Hope Road

I have found Shopping for Time to be a great resource as I am thinking through and planning this next season of my life. I have also greatly appreciated your comments on both of my “time management” posts from last week - Letting Things Slide and Do the Next Thing. I’ve spent quite a bit of time thinking about and planning for the future, and I must admit I am enjoying it. I am not enjoying the thought of getting up at 7:00 in the morning regularly beginning tomorrow morning, but I know that all of these habits will pay off eventually.

Anyway, as I was saying, Shopping for Time has been great because it details a list of seven priorities as examples of priorities you can identify in your own life. They are:

1. Grow in godliness
2. Love my family
3. Serve in the church
4. Fellowship with Christians
5. Evangelize non-Christians
6. Attend to my work
7. Care for my physical body

The book also gives examples of questions to ask yourself as you are taking time to think about how you want to focus on your priorities during the next season of your life. For instance: “How can I make my devotions more fruitful?” “Am I using my gifts to serve in the local church?” “What is one way I can be more effective or efficient in the work God has called me to do?”

I went through each of my priorities and identified specific things that needed to change in order for me to be prioritizing things correctly. As a result of those specific things, I came up with a list of nineteen resolutions for the New Year… I know, I can’t do anything by halves. The great thing is they are all very specific. Some are going to be hard, others easy. But I feel as though God is calling me to make changes in all of these areas.

So, to conclude this discussion, I am going to share five of my resolutions for the New Year. One way I’ve found to be helpful in the past for keeping up with these plans is to have a little time set aside once a week - Sunday afternoons are great - to plan for the week ahead and consider how my time is being spent. I hope to review my priorities and resolutions on Sunday afternoons as often as I can. And without further ado, here is a sampling of my resolutions for 2008:

1. Seek out one regular service opportunity at my church this semester.
2. Get homework done first, before taking a break.
3. Exercise at least four times a week - set up regular times.
4. Make diligence and hard work a matter of Scriptural study. Look up a verse or two a day on these subjects and meditate on how God wants me to implement them in my life.
5. Attend every class if possible.

Now, I know it may be a challenge to follow through on all of these. But I don’t want to be fooled anymore by the notion that I simply can’t rise to the challenge. Through God’s grace, I can do hard things… what is more, I am called to do hard things. And from what I’ve shared already about the pattern of my life over the past year, it is time for some major changes.

So now it’s your turn. What is at least one New Year’s resolution/plan for change you’re making for 2008, and why? I look forward to hearing from you! Thanks for listening and discussing this subject with me over the past few days. You all are great!

Filed under: Time Management on January 1st, 2008