What’s Your Goal?
In preparation for the ACFW conference I’m going to reprint several articles I did for WIN.
What is your goal? As a writer? A person of faith? A mother, father, spouse, sibling, you get the point?
Imagine if you will, that you’re a character in novel. What is the one thing that you want out of life? The thing you can’t live without? Okay, it can be more than one thing since we have different goals for the different areas in our lives.
I’ll use myself as an example: My goal as a writer is to publish a novel. As a homeschooler it’s to teach my children in a way that they can learn, have fun and not drive me up the wall. As a Christian, my goal is to hear the voice of God and get to know my Savior better.
But just like faith without works is dead, so is goals without action. My novel won’t be published if I don’t sit down and write it. Before I can teach my children, I need to do the research and decide what we should be studying. As a Christian, my relationship with God can’t move forward without me seeking Him through prayer and Bible reading.
But what if in the course of our life’s journey our goals begin to change? Just as in a novel, it’s okay to change goals. We all grow and learn and strive for bigger and better things. If I had a novel published, my next goal would be to publish a series. 🙂
In my own writing life my goals have shifted over the last couple of months. For a while I’ve been almost consumed with getting published and toiling endlessly to make that happen. But God is changing my heart and helping me see that to make goals without consulting Him first is futile.
As I learn to seek God before I set my list of goals, my focus is shifting from publication to simply writing well. I am learning God has a plan and the perfect timing for my writing. My only goals should be to seek Him, love my family and nurture the gift He’s given me. Publication is God’s job. Writing is mine!
I’m also learning to let go. It’s not easy, but it’s definitely freeing. So don’t be afraid to set your own life’s goal. Just remember that God is the editor of your life and will pull out his red pen if He sees you straying from His story line.
