How do we plan financially for Christmas this year?

Hello, my name is Ron Blue, and as we approach the New Year, every year in December and January, most often in January, we begin to think about New Year’s resolutions. We think about, “what am I going to attempt to accomplish this year?”

I think goal setting is very, very important. There have been many studies on goal setting and what has been found is that people accomplish far more when they set goals than when they don’t set goals. I say it this way, “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.” If you aim at nothing, any road will get you there. There’s no purpose, there’s no direction. And I think one of the greatest values to goal setting is that they provide direction. They provide motivation. And, when you accomplish a goal, it provides a sense of reward also.

So there’s a lot of reasons, practically speaking, to set goals. Paul, himself, said, “I press on toward the goal of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” He knew where he was going. He knew what that meant and he describes it in Philippians 3.

Now I don’t think that goals are as important as the process of setting goals, because goals are going to change. My circumstances can change in thirty days, sixty days, and one hundred and eighty days. They change, perhaps, every year. And, when my circumstances change, it changes, perhaps, the direction I want to go. But if I am thinking about “where do I want to go?” and I set goals on where I want to go, when my circumstances change, I have a point, a line, or a direction that I can deviate from.

I think the process of setting goals needs to be done prayerfully because every goal is a statement about what I would like to see in the future. And, in reality, a goal is a statement that says, “This is what I believe God would have me to do thirty days, sixty days, one hundred and twenty days, whatever the case may be, in the future.” Do I believe God would have me to lose weight? To eat less? To spend less? To give more? Whatever the goal might be, what I need is the direction that is prayerfully set. That’s number one.

Number two, I think that you spend some time in the Scriptures asking God to help you think differently, or think rightly. And then you set your goals.

But third, there’s something you need to do if you’re married and that is to sit down with your spouse and set goals together, so that it’s not his goals or her goals, but it’s our goals that we believe God would have us accomplish. I need to be able to say that my spouse and I, my wife and I, are headed in the same direction for the same reason and that is that because we believe that’s where God wants to take us.

My challenge: pray, read the Scripture, sit down with your spouse, and then quantify the goals that you believe God would have you to set for this coming year.


Click here for the December 30, 2008 Blog Entry