2011 Goals

I came across these verses in my devotion this morning:
 " Commit to the Lord whatever you do- and your plans will succeed" -Proverbs 16:3
"The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty" -Proverbs 21:5

There's always that inner dilemma for me of finding the balance of faith and planning.  On extreme may say that to live by faith is not to have set plans, because our timeline isn't God's.  The other extreme may plan too much down to the very minute of each day.  Depending on where you fall on this continuum, your theory will transfer over into every aspect of your life (in my opinion). 

I'm a "beaver" in so many aspects.  I love to be methodical about things.  Routine, scheduling and organizing gets me motivated.  I'm a very particular person in so many respects.  However, over the years of discovering this about myself- I'm realizing that it can be a bad thing to.  I was reminded of this when we set our goals for 2011 at the river on Saturday. 

We found a perfect place at a picnic table right on the river.  The water was extremely high, I'm guessing due to all the rain we have had lately. 

(Sidebar)  I love going there with Joseph.  It's the place he took me on our first date, and has been special ever since.  We have no usual routine when we go, but God always meets us there.  There's something about nature that brings peace and openness to our marriage.  Sometimes we will sit around and have the greatest conversations, and sometimes we will just sit and look at the sky- in awe of the creator's majesty that surrounds us.  Like I said, its a special place for us. 

(Anyway) I found myself preparing for this upcoming visit by making a list in my phone of all the things I wanted to contribute to our goal setting for this year.  If you have ever been in our home, you may have seen our blackboard above our garage door that has our list of goals on it for the year.  We usually categorize it into: Spiritual, Social, Financial- but this year we have added a Career category.  After rattling off my compiled list, I realized that most of them went into our "financial/investment" category.  Typical "beaver".  After our list was all done, we realized that our smallest category was Spiritual.  Typical humans.  Convicted?  Absolutely.  Here was our list before categorizing:

1. Joseph- graduate with MA in Education
2. Maintaining a healthy weight
3. Sell Camry/Buy new car
4. Put new flooring/carpet in home
5. Finish painting kitchen/master bedroom
6. Cut back on/re-evaluate one bill a month
7. Organize a Crisostomo camping reunion trip this summer
8. Go on a family trip with Steph and Jen
9. Joseph target goals for possible career change
10. Family vacation with White/Crisostomo clan
11. Go to a marriage retreat/couple's seminar
12.  Make first contact with a Connection Point couple within one week of receiving info
13. Up our offering
14. Make contact with oneneighbor once a month
15. Three trips to visit our brother
16. Visit San Diego right before Christmas this year
17. Send monthly card to two friends
18. Pay off 3 cards and pay Kern Fed down
19. Reconnect with accountability to restart practical evangelism
20. Maintain quiet time area for Steph

Our theme verse that we decided on this year is Romans 15:13:
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by he power of the Holy Spirit."

After realizing where most of our goals were focused, Joseph made a practical point in that we need to live with "Today" as our focus.  We talked more about it and decided that "This is the day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it" will be another theme for us this year. 

It is our prayer that no matter what comes this year, our focus will be on God and God alone.  That we will truly overflow with hope, peace and joy as we trust that He will provide for us spiritually, socially and financially all year long.  All that to say, often I've got to push that "beaver" aside and be spirit-led.  Even if it means breaking routine or going off schedule- my ultimate schedule is a kingdom one.  Is it bad to plan?  I believe those verses, from my devotion today, say no..it's not.  I know God values a woman of wisdom, and that part of being a "woman of noble character" is being self disciplined. 

So...I look forward to the days that lie ahead in 2011!
CMO