Goal setting

I came to the realization today, that I really don't have any goals that I am working towards. Well, to be honest, I can't say I just realized it today. I've known for a while. I guess I just had these amorphus plans for my life - you know....get married, have children, be a stay-home mom and homeschool, be an active part of the church body....those kinds of plans, but nothing really solid that I can work towards on a daily basis. Those plans I had for me are based solely on one event - getting married. Since that's not happening right now (or in the forseeable future) I realized I better have something else to focus my time on.

What's crazy is, I thought I had pretty good plans for my life. Hah! That's what I get for thinking. My desire to set goals has really been stirred by some of the messages my pastor has been sharing over the last few weeks. It came to a head tonight with our Bible study.

We're studying Hebrews - and boy is it loaded with good stuff! Tonight we were discussing chapter 5, verses 6 and following. Verse 8 is really what spoke to me: "So even though Jesus was God's Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered." What? Jesus was God in the flesh, why did He have to learn obedience. Because He was in the flesh. He had to bring that fleshly body into submission. He learned what it means to have self-control.

My pastor made the comment that lack of self-control means there is a deficiency in your spiritual character. Sometimes lack of self-control is obvious - i.e., being overweight, addictions (drugs, alcohol), etc. Other times it is not. This is where it really hit home. I posted a little about this the other day. I have a lack of self-control and I believe it stems from not having set any goals.

Now, I know that self-control is included in the fruit of the spirit, but I also know that fruit won't grow if it isn't watered and fed. If I'm not spending time in the Word and getting to know Jesus, that fruit is going to die on the vine. If I don't have some goals or plans for getting into the Word, I won't learn or gain any self-control.

I need some structure to my life. So, I'm going to sit down and write out some goals for myself. I will pray over them and ask God to shine His light on areas that I need to focus on. I'm sure these goals will change as I go along, but at least I will have something to work from. I'm going to post them so I'll have some incentive to follow through on these goals (and hopefully some accountability from friends!)

If anyone else has done something like this or felt the need to do so, I'd love to hear your insights and experiences.

The one thing I draw hope from is the last part of that verse in Hebrews: "...He learned obedience from the things He suffered." Christ knows all the struggles I have. All the times I fight to bring under control a response or an action that is contrary to His will...Jesus fully understands. He's been there. I'm just barely beginning to understand how much He knows about my struggles and it is comforting.