The “Why” Behind the Goals

Posted on June 14, 2012 by MB@NewLifeSteward • 21 Comments

For the last two weeks, I have participated in Sarah Mae’s 31 Days to Clean, the Reboot. I have to admit, she’s taken it pretty easy on us. She is my kind of cleaner! Earlier this week, she asked us why we wanted to clean our homes. What was the goal or purpose? I’ve been pondering that question all week. Then I naturally extended the “why” question to all of my goals. Why do I want to achieve these goals and make them a part of my daily life?

The new tagline for Sarah Mae’s blog reads “where life becomes worship“. That is also the driving force behind Avodah Coffee (the folks who gave me a ticket to Allume!) Avodah is the idea that work, family, and all aspects of life blend together with worship and service. It’s all intertwined.

That is ultimately what these goals are about. The worship of my unfathomable God and service towards those around me, namely my husband and my son.

Of course, there are personal benefits too: I feel better in a neat and clean home. We will be healthier from detoxifying our home and eating more “real” food. My family relationships will be strengthened through intentional focus on my husband and my son.

Some days, the basic day to day of making these goals a reality will overwhelm me, and I will forget the reason behind them. I will mess up. But that is the beauty of it.

I’m not doing these things to earn anything. There won’t be any awards handed out at the end. I’m doing it as worship and service, so when I fail, it’s okay.

Because there is grace for that.

Goal Updates:

Personal Goals

  1. Bible Study Fellowship:
    On summer break. I’m currently studying 1 Peter with Allume.
  2. Serve others:
    Teaching 3 year old Sunday School; working a sports’ camp with the church next week
  3. Memorize Scripture:
    No progress :(
  4. Organize a housekeeping/homemaking book:
    A friend will be guest posting on this soon! I’m still learning and formulating how I want to do this.
  5. Read more:
    Still haven’t shared my reading plan with you, but I’m reading Grace for the Good Girl and You are a Writer.
  6. No TV during the day when Thomas is awake:
    This is pretty solid unless it’s just a bad day!
  7. Start a blog:
    ummm…You’re reading it!
  8. Prayer time!
    Praying every morning. Check out this series on prayer.
  1. Set up and USE a cleaning schedule with daily, weekly, and monthly chores (suggestions welcome)
    Thought a lot about it, but nothing done yet.
  2. Start meal planning
    No progress :(
  3. Cook with better quality foods
    We are trying to cook 1 new meal per week with whole foods
  4. Cut out MSG
    Currently, we are just learning what foods we eat have MSG.
  5. Use more natural cleaners
    I’m cleaning the bathrooms with baking soda and a vinegar/water solution. Also using the vinegar/water in the kitchen.

Marriage Relationship Goals

  1. Nightly prayer/devotion time together
  2. Accountability for personal time with God
  3. Monthly date
  4. Journal family blessings/answered prayers together

We might could get credit for a monthly date, but not because we were being intentional! We talk about each of these things but have yet to take action!

Parenting Goals

  1. Create (and use) a discipline plan.
    We have a “loose” plan, but nothing in writing…
  2. Teach the Bible consistently (weekly lessons).
    No progress :(
  3. Nightly prayer
    Sometimes I pray while I’m rocking him to sleep but not consistently.
  4. Choose a life verse for each child.
    Done for Thomas. Will share soon.
  5. Choose 5 Biblical character qualities (unique for each child) that we want to focus on instilling in them.
    Done for Thomas. Will share soon.
  6. Write to each child individually in a journal as they grow.
    No progress :(
  7. Help them develop a habit of a quiet time to focus on God as age appropriate.
    No progress, but not really age appropriate yet.

I know that was probably boring for you. It’s more for myself and accountability purposes than anything else.
My focus for the remainder of June and July is to get the Homemaking binder/Housekeeping schedule done and continue cooking 1 whole foods meal each week. (Of course while continuing the other practices I’ve already started.)

This post is linked with thanks to:

Company Girl Coffee
3in30
Favorite Things Friday
Weekend Whatever
Faith Filled Friday
Just for Fun Friday
Homemaking Link-Up

KidVentures-300x250

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Filed Under: A Loving Home, Loving God, Loving My Child, Loving My Husband
  • Sylvia R @ sylvrpen.com

    “I’m doing it as worship and service, so when I fail, it’s okay. Because there is grace for that.” Yes, a lovely, gracious approach to daily tasks. I need to remind myself of this. Sometimes in the distractions it gets easy to forget, but my aim is increasingly becoming my daily work as worship-service, and that makes it more and more a sweet enjoyment.

  • Michy lovingourjourney

    Just to see goals in print is a big accomplishment! I like your idea of writing to each child in a journal…I need to start doing that! :)

    • http://newlifesteward.com/ Mary Beth

      I’ve contemplated doing it as an e-mail, you know setting up an account for him and just e-mailing him. But then, what if the world falls apart and we don’t have internet anymore. :( I would be sad to lose it all!! Haha. I know thats doomsdayish but still…

  • Lori

    Wow! Those are some awesome goals! You’re doing great on them too!
    Let me just say, since reading your blog, I’ve gotten the “allume bug” too. I’d really like to go, but it’s going to take some “unusual favor” (God moving kind of favor) for it to happen. I’ll keep praying though!
    Thanks for sharing the way you do!!
    Blessings!

    • http://newlifesteward.com/ Mary Beth

      Doesn’t Allume just look divine!? I still can’t believe I’m really going! I’ll be praying for God to grant you a special favor so you can come too!

  • jds_nps

    You’ve got some good goals! They are definitely worth the effort to make them happen.

  • http://www.facebook.com/kellibecton Kelli Parker Becton

    keep up the good work – I like your blog- following now! great goals!

    • http://newlifesteward.com/ Mary Beth

      Thank you! I needed a bit of encouragement today! Appreciate you stopping to do so!
      Mary Beth

  • http://www.seasonalcoloranalysis.net/ Jeanine Byers

    Oh my gosh, I wanted to go lie down after just reading it!! How do you even hold all of that in your head? The rest of us are only focusing on 3 goals ~ you’re blowing us out of the water. :) So you’re doing an awesome job!

    • http://newlifesteward.com/ Mary Beth

      Well for this month I’m just focusing on the homemaking binder, cleaning schedule, and cooking with whole foods once a week. I just wanted to update the rest! :)
      Mary Beth

  • Rebecca Clark

    For meal planning you could make a spreadsheet with a column for all the main dishes you know how to cook, all the side dishes you know how to cook, or just vegetables you like to eat. Then when you go to meal plan you already have all the recipes in front of you and you can just pick what you want each day of the week. I meal plan for 5 meals and then do leftovers or punt for the other 2 meals. God always provides one way or another.. :-)

  • Jessa

    1 Corinthians 10:31 and Colossians 3:17 come to mind: whatever it is we are doing, we should do it to God’s glory. My dad used to say even scrubbing toilets is worship!

    Thanks for the encouragement. I’ve got a million life goals too, and they often overwhelm me, but I do them for the betterment of my family and my faith and myself. I have an accountability group and prayer group to help me keep up with my goals, and I like to list them out as you have here.

    Enjoyed reading this after finding you on a blog hop!

    Jessa
    http://herejessa.blogspot.com/

  • http://seejamieblog.com Jamie Worley

    These are great goals, and great motivation behind it. I love Sarah Mae. :)

  • Tina Blankenship

    Hello Mary Beth. I have met you through Amy’s Link Up. I’m happy to read your goals and I am very impressed. I personally use the FLYLADY.com cleaning programs. I have done Sarah Mae’s program as well. I wound up combining the two….breaking up the home into “zones” as Flylady suggests and using the motivationals from Sarah Mae’s book. I also am working to have all whole foods in our meals, and if I must have somethiing that was not “alive”….such as mac n cheese, then it’s home made with wheat pastas and real cheeses. I am an empty nester now with just my husband and pomeranian at home ;) Trust me that this season of life will be very short. Your chance to make such a positive impact on your children end sooner than you are prepared for. But in the meantime….you have wonderful goals ahead.

    • http://newlifesteward.com/ Mary Beth

      You are the second to recommend Fly Lady! I have to admit, her website looks confusing to me! We are gradually working on the food. Tonight, I peeled carrots and potatoes! We had real Shepherd’s Pie! Thank you for your encouragement! I’m trying to savor the time we have with our child (hopefully children in the future!) as we know this is only a season in our life!

  • StopnSmelltheChocolates

    So many great goals Mary Beth!! I really need to make a list like this. Oh and I have tried and failed at many different cleaning systems/schedules. I’m still trying to figure out what works best for me. FlyLady does have some good tips, but I found that trying to use her whole system completely overwhelmed me right away. Time to try again I guess! It will be fun to see you at Allume! :)

  • Sherri Davidson

    Not boring for me at all. I like seeing how others think. We have a lot of similar goals. Way to keep working on them. :)

  • Martha

    Don’t feel bad about the areas which you haven’t done much progress on this week. You have a long, beautiful list that’s going to take time. I know I had to learn the hard way to cut back on the amount of goals I set forth and focus on the quality of achieving them. =D As long as you get three goals completely finished, RIGHT ON!

  • http://ourgoodfamily.org/ Aurie Good

    I loved this post – what a great list! I think you have a lot of wonderful goals listed here – it will be fun to follow your progress :) Thanks so much for linking up!

  • http://ThisMomsDelight.com Tami @ ThisMomsDelight.com

    I love SarahMae’s tag line. I appreciate you sharing your goals list and you’ve made me think about they why’s behind my current activities and daily habits.

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