It’s that time of year when your social media news feeds and your emails are brimming with headlines about goals, New Year’s resolutions, and making 2018 the best. And I’m all for it. I am a believer in vision boards and striving for goals every year. But I don’t want to be another voice in the wind.

Most people, when talking about goals, say things like, “If people aren’t laughing at your dreams, then you’re not dreaming big enough.”

But what if your goals don’t seem very lofty? What if your goals seem flat out insignificant?

A lot of times, we feel the need to beef up our goals, make them bigger, make the numbers higher, add more stuff. But your goals shouldn’t be in comparison to anyone else’s. Your goals are as unique as you are.

For me, a goal is anything that I want to accomplish this year. But also, anything I believe God wants for me this year.

If you have taken the time to pray about this year and set your goals based on what God’s calling you to do, then it doesn’t matter what anyone else’s goals look like. Those other people don’t have your calling. They don’t have your family. They don’t have your life assignment.

What if your goal this year is just to survive your child’s preteen years? What if your goal this year is to learn to say “no” more? What if your goal this year is to take more time for yourself? (This may or may not be my own list!)

Those things may not seem “big enough” to make as a goal. They may not feel like they are impacting our world or that anyone will even notice. But they are vitally important.

Remember, some years are made for hustle. Some years are made to run hard and fast after big goals and big dreams.

But some years are made for learning. Some years are made for preparation. Those aren’t always the fun glamorous years – I know, that was my 2017! – but they are often even more important. They are the foundation that make it possible for you to hustle and run next year.

Preparation time is never wasted time. It sucks sometimes, but it’s never wasted.

Check out what Ezekiel’s goals were one year. In Ezekiel 4:4-7, God tells the prophet Ezekiel to lay on his right side for 390 days to bear the sins of Israel, then to turn over and lay on his left side for 40 days to bear the sins of Judah. In that time period he could only eat the worst quality food cooked over animal dung.

So here is Zeke – yes I’m a Dallas Cowboys fan – laying down for over a year. Literally, not figuratively. One commentary I read says he chained himself to a couch.

How many times would he have thought, “What the heck am I doing? This is stupid. Nobody even knows what I’m doing or why. Nobody even cares.”

You know he argued with himself.

“Maybe I heard God wrong. Would He really ask me to do something so ridiculous, so hidden, so meaningless?”

How many times did he feel like his goal was insignificant? How many times did he want to just give up because in the short-term it didn’t look like it mattered?

And yet he was impacting an entire country.

You know why Ezekiel did something so silly? Because he trusted God’s plan was bigger than his own. And because he had learned to obey.

Flip back to Ezekiel 3:

Son of man, get all these words that I’m giving you inside you. Listen to them obediently. Make them your own. And now go. Go to the exiles, your people, and speak. Tell them, ‘This is the Message of God, the Master.’ Speak your piece, whether they listen or not.

Ezekiel had learned to obey “whether they listen or not.” He had learned that it isn’t about anyone else. It isn’t about what people think is significant. It is only about obedience.

So what do you do if your goals don’t feel big enough?

1. Get God’s word deep inside of you. Take the time for quiet listening. Confirm that the goals you have for this year are from God, not from comparing yourself to anyone else.
2. Obey. Do what He’s told you regardless of what anyone around you thinks. (I bet Ezekiel knew better than tell all his relatives and friends what God told him to do. If he knew they would laugh or try to talk him out of it, why tell them?) Obey God. Take your first step.
3. Go. Go, speak, do, whether they listen or not. “They” are not your audience. God is your audience. His plans are bigger than yours could ever be. He will put you in places you could not get to on your own.

Nothing God asks of us is insignificant or too small. He is cheering you on this year, and so am I!

If God asked you to do something small for one year, would you do it? Would you do it even if you didn’t know the outcome or what He would ask of you next year?

Maybe this is your year of preparation. Maybe your obedience in this smaller thing will open up bigger doors than you could have opened on your own.

 

 

 

 

P.S. Comment to tell me what your seemingly small goals (or big goals) are. I’d love to hear from you!

 

Want to know more about vision boards?

I highly recommend this book by Terri Savelle Foy (well, every book by her!). Dream It. Pin It. Live It.* gives you the why and how of making a vision board! Plus, she shows how this is a Biblical principle that God has given us to follow our dreams and accomplish our goals!

 

She also offers an entire Vision Board kit in case you don’t know where to start!

 

*Affiliate Link: Read my disclosure policies here

 

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