Resolution smlution

I am into setting goals. It's a martyr thing, I know. But I love setting them, tracking them, trying to accomplish them. And then beating myself when it doesn't happen as fast as I'd like it to.

So the other morning I pulled out a piece of paper and started writing down this list of things I'd like to accomplish in 2010. I thought I'd be creative with it: Twenty items in ten months (because November and December are not goal achieving months in my life - never have been and probably never will be). So of course the first was to lose the next twenty pounds - and to exercise 20 times a month for ten months, and to write in my journal 20 times a month for ten months, and to....

Well, you get the picture. At first it seemed quite like a creative fun idea, but by the time I got to about the 3,000th goal (20 x ten = 200 for every goal) I started to realize how really unrealistic that was, and I still had a handful of goals to set if I wanted 20 and in a funk, I set my pencil and paper down and walked away.

Oh, I will still set goals, but maybe it ought to be simply to start 2011 with a FINISHED kitchen. That may be just enough for 2010. (that, and lose 20 pounds)

But then I realized so many of my goals are object related - do this, read this, or acquire that. When really they ought to be more growing-related as in becoming a better me, a more effective me, a ME that Jesus would want on His team, a caring me, a giving me, a sharing what I know kind of ME. And to do that, I've got to get rid of the ME and start concentrating on the "How can I help YOU."

So maybe the most important goal I can set this year is to wake each morning and ask God what He would have me do each day, and then go and DO it. Then I think the kitchen would still get finished, the weight would still get lost, the journal would get recorded, the scriptures would get read, the prayers would be spoken, and the house would get cleaned, the yard taken care of and the laundry done, but around all that I think some other things would happen, too. Important things that would help me grow more into the person God knows I should be during this coming year.

And after all is said and done, isn't that really what New Year Resolutions are actually all about?