Many times we start a new year with a list of goals
we want to achieve without considering that growth just doesn't happen. We need
to consider the value of having reasonable expectations.
Are your expectations attainable? Or are they so
high you get easily discouraged? Sometimes a goal is so high you need to take
the steps to get there one by one. Just thinking of a high goal can be terribly
discouraging, and makes it seem impossible. You might give up. But if you take a
little step at a time, and just concentrate on that step, the next step becomes
easier. Then the next, and the next. Suddenly you may discover you have met your
high goal, and you can look back and see how God has strengthened you the whole
way. Always consider that a high goal may only be found through the
accomplishment of smaller reasonable goals.
Others are watching you. On the way to your goal you
might slide back a step or two. “Now the Lord is the Spirit,” Paul writes, “and
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (II Corinthians 3:17). Be
humble enough to admit when you’re wrong or fail or don’t have an answer. Trying
to be “perfect” only creates disappointment when you make mistakes...not only
for you, but maybe for those who are learning from your journey. Let your mask
down. A willingness to be vulnerable invites vulnerability in others. It
inspires honesty, but, greater still, opens each person’s heart to the healing
presence of the Holy Spirit. Be honest when you make a mistake. Ask for
forgiveness and forgive yourself. Then try again.
Never hold on to your failure. Examine it. Realize
the lesson; apply the lesson and then give it to God. Don’t dig it back up. It’s
gone. Forgiveness for your own mistakes and for those of others is consciously
rendered. We decide to move on, and trust the Lord for the strength with which
to accomplish it.
All things are
possible with God!
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