Question of the Week #1

Welcome to the first edition of "Question of the Week"...please answer in the comments OR write a blog post of your own and leave me a link to your answers! Feel free to borrow the graphic as well.

Are you a goal setter? Do you set goals for yourself? How often? Yearly? Monthly? Weekly? Daily? If you don't meet your goals, do you beat yourself up about it? How do you stay motivated and on task? Do you have goals about your Bible reading? Why or why not?

My answers:

Are you a goal setter?

Only when it comes to reading and blogging. Goals about cleaning my room? cleaning my desk? cleaning my closet? not so much!

Do you set goals for yourself? How often? Yearly? Monthly? Weekly? Daily?

Yes and no. If by 'setting' goals you mean that I always write out the goals, then only sometimes. I blog my goals sometimes. Other times my goals are all in my head. I have an idea, a plan, in my mind of what I want to get accomplished--on that day, over the weekend, during the week, during the month, etc.

I do think it's important to think about choices, to realize that choosing one thing means you're aware that you're not choosing a dozen other things. If I sit and watch three hours of TV, then I won't get this book read and I won't have a book to review tomorrow. So it's good to try to know what's really important to you overall and in that specific moment as well.

If you don't meet your goals, do you beat yourself up about it?

I find myself feeling guilt and shame over many things--some needless, or all mostly needless. If it's been taken to God in prayer, I need to let it go and not worry about it. Not use it as weapon. Not use it as an excuse. Not use it to numb myself. But not meeting goals for the sake of 'meeting goals' is nothing for me to worry over.

One of my big goals is reading the Bible. There are several responses that I've felt to not meeting that goal through the years. I think the most dangerous--for me--is numbness, indifference, just not caring, growing very hardened. If I don't spend time with God in prayer or in the Word (and hopefully in both) then I should feel something. It's important to feel. I should have a relationship with God that I miss--actively miss--on days when I don't find (or make) time for Him. I should so hunger and thirst for God that nothing else will satisfy me but Him. And if I'm not in a place where that is true, then something needs to change, I need to be changed. So guilt in and of itself isn't a good thing. But feeling something is better than feeling nothing.

Bible reading shouldn't be a duty. Shouldn't be a chore. Shouldn't be unpleasant drudgery. And it's okay to pray for change in this area. To pray to God, to cry out that you want to love reading the Bible, to experience the delight and joy of reading His Word, to change your appetite so that spiritual things are more satisfying to you than other things, more worldly things.

I've gone through times where I just loved reading the Bible, but I've also gone through times where I've wanted to do anything but read the Bible. There are time I seek it out, and times where I avoid it. Times where I'm ashamed of my lack of wanting to read the Bible. I've gone to both extremes. And back. And forth.

How do you stay motivated and on task?

Good question! I'd love to hear how YOU stay motivated. My motivation can disappear overnight on some goals. Projects that I was so passionately excited about just a month or two ago, can become drudgery. I can burn out on projects before they're completed. I can get overwhelmed. Easily. I try to remember why I wanted to do it in the first place. I try to see from different angles. See if there are small things I can change or modify to make me excited again. Little things that will give me new energy.

Do you have goals about your Bible reading? Why or why not?

My goal is to always read the Bible each day. But I don't usually set plans as to what books, chapters, and verse. Just some here, some there. I might make a goal to read in a certain Bible--a particular study bible, a particular translation. I try to aim for a middle goal--not too broad, but not too narrow. (For example, read the book of Matthew this week...not read Matthew 1-4 on Mon, Matthew 5-7 on Tuesday, etc.)

I like having spontaneity in my Bible reading. But I think it is important to always have a goal that you will read the Bible...even if that goal isn't always specific.