Goals for 2007

Now is the time when many people are making and setting goals for the new year. Our family is no different. At the beginning of last year, my husband gathered us all into the living room for a family meeting. He pulled out our large, dry erase board and wrote down each of our names and then he made a category for "Family Goals". It was a wonderful time of discussion and sharing, and was an opportunity for each of us to get a glimse into what each other was thinking.

As I look back at them today, I see that we didn't reach all of them, and I'm sure that we will add them back onto the list for this year. One, in particular, that we had listed was to get involved with a community outreach of some kind. Personally, I'm excited about this goal and disappointed in myself that we let it slip away. However, I'm not going to let that stop me from succeeding this year. I have some ideas rolling around in my head, ones that I think the kids will probably enjoy as well as gain a blessing from.

Maybe you and your family are already involved in community volunteering. I would love to hear what you do or have done in the past! Perhaps you have thought about getting involved in some way, but didn't know where to look for opportunities. Well, try typing into a search engine, the name of your city followed by the words "Volunteer Bureau". Also, you could try "Volunteer Opportunities". Be sure to include your own city afterwards or you'll get hits from places where you couldn't physically be of service.


On a slightly different note, this is also an excellent time to look back on our Spiritual lives as individuals and examine whether or not we have grown in the Lord. Sometimes I think we don't want to look at ourselves in this area because the Devil has a way of making us feel very discouraged in our daily walk. However, let me encourage you today to think on these words from the Apostle Paul. "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the pize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14

Paul is encouraging us here to forget what is behind us and press toward that which is ahead. Ahead of us is Jesus and our heavenly home.

Satan will throw obsticle after obsticle at us, trying with all his might, to keep us from reaching the mark, but we can't allow him to keep us from it. We can't dwell on our past mistakes, we MUST look forward and not allow failure to be our guide. Now is the time to lean heavily on God, remembering that "I can do all things through Christ which stregtheneth me." Philippians 4:13

As God was for Paul, He will be for you... He will be with you through every trial, every tribulation as well as every happiness as long as we ask Him. So let me gently remind you, that as you are laying out plans and making new resolutions for the coming months ahead; don't forget to invite God to be the foundation of those plans!

"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;" Ephesians 6:18