Each year in January I get a little too excited over goal setting and such. I always love the idea of fresh starts and second chances. Though I never seem to carry out all of my goals entirely, all is not lost; this practice has enabled progress, even if slow. I love sitting back at the end of a year and seeing how God enabled us to implement new methods, habits, and patterns that have worked to better us.
So today my family and I will each be filling out our own goals, praying God will direct our efforts, and then sharing them with each other when we are finished. We will share our “words for the year” that we have chosen, and then Jason and I will pray a blessing over each of our children and this new year- a brand new chance to pursue the Lord with our whole hearts!
I am attaching some printables (at the bottom of this blog) I created in case you would like to use them. I’m sure a simple search online would reveal some really clever resources if these don’t work for you. The first three pages were created to simply write any goals pertaining to that category. Transfer those goals to the “Prioritize” pages once those goals have been determined as either daily, weekly, or monthly goals. I will list some examples under the categories in case you need a little inspiration.
Read: Daily Bible reading goals, extra devotionals, other books you’ve been meaning to get to
Memorize: Bible verses or chapters, poems or hymns you may want to learn with your kiddos; this is a good spot to figure out how to get your children learning scripture with you (We use a points system- one point for each verse. They trade in points for prizes. This has been the ticket in our home! The older kids are memorizing whole chapters without much effort on my part, which is a great help. They get extra points for helping their younger siblings learn verses.)
Pray: Do you need a personal prayer time? Is there a certain amount of time you aspire to spend in prayer each day? How can your family come together to pray for each other and those requests? (When we sit to pray, the kids mention the requests and then divide them up to each pray for someone different. It’s amazing how much better they are at remembering requests than I am.)
Give: This one will be very personal and different in each family, so I won’t include examples.
Exercise: Help!
Contact/Connect: Is there someone you’ve been meaning to invite over? Is there anyone who would benefit from a letter or a visit every now and then?
Play: This one is about being intentional in playing with your family (board games, walking, fun together time). Also, what brings you rest and enjoyment personally and how can you make time for it?
Learn: a new instrument, a new language, new recipes, new vocabulary,…
I hope this is helpful for you and your family. I’m sure you all have so many wonderful ideas that I haven’t even considered, and I would LOVE to hear them! Feel free to text or email them to me. I’m always looking for the clever ways others implement new goals.
Download the printables here:
https://buildingmyhouse.org//wp-content/uploads/2021/01/New-Year-Goals-1.pdf
https://buildingmyhouse.org//wp-content/uploads/2021/01/New-Year-Goals-2.pdf
https://buildingmyhouse.org//wp-content/uploads/2021/01/New-Year-Goals-3.pdf
https://buildingmyhouse.org//wp-content/uploads/2021/01/New-Year-Daily-Weekly-Monthly.pdf