closer to heaven

I just noticed that this is my 500th post. Crazy. But then I guess if you consider that I've been blogging for 4 years now, and that probably half of those posts were published within that very first year, 500 suddenly doesn't seem all the impressive. I have a goal this year to be better at blogging. After all, this blog is my journal. I'd like to be better at writing in my journal for 2011. Actually I need to be better at a lot of things. I want to be more organized, and git rid of stuff. I want to lose weight, and get back into shape. I want to cook more, and eat out less. I want to be a better wife, and a better mother. There are so many things that I want to improve upon, that I'm afraid I'd just be setting myself up for failure if I make my list too long and try to make too many changes at once.
John and I discussed our goals and resolutions for 2011 on our way home from Utah, and came up with a pretty good family motto for the upcoming year...2011 - Closer to Heaven. The theme this year for the youth of the church is the 13th Article of Faith. John and I both especially love the last line that states, if there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praisworthy, we seek after these things. We promised each other that we were going to take our spirituality up a notch this year. I think that this is the only goal that I'm really going to focus on. I feel like if I can strengthen my relationship with my Savior, that everything else will either fall into place, or drop out of my life. Together we decided that if it's not virtuous, or lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, then we want nothing to do with it.
As I was looking over the hundreds of photographs that I took over Christmas, I fell in love with this one of Ruby playing Mary in the Nativity. It's not really in focus, the composition and exposure aren't great...but it's a perfect picture of how I want my life to be-completely centered and focused on Christ. You'll notice that also in the picture is a Christmas tree, a Santa Claus, and some toy soldier nutcrackers (representing the world), but that they all take a back seat to what's most important. I don't want to become so caught up in the spiritual aspects of life, that I omit entirely some of the secular things that make life fun and enjoyable. Of course, those things will perpetually pop up in my life's pictures, but my goal is that they remain in the background, as Christ invariably prevails front and center.
So here's to 2011...and getting closer to Heaven.