AT THE START of each New Year we find ourselves in a different place than the year before. While some things are the same, others have changed. Over the course of our life, a metamorphosis takes place with each year adding and subtracting. But we hardly notice the changes from one day to the next. Change comes gradually.
Some of the change is due to natural physical progression, like getting older and children growing up. Other change results from unexpected calamity that rocks our world, or unexpected, hoped-for blessings that give us wings of joy.
But some of this change involves our own choices . . . some big, some small. In Robert Frost’s famous poem, “The Road Not Taken,” the poem concludes with:
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
Each choice we make—even the little ones—causes our path to diverge ever so slightly.
New Year’s Resolutions
This is the time of year for New Year’s resolutions, the time of the year when many of us assess where we’ve been and where we want to go. Sometimes we tend to make resolutions that are a little hard to attain or just out of reach. But more accurately, we can regard this as a time of choices and setting goals. With new beginnings come new opportunities. As you clear the slate of this past year and look ahead to a new one, what will you choose to do? How will your path diverge from where you are now?
As you begin this new year, I encourage you to ask for God’s guidance in making the choices that will lead you into the year ahead. To help with this, I’ve provided a goal setting guide with scriptures that can help you think and pray through each area of your life and develop practical ways to reach the objectives you establish for the year ahead. I invite you to print them out so you can keep them where you can continue to pray over them throughout the year.
If you set goals or resolutions last year, how did it turn out? What will you do differently this year?
GOAL SETTING FOR THE NEW YEAR
I. PERSONAL GOALS:
Practical Steps For Achieving:
“And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 4:19
II. MARRIAGE AND RELATIONSHIP GOALS:
Practical Steps For Achieving:
“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Eph. 5:21
III. FAMILY GOALS:
Practical Steps for Achieving:
“Love is patient; love is kind. It does not envy; it does not boast; it is not proud. It is not rude; it is not self-seeking; it is not easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” I Cor. 13:4-7
IV. CAREER GOALS:
Practical Steps for Achieving:
“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” Prov. 16:3
V. ATTITUDE GOALS:
Practical Steps for Achieving:
“…be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Eph. 4:23-24
VI. GOALS OF SERVICE TO GOD AND OTHERS:
Practical Steps for Achieving:
“And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” Heb. 13:16
VII. SPIRITUAL GOALS:
Practical Steps for Achieving:
“And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience and joyfully giving thanks to the Father…” Col. 1:10-11
Robert Frost – The Road not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
If you have seen big changes in your marriage this year and need to find direction on the road to take from here, I encourage you to check out my two books for those whose marriages are in a troubled place. Broken Heart on Hold, Surviving Separation, will help your heart find healing so you are stronger and able to make wise choices on the road ahead. Fighting for Your Marriage while Separated gives you the tools that can help you make positive choices that help restore your marriage.
From Heart Talk by Linda W. Rooks
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