Goal-Setting for the New Year
by Ray Notgrass
It's not December 2002. Imagine that it's December 2003. The year has already flown by, and you are looking back at what has filled the year for you. What do you see?
If you are like me, you want to see changes in your life; but for those changes to occur, something has to change. A wise person said that if you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always gotten. This is the season for New Year's resolutions, for deciding how things will be different for you in the year that God is giving you. What resolutions do you want to make for 2003?
We need to remember first that the goals we have for our lives must come from God. It is not that we are to set some goals but that we should recognize God's goals for us. Successful goals are not of our making, but are from God. They are not so much made as given to us. Accomplishing them is not our job but our stewardship.
Second, we need to remember that accomplishing something can take many forms. Matthew 6:33, "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness" is a goal-setting verse; but so is Isaiah 40:31, "Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." Waiting upon the Lord is not doing nothing; it is doing something very important.
Third, as Stephen Covey said, don't just prioritize your schedule; but schedule your priorities. Every day when you get up, all sorts of pressures, demands, opportunities, and temptations will come rushing at you. To handle this well, you need to determine beforehand what God's priorities are for you and make sure they happen. The theory of evolution is not true: things left to themselves do not get better. In terms of our schedules, things left to themselves often go haywire. We have to make sure that the important things happen; otherwise, a great many pretty good things that appear to be urgent will crowd them out.
My experience has been that a long list of unrealistic resolutions gets left in the bottom of the drawer by the middle of January. A few key ideas upon which to concentrate will probably get you further along toward where you want to be. One year, for example, I resolved to be a better friend to others. I believe that I made progress that year, and that resolution has stuck with me for many years since.
Perhaps this thought will bless you as it has me since I first heard it about 25 years ago. You might want to use it as a bookmark in your Bible or put it where you will see it first thing in the morning:
This is the beginning of a new day. God has given me this day, to use it as I will. I can waste it--or use it for good; but what I do today is important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it! When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever, leaving in its place something I have traded for it. I want it to be gain and not loss; good and not evil; success and not failure; in order that I shall not regret the price I have paid for it.
Substitute "year" for "day," and you have the goal that God gives us for 2003. Thank you for the blessings and encouragement you have given to our family and company this year. May God bless us all in His peace as He gives us every day in the year ahead.