Monday, January 12, 2009

Goals and Resolutions

I was going to take a vacation from the blog this week so I can attend to some other responsibilities. Then I got a lovely compliment on the blog from a friend. So I couldn't very well leave it now.
I wanted to take a break to work on my previously mentioned Etsy site. I also want to dig deep into a couple of Bible Studies I'm working through. I'm reading the book of Job. If you aren't struggling right now, anything I say about it will sound cliche. If you are having perhaps a harder time than you've ever had in your life you will understand about finding insights where they had previously been undiscovered. You will know what it means to have Job as your friend and to struggle to stay on top of the dirt that continues to fall on you by the wheelbarrow full.
It was as I was thinking about Job and his daily effort to remain faithful to God when I realized something about New Year's Resolutions. We seem to think all is lost if we've failed in our goals by this time of year. But God doesn't work like that. Every single day, every single minute of every day is a chance to start over, a chance to grow, a chance to change. So I finally decided what to do about my goals for this year.
Rather than being about content or outcome, my goals at the moment are focused on process. If I lose focus, I acknowledge that and come back to my relationship with God, which is at the center of everything. I'm not starting the year with an organized life and a perfectly tailored health plan. I'm just checking in with God every day to see what He wants me to accomplish, fix, or change in my life.
New Year's Resolutions, one day at a time.

2 comments:

Dianne Adams said...

Thanks for the perspective from a fellow struggler. Are you using a particular study guide or just working through Job on your own?

LeAnne Benfield Martin said...

Nancy,

I like this idea. I'm watching another friend of mine go through a Job time in her life and it makes me dizzy to think about where she has come from and where she will have to go from here. I think our goal should be to focus on God, because He is what gets us through the difficult times--just like He did for Job.