Goals are great for practically advancing throughout the year to hit the target of your choice. BTW – there is so much power in choice!

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything.         (1 Corinthians 6:12)

My goals this year will take me to a healthier place physically through the process of meal planning, water intake, and walking. They will mentally clear my mind of stress by clearing debt and helping me to spend less to keep my purged out house clear of clutter. They will emotionally allow me to rest through simple upkeep of the home using Flylady, less social media time, and creating purposeful family time. I shared the plan here.

In addition to goals, I think that everyone should have a word of the year. It is a soul and spirit focus for the year.

3 ways to help you find your word of the year:

1. You keep hearing it over and over. It has been repeated. Think.
2. The Spirit of God has confirmed it with a sense of peace and joy when you hear, see, or become aware of it. Like a little sense of wonder.
3. The things in life that you need for your heart to heal, for you to move forward, and the destination that you seek all confirm this word.

Over the last few weeks as I have been pondering about what my word of the year will be. I have noticed a word cropping up in books, in podcasts, on signs, and in my heart.

That word is DELIGHT!

Each time I have encountered it I have felt a warmth swelling up in me. In each goal, I have made for 2019 the end result harbors the delight of a well-ordered life.

It is a word that means peace, fulfillment, and satisfaction. When I see the word delight it is like seeing two words slammed together to make one new meaning = delicious light. While the verse above will be my focus for the year. The word delight, to me, it is a combination of two verse. The first verse is “taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8) He truly is good! The second verse is “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12) Delight is to know and experience God and let Him shine out from within me with a splash of joy mixed in.

Does God know exactly what you need?

Today my church begins 21 days of fasting and prayer. I will be reading through the book A Hunger for God by John Piper and using a 21-day plan from youversion. If you would like to join me. Also, I will participate in any prayer points my Pastor sends out and I will attend the Wednesday Night corporate prayer meetings. The Lord has asked me to give up two things: sugar and social media. I feel like I am about to be in the fight of my life. The first thing I thought of was “how the heck am I going to drink my coffee in the morning without my teaspoon of sugar?” I have a sweet tooth. When I see cakes, cookies, sweet treats, and gummy bears I just want to indulge. I can eat a whole bag of gummy things in one setting. After Christmas, I nearly polished off a box of chocolates all by myself. It was delicious. The second thing…social media….eh…I heard the Lord whisper to give it up. I ignored Him. Instead of wrestling with even a minute speck of giving it up I focused on how to flavor my coffee without sugar and settle for denial. I will use milk, almond extract, vanilla, and cinnamon. But that is beside the point. I did not want to admit that the Lord asked me for my social media time. Social media is my go-to enjoyment. I love it. I thoroughly enjoy posting bits of scripture, creating photo quotes, clips from books and podcasts, leaving encouraging notes for people and all of that stuff. This is the place where I share the light of Christ in me the most and He wants it. Before I knew about the 21 days of prayer and fasting I had processed my goals and had a plan to make Saturday mornings my social media post day. The plan was to mega batch (do a week’s worth in one setting) them because my “why” is to spend less time on social media.

Does God engineer coincidence?

I think He does. Its called omniscience, we call it a coincidence. Get this! Every Saturday of the 21 days of fasting and prayer is booked with a retreat, coordinator meeting, and a kids ministry relaunch meeting. All of which I am scheduled to attend. God is good! The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps. (Proverbs 16:9) And still, I tried to ignore Him. I was thinking to move mega batching to Friday for the month, to do it in the evening, or anything else but listen to God and give it up for 21 days. Until last night…

Does God puts the right people in your life for the right time?

I asked my friend Jeniffer if she was going to be joining the prayer and fasting for 21 days. She said, “yes.” I said, “me too.” What got me was what she said next. She took a breath and said, “sugar and coffee! I asked the Lord why coffee and He said because you love it.” Then I squirmed and said, “He told me sugar (pause) and social media” She gave me that “friend look” that friends give when they know you. It was the first time I spoke it out loud. Nothing makes something more real like saying it out loud. I groaned out loud too. God is so good to give me a friend who understands and who I know will encourage me. Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10)

Here we go 2019! See ya in 21 days social media…..

Thanks for listening,

Starla