2014: A new year. A new beginning.
It’s a time when people make resolutions and plan for the future.
But I’m not quite sure what I want from this year.
I had plans for 2011 – and then got pregnant and had a baby.
I had plans for 2012 – and then changed jobs, careers, and homes.
I thought about making plans for 2013, but I didn’t really – and life still roared forward pushing me like a crashing wave comes to the shore.
Dare I make plans for 2014?
This past year my lack of a plan taught me that without any plan for your life, even one that twists beyond your control, you don’t really know where you’re trying to go. This becomes disconcerting when your path changes midstream. Without a plan you wander aimlessly, allowing yourself to be moved with the tide.
Zig Ziglar summed up my 2013 problem best when he wrote, “People often complain about lack of time when lack of direction is the real problem.”
So this year I resolve to find my focus – to identify where I want to be based on my current position in life and make a plan on how I’m going to get there.
Stephen Covey confidently states, “To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.”
If you’ve also struggled with having a plan in your life, consider joining me this weekend in making time to prayerfully discern the answers to a few questions:
Where am I right now?
What is it that I want to do? What is it that I need to do?
What can I control? What can I not control?
What keeps me from doing what I want? How do I remove that obstacle?
For many of us, the simple act of having a plan or goal will keep us going in our chosen direction while leaving enough flexibility for detours around obstacles. As always, I hope you will keep God centered in your plan.
“The strength of a man consists in finding the way God is going and going that way.”
– Henry Ward Beecher
