Goals for life....mine vs. God's

As the beginning of the school year begins I find myself thinking about goals. I always have "goals" I want to achieve for the summer with my time off. Cleaning and painting the baseboards, yard work, crafting projects...and the list goes on. Sometimes I achieve all of these and other times, like this year, I am only able to check off a few. As I was thinking about goals I found this piece of paper that I wrote in middle school at a 4-H camp (We stayed over night at UNM or was it the fair grounds? are there dorms there? and I was scared, but I did it and had a very good time). Well, this piece of paper has been in my wallet for almost 20 years. As you can see I revised my goals at some point.

Apparently when I was in Jr. High or High school when I revised these, this is what I set as goals for myself. As I was reading the Bible this week I got to thinking about God's goals for my life. Does God set goals for our lives? Does he have a little progress sheet up there that He evaluates from time to time to see if I am making AYP (addequate yearly progress)? How am I doing? Am I proficient or at beginning step?

So, as I continued to read I tried to figure out what God's goals would be for my life.

*To grow in Him by learning, studying and spending time with Him. (1 Peter 2:2)

*Serve my family through time, love and energy (Proverbs 31:15,30))

*Touch the lives of other - serve others (Colossians 3:23-24, Ephesians 6:7)

*Leave behind a legacy by being more like Christ (Romans 8:29)

I am sure they may be other goals God may have for my life, but these were the over-arching ideas that kept standing out to me as I read.

I know it is important to have goals or little accomplishments I would like to achieve in life, but I realized my focus should be how my report card with God is looking. Do I have a bunch of "U's" for unsatisfactory. I hope as God evaluates me that I am at least progressing in each goal He has for my life.

Too often I think I have been focused on my goals for my life and I haven't put enough thought into God's goals for my life. I hope that my little steps that I accomplish in life will mirror what God has set for me.

Just something I thought of while I was reading and I thought I would pass it along.

Remember each day is a new day and it is the Lord's (Nehemiah 8:9). So I will ask myself, "What does God want me to accomplish today?"