Some words that keep bouncing around for 2012:

Serve with gladness, dig in, relationships, do it, produce

I think it comes down to do something not just talking about it, do it with a humble heart and right attitude and gladness, include other people and produce something lasting and meaningful.

When the girls were younger, our little mantra was to obey all the way, right away and with a happy spirit - TRUTH!

What’s your theme for 2012?

Each year, Brook and i take stock of the past year and look ahead to what the next year holds. We name our years according to what we feel God has for us. We’ve had the year of traction, the year of growth, in10tional and now…Movin’ on Up!

Last year was a year of intention. It was our goal to be more purposeful on connecting with people, using our gifts & talents and just stepping out in general. In some aspects, we didn’t do quite as well as we’d have liked and in other aspects it was far more than what we ever could have expected. God truly moves in mysterious ways…

Which leads us to 2011, the year of Movin’ on Up! i considered Next Level, New Season or Breakthru. Brook just popped Movin on Up! off the top of her head and it stuck. i truly believe this will be a year of breakthru to a new season, a new level for us personally, in ministry, in work, in learning and in influence.

It’s been a hard road moving to Virginia Beach…hard but good. We had a level of influence and a strong network around us in Ohio and then a great season at Hillsong. In both of those seasons, we were blessed with amazing friends and some great opportunities in life and ministry. Since we’ve moved here, it’s felt like trudging thru peanut butter at times. God has truly been our Rock and firm foundation. He has truly been our constant & strength. Not that we’re a step away from backsliding or losing it, it’s just been a waaaaay different season than we expected or have experienced before.

It may be a new and different season from what we were expecting, but God is good and with us and in us. That’s what makes this next year so exciting. We’re stronger, wiser and more ready for what God has for us.

i like to pick a verse to go with our theme and i think this one sums it up nicely:

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Phil 3:7-14