This morning at devotions, the leader asked us to think about our resolutions, or goals for this year. I had given a little thought to this, but having to put pen to paper at the direction of someone else caused me to think a little more about what I wanted for this year.
As I got a little more quiet and focused I was reminded of a verse that we had been considering in devotions recently: you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart soul, mind, and strength.
This verse has been a guiding principle in my life ever since I went to a seminar that used this verse to analyze the worship style of one’s congregation. The teacher helped us to see that every congregation works from one of four quadrants within a circle. The styles corresponded with heart (emotions), mind (intellect), spirit (spirituality), and strength (action).
I began to see how this principle of church styles applied to many other areas, like relationships. Sitting there considering goals, I was drawn to the circle once again.
It’s very easy, for me, to come up with goals for weight loss (action) or taking a class (mind). Thinking of the circle I began to sense a desire for balance within my goals. I wanted to consider goals that would affect my mind, heart, spirit, and strength. So here’s my first attack on this project:
Mind:
-Take a Family Living Class at T-Net.
-Read 5 books from 5 different genres (biography, history, culture, philosophy, and pschyology).
Heart:
-Reinvest in therapy.
-Read and do: Ending the Struggle Against Yourself
Spirit:
-Create a devotional space in my bedroom (a real corner space!)
-Read the Bible through (I bought a One Year Bible to assist in this goal)
-Really grow a prayer habit.
Action:
-Write…my book and some devotionals.
-Teach or lead group.
-Create the biblical resources materials for working with addictions and recovery.
-Work full-time again.
-Get healthy: lose weight and become active.
Essential in all this is balance and consistency.
Well, that’s a start. It’s not a checklist or a standard. It’s somewhere to go…a direction to head in. So, I’m off now to walk and live toward my goals.
Hi DaisyMarie... Just wanted to say thanks, again, for your comments at my blog lately. The last couple of days I have been reading through your blog and have been very blessed. Your post about giving up your rights is something I had planned to write about someday in my own blog because that was a *major* thing in my own life which helped me start growing. The whole dying to self thing, once I understood its importance, changed absolutely everything for me over the last ten years. So I am enjoying reading about your journey as it closely mirrors mine. I'm glad I've discovered your blog! God bless... Debra
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