.  He began to complain.  In the past I would have just become angry with him as well as the traffic.  This time, however, I tried something different.  I challenged him with a question:

Me: “What are we doing right now?  Why are we on this freeway?”
Son: “To go to grandpa’s house.”
Me: “Yes, but what is the point of all of us driving there?”
Son: “To have fun.”
Me: “Right.  And who all is in this car?”
Son: “Our family.”
Me:  “Exactly. We are on this journey together in order to have a good time.  And we can start doing this even now in the middle of traffic.”

My son may or may not have really gotten the point.  He’s 7 years old and very perceptive.  But he did stop complaining and he was able to focus on other things, like asking me unending questions about minecraft.

Sometimes we get wrapped up accomplishing the goal to the extent that we lose ourselves along the way.  The apostle Paul put it this way:

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

How we do everything matters.  Chances are, if you choose to see your change in diet as life-

giving, you’ll be more likely to stick with it, not only losing weight but also having a better outlook on life and a healthier lifestyle overall.  If I choose to see the moments when my children act out as an opportunity to love them, then I’ll probably not lose my temper as much and make more of an effort to understand them.    So as we ring in the new year, let’s all make a personal resolution to enjoy every minute, every cry from our children, every time we get cut off in traffic and every offer of unhealthy food that we decline.  These are the moments that make arriving to our destination not only possible but all the more joyous.