Food for the Soul

New Year's Resolutions...diet...exercise...save money...make a career move...be a better person...travel more...

What do you want to do this year? Personally, yes I have some vain goals. But really by desire is to be a more spiritually disciplined person.

I want to do a better job working on my relationship with God. I want to spend more quality time with Him. I want to live even more fully in His power and presence. I want this all important relationship to grow and spill out into all areas of my life. Thus creating an all around better person. A better wife, mom, friend, sister, daughter, co-worker, leader, etc...

Studies show that goals have to be definable and achievable to be obtained. So how do I define being a better person? How do I define a growing relationship? How do I know if I have reached my goal?

First, I don't think I will ever reach my goal. I think that my relationship with God will always be an area in which I can grow. I believe that I will humanly never fully comprehend God and thus can always be learning and growing in my knowledge and understanding of Him and His ways. While this could on some level be a discouragement, I think more than that it is exciting and challenging.

Second, since my relationship with God must always be growing my other relationships can always be better as well. Meaning that I can always be working to be a better person.

Finally, how do I define this goal so that I can work towards it? Daily time set apart to focus solely on God and His Word. This is either accomplished on a daily basis or it's not, there is not "grey" in this goal. This means carving out time to be sure that I get that undisturbed time of reading the Word of God and praying. In other words, I must give up time spent doing something else.

Why is this so hard? I find time to sit and "veg" on the couch, usually to watch TV. I find time to get on the computer to do mindless activities. Yet I put off time with God. I make excuses and say that "I will do it later." But sadly I never do it. If I treated my other relationships in this way, I would have few to no friends. I would have a very grumpy husband and discontent children. Instead, I choose to invest in these relationships and when I do this I see results. In fact, when I get busy and fail to invest appropriately I see these relationships suffer. Why do I expect anything different in my relationship with God?

So...I am publicly making a decision to invest daily in my relationship with God. Yes, I know there will be days when I fail, but that is not to be the norm and it is not an excuse to throw in the towel. My commitment is that I will share with all of you on Friday's what God and I have been working on that week. Those posts may be introspective or they may sometimes offer a challenge to you, but either way they are a source of accountability in my life.

What about you? Why don't you join me in this resolution?! I know this is something we all could do better. We all need a thriving, growing relationship with God. One that involves being in His Word as well as time in prayer. (And prayer is NOT just us "dumping" on God, it involves being quiet to hear the Holy Spirit.)

I think that if we all better our relationship with God we will find that many areas of our lives will follow suit. And think of the ripple effect this change could make on our families, circles of friends, our co-workers, maybe even our world.