2023...Setting Goals for the New Year

2023….New Goals, Words for the Year, Fresh Starts…

What’s your ritual?

As I walked down our quarter mile long, dirt driveway and looked across our remote valley, across the miles of sagebrush to the snow-covered mountains, and I thought, “We live in the most beautiful place.”

Then I chuckled.

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine I’d end up where I am today.  In fact, it wasn’t even on my radar.  But….The Lord’s ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8).

I remember once telling a cowboy from Montana that I couldn’t imagine ever leaving the ocean.  Living on the beach made me feel like I could see across the world; it made me feel free.  His life seemed so claustrophobic to me, living in a remote location surrounded by mountains made me feel like he was somehow “locked in”.   The only way I could describe how I felt about his lifestyle was “Ew” and “Yuck”.

So how did I go from living on the ocean, pursuing a career in fashion to a wife of a rancher, not just living but LOVING life in a remote location, and pursuing a life of sustainability? There was no great life altering discovery, nor was there a life changing incident. It was a looooooong, slow process.  It took 6 years of saying “YES” to God in the small things, that ultimately transformed my life radically.  Like peeling away layers of an onion, with each “yes”, God led me to the life He had in store for me, a life much richer than I could ever imagine. I can not imagine this life that I would have missed if I had not allowed God to mold and shape me into who He wanted me to be.

As we approach a new year, like many of you, I’ve been thinking about what my goals are, perhaps a word for the year or motto.  I dream of how I’d like the year to look, things I would like to accomplish, areas in which I’d like to grow, and where I’d like to be at the end of the year.  And as I ponder this, God gently reminds me that He already has this year mapped out for me.  The best way for me to have a successful, productive, goal accomplishing year is to follow His lead, and to simply say “yes” to all He calls me to do. Because no matter what I have planned, He has something even better. And that’s something I don’t want to miss.

Proverbs 16:9 “A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.”

Proverbs 3:6 “In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”

Ephesians 3:20 “Now to Him who is able to do EXCEEDINGLY ABUDNANTLY above all we ask or think according to the power that works in us…”