Not Alone Series: Growing in the Now

Welcome back to the Not Alone Series! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and start to 2014! 

For those of you who are just now joining us, welcome! The Not Alone Series was created with the purpose of connecting with other Catholic, single ladies in order to grow in solidarity and community! More explanation can be found here :)

Truth be told, I'm really not a fan of resolution posts...but my distaste likely comes from me rarely (if ever) following through with resolutions. Ugh. However, I did grow up a bit during 2013, so I'll bite the bullet and set some goals for change and growth in 2014.

"If it doesn't challenge you, it won't change you."
...such wise words from a work-out video trainer....

It's an understatement to say that I've been challenged to grow the past few months. As I wrote yesterday, I haven't been entirely open about what I've been going through with support raising (though I intend to write about it soon!) but what I can say is that my eyes have been opened to how completely, overwhelmingly prideful I am.

Seriously.

Over and over again I have been humbled.
That has been the theme of these past several months, mostly because in order to get anywhere, I had to humble myself and ask for the Lord's help.
Then I had to humble myself and ask my boss for help and advice.
Then I had to humble myself and ask people who's opinions I hold dear for help.

It was so. challenging.

BUT!
It was challenging and therefore it changed me for the better.

While I've been knocked down a peg or ten and learned humility in my work and support raising, that's not the case in every other part of my life. I was meditating on this in adoration and suddenly it clicked: even though humility has been the theme of the past few months, why shouldn't it be the theme of my year?

So there we have it, folks. Humility is what I need to work on now, so that's what I'm focusing on.

Additionally, upon using Jen Fulwiler's Saint's Name Generator, I was given......

St. Michael the Archangel! I didn't initially see any significance (ya know, he isn't the patron saint of engaged couples or anything...) but especially since choosing to focus on humility...oh man. He's a goood one. :)

So that's all I've got friends...I'm excited to be back to regular blogging and can't wait to see what everyone else will be striving for this year!

Link up at Jen's!

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Next week's topic:

Beauty

What does authentic beauty mean to you and how can you be better at believing/accepting that you are, in fact, beautiful?

January 28th: "Guess who's engaged!"
Do you struggle with balancing the sting of hearing about yet another proposal with genuine excitement? What emotions come into play? What virtues do you enlist to deal with it all?

February 4th: Chastity: A Choice
Living chastely (not just abstinence) is a choice. Have you ever had to defend your choice to live out chastity? If not, why do you choose chastity.

February 11th: If only I knew then what I know now...
What would you tell your former self about being single if given the chance? What have you learned that you wish you could tell your younger self?