I’m three days behind again; maybe I’ll claim I thought it was February 31st?
1) Read through my Bible this year;
the entire thing, cover to cover, reading at least a chapter every
single day.
I’m on page 310 (I Chronicles 1:1) of
949,
or 32.6% finished, not including what I’ll read this afternoon. That
puts my average at just over 5 pages per day, finishing on July 5. I’m
upping the ante. I want to finish the entire Bible before May
23,
my wedding day. I’ll need to average just under 8 pages per day to get
there, but it’s doable. Way doable. And the reading I’ve done so far has
given me a lot of insight, like I Kings 14:8. It says that David kept
God’s commandments and followed
Him with all his heart… so they’re two different things; not that you
can follow Him and not keep His commandments, but it’s possible to keep
His commandments halfheartedly. I want to be like David and do both!
2) Use my credit card whenever
possible but never carry a balance.
Haven’t had any problems with that - I’ve made vast improvements in my
money management using a Google spreadsheet and a (sort-of) zero-based
budget.
Spending is down, saving is up, and I’m paying down my debt at an
accelerated rate.
3) Contribute the maximum amount to my
Roth IRA account.
Done. $500 in for the month of February. $4,500 left this year at $500
per month means I don’t even have to contribute in December!
4) Build a three-month emergency
fund.
Done. I cheated. My fiancé, who’d done slightly better with her money
than I have
recently, had a
well-established emergency fund, and we spent a lot of time and effort
getting our finances - including things like auto and renter’s insurance
- combined into a single set of joint accounts. We did retain our
personal checking accounts to use for our allowance… it’s hard to buy
surprise gifts when your significant other sees the credit card
statements!
5) Get my two-mile run time under 15
minutes.
Last month I had made very little progress towards this goal, since I
was fighting what I thought was illio-tibial band syndrome. Turns out
that while my IT band was irritated at first, it had healed but the
muscular atrophy I suffered during the healing process caused my left
kneecap to become unstable. Some new physical therapy stretches and a
good deal of walking to strengthen the muscles, and I’m jogging and
playing basketball for the first time in months. Definitely an
improvement.
6) Finish the Navigators’ “Design for
Discipleship” series of Bible studies.
This week I’m taking a break from the chapter-per-week schedule I’ve
been on to review Book 3 before I charge into Book 4. I’ve been meaning
to go back and review all three of the books I’ve done so far, but just
haven’t done it, and a wise
man
suggested to me that I should do it this week. So I am.
7) Blog at least once a week, plus a
monthly update on my resolutions.
Good to go this month, except that the only post I made during week one
of February was my January resolutions update… so I guess that doesn’t
count. But six posts in 28 days isn’t bad; not including these updates,
my average for the year is one post every five days. Hopefully in March
I’ll remember to post the monthly update before the month is actually
over!