I have felt very overwhelmed lately trying to make sure my kids get all of their work done for home education. I feel like I’m not doing a very good job of that, my house feels like it is always disorganized because we are home all the time, I had all of these grand plans of writing many blog posts and figuring out a book topic. Then there were the plans about diet and exercise. That went up in smoke quite literally as I have learned to bake quite well and my waistline now reflects that again. And I’m rather angry at myself.
But as I was reflecting on it tonight, after some conversations with friends and even a perusal of my email inbox, it dawned on me that I am by no means alone in my feelings of failure and being stuck in a rut or even going in a direction opposite of what I had planned with my “time off” at home.
In that email inbox are SO many emails about how to begin blogging to make money, how to eat better, exercise daily, tips on spiritual health. But one stood out today. It gave four steps to keeping the goals you set. Any goals. And the author called them “grace goals.” Her name is Arabah Joy. Of course, this is something you purchase, but I read through the steps and they resonated with me.
The first step is to assess your life and where you are stuck. Why is it that you can’t lose the weight, can’t keep the house clean, never finish that Bible Study? Then, you Envision where you want to be going in those areas. The book of Proverbs tells us that where there is no vision the people perish. So, for instance, I was doing well with my diet and exercise. But I’ve gained weight and done poorly with my exercise. So in my envision stage, I look at my goals short term, I want to stay within my calories and check in with my accountability partners each week and exercise 30 minutes a day 5 days a week. My longer term goal would be to lose one pound a week with an even longer term goal of a specific goal weight within 3 months and being able to do a specific exercise routine by that time as well.
After you have gone through these steps, you must actually plan exactly how this will work in your life. And here is where I liked this particular method. Everything we do is by God’s Grace. So as we plan to lose weight or exercise or plan to read our Bibles, we also put God in the midst of those plans. We find verses to support our plans. We pray over our plans. Look for where God is reaching down into your life every day and helping you reach your goals. And as you see that and keep track of it, you will be encouraged and motivated to keep pressing on!
Lastly, you implement your plan. Remember the Nike commercials? “Just do it?” That is what we must do. We can have every good intention and the best laid plans but until we are disciplined and we begin what we have sought out to do, we get nowhere. When we do it, we have implemented our plan and we begin to reap the rewards, it will be easier to continue to work out our longer term plans that we made in our earlier steps.
This time of being home is unprecedented. We are all muddling through doing the best we can. Every email, blog post, FB meme seems to be related to the virus. I feel like “new normal” is all we ever hear and I wonder if life will ever feel the same. I know I have been treading water. And my coping skills haven’t been the best. But I’m encouraged with this plan. God gives us grace, strength and wisdom to make wise decisions. He helps us carry them out. Having some discipline in our lives is necessary. Sitting down and figuring out how that looks for our “new normal” by Gods Grace seems like a worthy use of our time.
This is the site I have referred to throughout this post. I don’t feel as though you would need to purchase the plan. The steps are helpful to read here and implement in your own way or the link to purchase is here if it interests you.
For This I Prayed 