I got impatient with Ethan yesterday morning, he was late getting to the kitchen again. We have had consecutive days of cutting our time short in the morning. The time we spend chatting, reading the Bible and praying. I too, have been sleeping too late.
Time to reel it in, reestablish meeting the goal I have of doing this before school.
Continually playing in the back of my mind is the value of having a vision or in more practical terms, a goal. Having the benefit of age (Yay! there are benefits!!) I can look back over my life, and look around at the lives of others that I am aquainted with, and see the good and beneficial things that have been accomplished as the result of keeping one's eyes on a goal. I also can see the results of not having goals.
As a mom, my main goal for my children is to see them loving the Lord and honoring Him with their lives. I desired their purity of heart and action, and for them to have their own genuine faith. That goal guided my choices in every decision~personal or parenting. By the grace of God, I established a morning routine of reading the Bible and praying with them before school. This has proven to be very beneficial in many areas. It serves to keep us humble before God, to remember He is in control, and we need Him. It also helps us keep short accounts with one another. If there is a conflict in our home, praying together causes us to humble ourselves; it is hard to pray with pride lingering in our hearts. To my delight, I am seeing the fruits of the decisions I have made in pursuit of my goal.
Acheiving goals always comes at a price. Often it is a fight to the finish. Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly the goal served to get me up out of bed to have time to spend with my kids. Often, as in the case this week, our routine would become lazy and we would see the amount of time we had together in the morning diminish. I would then make a point of reeling it in again, and reestablishing ample time.
What I am noticing now as my life turns this corner toward empty nest, and I see the fruition of my vision, is the Lord showing me the need to have a new or revised vision.
I have been feeling a bit swervy recently. Things that I have relied on to motivate me are not there. It isn't that I don't have some ideas floating around my periphery, because I do. I have had several dreams simmering on my mind's back burner on the course of journeying to this destination. I have some things I am wondering about letting go of. I need a fresh revelation, a new vision.
So what now? How does one "get a vision"?
As a Christian, my vision has to come from the Lord. Since He has become Lord of my life, every goal I make falls under His vision for my life. It is the same vision Jesus had that motivated His daily decisions.
For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.
John 6:38
1. Pray.
"What is your will Father?" is the first step in getting/aquiring your vision.
2. Passion.
Next, recall your dreams, your passions, your desires...trusting that God has planted them in you.
3. Purpose
Cross check that with what value there might be in bearing fruit for eternity.
4. Pray some more.
Pray for a vision, pray that you will hear the Lord and have a heart to do His will.
5. Wait.
Wait trusting that God will reveal and plant the vision in His time.
6. Walk.
Continue to walk by faith setting daily goals as you wait on the greater vision.
7. Write.
Write down what the Lord is showing you, talk it over with those closest to you.
Whether we write a book, run a marathon, throw a wedding party, build a house, or start a business; whatever we acheive, it is because God has given us a vision, and the means to accomplish it. Our part is to be in tune with Him, and to be intentional about keeping our eyes on the vision He has given us.
Let your eyes look straight ahead,
fix your gaze directly before you. Prov 4:25
Vision–noun
1. the act or power of sensing with the eyes; sight.
2. the act or power of anticipating that which will or may come to be: prophetic vision; the vision of an entrepreneur.
3. an experience in which a personage, thing, or event appears vividly or credibly to the mind, although not actually present, often under the influence of a divine or other agency: a heavenly messenger appearing in a vision.
I would love to know what goals the Lord has enabled you to accomplish!
