Love Your Vision

Dear Girls,

The Strouth family sat down to breakfast this morning and discussed our vision for the new year.  That seems to be the topic of the day around here.  That's fine with me, because I'm in that mood.  Maybe it's because we've spent the last 365 days in the trenches, but I just feel so good about the thought of starting fresh.  New year, new beginning.

I got to start a new devotional today, which I'm really excited about.  On my way to have my quiet time, coffee and bible in hand, Dad asked, "So did you actually read the bible every day last year?"  The question caught me off-guard and I had to think about it for a second, but in that moment it hit me that I did.  I hadn't thought about it like that.  He said, "So I guess it's safe to say you created a habit!"  I guess I did.

I hadn't actually set out to do that--create the habit of reading God's word every day.  It wasn't a conscious thought I had last January 1st, that I should commit to such a goal.  Don't get me wrong; I'm a very goal-oriented person.  I did sit down and write out a list of things I wanted to achieve this past year, but "Read the Bible each day" wasn't on it.

You know what was?

"Get closer to God."

I suppose I fell so deep in love with the vision of a more intimate walk with Jesus that the process of achieving it became more of a passionate endeavor than it was reaching a goal.

"Read my Bible every day" might have become too cumbersome of an action to take every day after a while.

But the "means" of getting there--closer to God--such as reading my Bible, praying, meditating, totally took over the idea that it was all to achieve the "end".


It makes me think of how many people are out there like us who are busy coming up with goals for themselves for the new year.  We tend to call them "resolutions" when we talk about them in the months of December and January.  We promise ourselves we will eat less, exercise more, ditch some bad habit, chase a dream, quit cussing or gossiping, get along with our sister better (ahem), change careers, take a much-needed vacation.  We start off strong. Then sometime around February we get a little overwhelmed and depleted, don't we?

I think it's because that's around the time we stop and take stock of our progress.  We may look in the mirror and realize that we're no closer to our goal than we were when we started.  Usually, that's when we give up.  No immediate results = no motivation.

I wonder what would happen if we fell in love with our vision rather than look at it like something to conquer or a goal to achieve.  A check in the box.

If you fell in love with the vision of a healthier, more energetic you, would you be better able to follow through with it than if you simply wanted to "Lose Weight?"

Perhaps if you fell in love with the vision of a better marriage or other relationship, it'd be easier to take the steps to achieve that, with or without seeing the results right away.

Just like I woke up each day this past year and dug into God's word because I loved that spiritual growth that it was creating, I think it's safe to say you'd be more willing to commit to the means if you loved the vision of the end you were trying to achieve.

If a habit is what we repeatedly do, then can we just simply fall in love with the vision for our life and then take repeated steps to get there?  I think the rest would end up falling into place.

Just a thought.

Love,

  Do you have a vision for where you want to be a year from now? What about five years from now? Next month?