I was 16 when I began my first job working at Lowe’s Foods in my hometown of Wilkesboro, and one thing I have always done almost every year for my birthday is take the day off. The only times when that hasn’t happen is when my birthday falls on a Sunday (like it did last year). So today, I’m out of the office just enjoying the day to myself until I have a nice dinner with my wife and daughter.

In reflecting on this past year, I’ve had several ups and downs. With a change of diet and the help of medication, I’ve been able to drastically improve my A1C levels and get my Type 2 Diabetesunder control. Unfortunately, I’ve had to switch medications twice due to the awful side effects that my first two medicines caused. Here’s hoping the third time is the charm. One thing I hope to do is exercise more in the hope that perhaps someday I can remove some of the medicines I’m on.

This year also provided two big trips. The first was in July when I went to Montreal / Chateauguay, Quebec, Canada on a mission trip with JHBCYouth. It was my second trip to Canada, but it was a different cultural experience being in the French speaking side of the country. Our group did a lot of good work there and I hope to go back there again soon. The second was right after Christmas when we took MJ to Disney World. It was such a delight to be able to experience everything through her eyes, as she was excited about every princess and character that she met.

This year, I want to find more balance, mostly because I stink at it. I’ve been thinking about this over the past few days after hearing that a mentor of mine passed away unexpectedly. One of the things he taught me as I began in ministry sixteen years ago was to “savor the moments”. I confess, I haven’t done that very well because I’ve spent way too much time doing and not enough time being. I hope to change that this year.

I also want to read more, write more (since I haven’t written a blog post in a while), and focus more on experiences rather than the accumulation of stuff. So here’s to 2017 and cleaning out the clutter in preparation of celebrating when the next birthday changes two digits instead of one.