The Courage to Move Forward

As I think about this beginning of 2014, I find myself setting goals again. And then I realised something startling. I tend to have the same goals every year. I start out with the best intentions, but I never seem to meet all my goals.

We do it every year, don’t we? We set new goals and reevaluate our life's direction. How many of our goals change and how many remain the same year after year? Why do we have to keep setting the same goals, and what keeps us from changing?

It's a battle with our flesh.

We're born with this sin-nature that causes us to keep going against our pursuit of the holy. The enemy doesn't want us to change, to become more godly. He works against all the things that God wants us to be and do. And when we fail to meet a certain goal, he makes us feel bad for it. At least that's how I feel about it.

We can also be tempted to look back too much.

My almost two-year old son recently learned how to walk backwards a few weeks ago. Now he likes to walk around backward really fast. The problem with this is that he doesn't always watch where he's going and has to turn around to gain his bearings on where he's going again.

We can do the same thing when we're too retrospective. We get so busy looking back that life takes us by surprise, and it takes us awhile to figure out where we're going again. It's great to reflect on how God has worked in our lives, especially if we're going through a particularly trying time. It's even better to look forward because too much looking back can distract us from the ways God wants us move forward and grow.

In setting my goals this year, I've been asking myself: Where does God want me, and how does He want me to align my heart with His?

We're now a week into 2014. Let's look forward to what the Lord has in store for us!

What keeps you from meeting your goals and/or resolutions?

New Year's Resolutions

This is a guest post by Carole.

It's the beginning of January, the time of year everyone sets new goals or makes New Year's Resolutions. Many write long, lengthy lists, while others set more realistic goals.

Whatever the case may be, I think we can all agree that there is something about the new year, a new calendar that inspires us to set goals or make resolutions, no matter how few or many.

As women, we tend to focus on all the things we've done wrong, all the mistakes we've made and all our flaws. Now that it is the new year, it's time to forgot all those failures of last year. Stop dwelling on the many mistakes and shortcomings! No one is perfect and God is bountiful in His forgiveness. Let's learn from our mistakes, but not dwell on them. It's time to look forward and thank God for another year. A new year to live for Him!

Philippians 3:13-14 states "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 prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

I think as women we also tend to look at those around us (or back in the States) and set their expectations on our shoulders and do what we feel they expect of us. We tend to stretch ourselves thin being busy trying to accomplish everything that we feel is expected of us as missionary wives. Instead of looking around at man's ideal, we need to look to God. What does HE expect of us? He knows our stage of life, He knows our different mission fields and the challenges each one presents. Let's look to His Word and use Him as our guideline for our goals and resolutions this year!

Let's resolve to "press toward the mark" to live for God. To do ALL for HIS Glory. Whether it be making meals for our family, tending to a sick child, teaching classes of nationals, visiting the sick and elderly, homeschooling our children, being a mom, and being a helpmeet to our husbands, let's resolve to do it heartily as unto the Lord!

"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." I Corinthians 10:31

May we all have a Fulfilling and Blessed New Year!