Boring start to the New Year...

It was a pretty rainy, miserable day here today.  I got up early, went to church and then came home to begin the process of clearing away all of the holiday debris until next year.

Normally we leave the Christmas tree up through Nick's birthday but I had just about had enough of it by today.  It is now out by the curb and most of the furniture is moved back to where it belongs.  The outside lights still have to come down but that will have to wait until it is actually dry outside.

I had an interesting conversation with a friend the other day and while discussing a situation I was involved with with another friend, she was like "You need to cut some of these people out of your life!" and I believe that she is right.  This year, I am no longer going to sit back and let people make me feel bad about myself or manipulate me so that they can get their way.  Someone tried to tell me the other day that I was a bad person...actually, no, that's not accurate, they were trying to tell me that they were BETTER than me, a better Christian than me because they open their kitchen up to people and show them how to make things and I don't.  Fine, I don't deny it; I don't enjoy teaching people how to cook.  I don't believe that it is something that is mentioned in the Bible or something that I should have to feel bad about.  

So I don't.

Jenn, over at My Kids are My World wrote a great post about not making resolutions but about making 2011 about forgiveness.  I think that is a great idea and something that we all need to do more of.  This year I don't want to waste time feeling bad about me or bad about the people who let me down - but by the same token, I am also going to make 2011 about eliminating toxic people from my life.  

Some people are easy to phase out, others, not so much.  When you live 600 miles away from someone, it's easy, five miles? Not so much.  I can only hope that I can do it without malice, without making it in to a "you did this, so I'm doing that" type of situation.  I hope that I can have GRACE when people do not do things my way or perhaps don't do what I want them to do.  Because really, that's not them doing something wrong, that's ME being SELFISH.

So let's add not being selfish to the forgiveness theme, too.  What about you?  Remember, NOT a resolution but what can you do to make your life better this year where people in your life are concerned?