Smallness | Spiritual Goals

We are always trying to figure out how to do more, aren't we? To get better at.... To go BIGGER.... But that can be really exhausting, can't it? Like you I'm sure, it just doesn't seem like I have time to add to the day or to the list of tasks. If I can't add to, how on earth will I get the more & bigger down?

I've started to think about spiritual goals at the end of each year. 2014 was a great year for me but it was particularly busy and hard and even exhausting. When I drew my list of goals for 2015 it occurred to me that God probably doesn't need us to beat who we've been in the past. There's no real reason why our goals have to be "more" or "bigger" than the previous ones set, unless of course we didn't have any. Simply having different types of goals can continue to challenge us in the same positive way.

So for me, this year, I am trying to come up with goals for the "smallest" way that I can get more God in. Not because I don't want a whole lot of God but because sometimes when the challenge is too big, we just can't seem to get around to it or we put it off or stress ourselves out about it. I'm hoping that if I start considering the smallest thing that I can do right now, maybe it will keep me moving in the right direction.

Here are a few ideas. Won't you join me?

1. A, B, Glory - I heard a sermon from Andy Stanley last year and he said that there are always 3 choices to any question. There's answer A, answer B and then the answer that will give God the most Glory. Try to apply that the next time that you have a question. And actually this question might just be flavoring the rest of the pot below...

2. Use it for Glory/Blessing - Do you feel like God has recently blessed you with something and you want to know how to show thanks? How about consider the smallest way you can use it in order to give God Glory? Can you share it with someone, use it to help someone, build a testimony around it?

3. Ooh Discipline - Instead of what new things can we learn about this year; maybe we just need to get really disciplined [trying to apply] in the things that he's already asked of us.

4. Use what you have - This year instead of buying something for every birthday party, event, last minute dinner.... Maybe we need to find a way to use (reuse) what we already have. That might not sound like a way to glorify but I just keep thinking about Jesus collecting the crumbs left over after the five loaves. -Maybe it was to feed someone else. I also think about all of the times we say that we will do this or that when we have such and such. But those who are trusted with little [what you have now] will be trusted with much and we shouldn't force ourselves into debt trying to get there.

5. Encourage another along the way - When Jesus was talking to the Samaritan woman, he told her to go and get her husband. When Elisha told the widow to get her jars to fill with oil, he told her to collect jars also from her neighbors. Where ever you are and wherever you're going, look out for someone else along the way that needs the same thing that you do. -Even if it's only someone to pray with.

6. Joining church - If you're resolution was to get back to church, maybe try joining the smaller one or perhaps start with a small group study instead of the regular Sunday Service.

7. Set your stone - Joshua 4:4-7 is just one example of God asking people to set reminders. Throughout the bible we repeatedly see people putting up memorials, alters, and place markers and/or changing names to signify or represent work that God has done in their life.  This was done not only so that what God has done could be remembered but so that it could be talked about with others. Do you have any stones that you need to collect and/or put up for the Lord this year? Take time to remember them, even if it's only by writing them down.

4. Say "Thanks" - It's such a small word, isn't it?

5. Pick One Word - Whether or not you get the book, pick One Word for the year as your focus. In case you couldn't tell, my one word this year is smallness. Your one word is like a mini goal and when used in prayer it can be a quick way to help guide you when you need to make decisions or refocus.

6. Stop doing it - What is the smallest thing that you can stop doing? -Even if it's only for a period of time so that you can discover how to give God Glory while doing it.

7. Accept the K-Love Challenge? This is a challenge to listen to Christian music on the K-Love station for 30 days. (I had to put this on here because my daughter asks me nearly every day if we can accept this challenge. To which I reply, Sophie, we've already been listening.... But she still asks. Maybe my smallest thing is to get her a calendar so that she has the excitement of marking it off every day and maybe I'll challenge myself to listen with a new ear.) It seemed fitting to add here. It is small and you are already in the car, right?!?!

8. As a family - Maybe try to exclude going to so many individual/separate events in order to find one group event that you can all do together.

9. Read less but absorb more - Each of us at some point or another have sworn or at least been pretty sure that we'd read the whole bible or a certain number of chapters a day within a year. But that's a BIG challenge and sometimes the bible is hard to read. How about simply going for understanding of the one chapter that you choose to read? After you read it once, find another translation, and maybe another. Check out commentary, interpretations and even look up certain words or details from the text. Ooh, you can even write a summary about what you think is happening, if you feel led to. When you've squeezed out every drop; then move on to the next chapter. Whew- doesn't that take the pressure off? Then you're never behind!

10. Up the volume - Instead of praying all day or praying more or even praying harder, make the words that you do offer up in prayer, words that are said out loud.

11. Change your availability - Instead of trying to be involved in every function and running around like a chicken with your head cut off; ask God to help you find the one person that needs to see you (or God through you) each day.

12. Don't forget your loved ones - What is the one thing that you can do for each member of your immediate family this week? Ask God to help you tune your listening ear. Maybe it's resetting an iPod, making cookies together or calling about an appointment. It might be as simple as watching a movie together but what's the smallest way that you can show the members of your house that they are not lost in your shuffle? If this and # 8 don't seem like a way to incorporate more God, check out 1 Timothy 5:8. And God repeatedly blesses people by giving them descendants in the bible. I can tell you that [next to the bible] he teaches me more about his character through my own family than anywhere else!

13. Little challenges - Maybe create/accept some little challenges in your uncomfortable zone for God. If you're not sure how, look here for some ideas on Tuesday's.

14. The silver lining - Every day something will happen to frustrate you. The kids might miss the bus on Monday. The car won't start on Tuesday. Don't even talk about Wednesday.... But at the very same time God is trying to teach you something about discipline and you feel it in such a good way. -Or perhaps a friend made you lunch and it touches you. When you're retelling the details of your day, is it only the gray clouds that you let define it? Or is God meeting a need in a different area or trying to reveal himself in those frustrations. -Do those details get a small part in the script that you rehearse?

15. Inventory & Goals - Before were too deep into this year take an inventory of last year. Are you satisfied with how it turned out? Are you closer to God or your family? Did you have a plan and master any of it? ...or give it to the master? Flesh it out. Was there anything you would have changed?  What can you aim for this year? Will it be different?

16. Customize it - Ask God what is the smallest way that YOU can squeeze a little more Glory in.

If you get some answers to 16, I'd love to hear them! So don't forget to share it here, on Facebook or with a friend.

Blessings to you in 2015!


Picture credit: http://thesamaritanwomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/StepsToSuccess012113-300x300.jpg