Destiny and reaching for goals......

I found this picture yesterday and the timing was perfect!  This is Gwen and Doug at Great America on the Ladybug ride.  Today, Gwen and Tim took their kids to Great America and Gwen sent me this picture of them on the SAME RIDE!

As I told Gwen, I can see an amazing "side by side" Scrapbook page in the making!  I am sure that there is "method in the madness" of the operators of these parks.  They took this ride away many years ago.  But they know that it is time to bring it back when those kids of long ago now have children of their own.  Just so moments like this can be captured!  

But this is not the real reason for the blog today.  You know that I have been doing cleaning and sorting and organizing and I came upon this a couple days ago....,

This is dated March of 2010.  The purpose of these papers was to write a personal vision statement and goals.  Some of it was filled in and some was not.  It was pretty clear that I was having a hard time completing this even then.  And there are a number of things filled in, and sadly, I am no closer to them now than 5 years ago.  As a matter of fact, I think I have less focus and direction towards these goals NOW than I had then.  I think it is time to do some reevaluating!  

I have always said that the message I feel most pressed to share is that there is a destiny and plan and purpose for each person.  The thing is that you have to be pressing in to Jesus and listening and sensitive to the nudge of the Holy Spirit to know your destiny and plan!  And you also have to be constantly in touch with Jesus since that plan and destiny might change over time.  And even as I am writing this paragraph, I realize that I am speaking to myself.  This vision from 2010 does not HAVE to be my vision in 2015!  Isn't that good news?  If there is some goal that you set for yourself at some time in the past, and you haven't quite attained it yet, don't fret!  There may well be a different goal or some tweeking of that original goal that applies right now.  

There was one goal on those sheets of paper that I know I am moving towards....just not exactly how I thought it would happen.  I had written "Go to the nations, share the Kingdom message of Jesus' plan and destiny.  Make connections in the body of Christ to expand a platform to share this message, to bring glory to the Father."   And for each of you out there reading this blog, you have taken me closer to this goal.  It seems that each day I am adding to the number of different countries that are reading this blog.  Yesterday it was Georgia and Argentina that popped up.  Two countries on different continents.  I believe that these two countries brought the country total to 91!  And I have not left my house.  I have connected with people through this blog, that I would never have encountered.  I have had the privilege of "talking" back and forth with people (some who speak very little English) through email and comments.  I have been able to share Jesus without ever seeing people face to face.  But I have the assurance that writing this blog is exactly the correct thing for me to be doing!  I just need to remember to stay close to Jesus and listen carefully so that I can reach those other goals!

Jesus, thank you for your personal plan and destiny for each of us.  It is really amazing that we can each hear your voice.  Holy Spirit, thank you for prompting people to read this blog.  Help us to continue to work towards our goals.  Jesus, thank you for reminding me that my legacy is in my children and grandchildren.  Thank you for picture memories that bring smiles!  Amen

Taking my own advice....

I think that I have mentioned (more than once) that I love to scrapbook.  I am positive that someday, I will see the full benefit of this putting pictures and words onto pages.  I am also convinced that I will see exactly what Jesus was intending as he led me into this hobby.  Well, my birthday is coming up in a week or so and I have been doing a lot of thinking about my age. And along with that, I have been thinking about goals - personal goals - both past, present and future.  I was thinking about going through some old journals to find some reminders of past goals. I was trying to decide if I have met any of my goals from last year.  Since it feels like this has been sort of a stagnant year, the answer to that question was no - no goals met.  I was feeling pretty discouraged. The prospect of even trying to come up with goals seemed daunting.  Then I happened on this picture.

 



 

This page is from a scrapbook I made for my daughter Gwen in 2004.  I am so thankful that I scanned every page of that book since I would have forgotten what I wrote.  I love the advice that I gave to Gwen on the pages of this scrapbook. 
             
              Don't define your life by your faith, rather let your faith shape your life!
              Be open to where God will take you as your walk your life journey.
              Don't be to comfortable where you are at because the Lord is always moving
                     forward into the future.
              Our faith will draw us with Him along that path.
              Be willing to move out of your comfort zone and into the future.
              Always see the hand of God at work in the present.
              Take time to look beyond what things seem like in the natural to see the
                      bigger, eternal picture.
               People are more important than things or places.

So I think that I have my new goals for the next year.  I love how sometimes the Holy Spirit inspires us to write something and then 9 years later, you get a glimpse of how important those words are. I am planning to keep these words where I can find them and see them often. 

Jesus, thank you so much! Thank you Holy Spirit for the inspiration for these words in 2004.  And thank you for helping me find them when I most needed them.  Jesus thank you for the amazing gift of my daughter Gwen. Jesus help me to keep these words in my spirit during the next year.  Show me how to live these words.  Holy Spirit, draw me out of that comfort zone that I seem to be stuck in, and help me to stay on yesterday's supersonic highway.  Amen