So that is why I made an “End of Year Thoughts and Plans” mini journal.

The second page is mainly for you to reflect on the past year and the first page is to help you plan for 2014.

This year was the first time that I’ve incorporated my family into something like this.  It was a girls morning.  Me and my girls (including my daughter-in-law)!

A simple morning breakfast of toast, granola and of course, tea with some Dunkers from Trader Joe’s. Mmmm, I love those.

After breakfast, we filled out our End Of Year mini journal. I think it would be fun to incorporate a craft as part of our tradition but this year it was just the journal.

When you take the time to reflect on the past, it helps you to make note of the providences of God.

Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits… Psalm 103:2

You can see where you need to let go and let God have his way.

I also added for fun, space for you to write your favorite breakfast, supper and dessert.  It’s always interesting to see how that changes or stays the same over the years.  Plus, when you do it with other family members, you’ll get to see what you make that they love.

Looking ahead and making plans gives you a jumping off point of where to put your focus. You’ll have pinpointed areas of real interest.  Of course, you will have other things that grab your attention in the coming year, but it will give you a starting point.

Click on the link and you will be able to download the mini-journal and you could always change the journal around to add any other ideas you wish.

After filling it out, I would suggest placing the paper in a small binder so it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle and each year you can add another page of your journal to it.

If you’re wondering what you did last year, here are some things I use to trigger the ol’ memory bank.

Photos

Calendar

My blog

May God bless you in the coming year, 2014.

Click here for the End of Year Thoughts and Plans  mini journal.

This scenario that I’m relating to you really happened.  Our family just watched the video “Faith Like Potatoes” about an actual white farmer in South Africa who chose to plant potatoes during one of the worst droughts South Africa had had in years.  Farmers thought he was crazy but he placed his faith in God and rested in that.  When harvest time came, Angus Buchan goes to dig up his potatoes.  Would there be any?  Would they be little puny things?  No!  It was a bumper crop of large beautiful potatoes.

One of my favorite lines in the film is when Angus Buchan says…

“The condition for a miracle is difficulty and the condition for a great miracle is impossibility.”

Romans 8:24-25 is fitting right here.

For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

Beautiful!  And I have nothing to add to that.

Note: I do not necessarily recommend the film Faith Like Potatoes.  Angus Buchan is a very angry man until he gives his heart to the Lord.  Therefore, there are scenes where he is drinking with his buddies.  I do not care for some of Angus’s language nor the way that his wife dresses.  The actors, with their accents, made it a bit difficult to follow along, as well.  I have not read or seen it but there is a book out of the same name that might be better.

Taken from the book The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda