Vision and Goals

I had my last teaching small group of this year with my high school girls last night! I have led high school small group for three years now and as each year (school year) has come to a close I have mixed emotions. There is usually a feeling of some relief - we made it through the year, it went fairly well, and now I have some time off. But, that feeling of relief is mixed with feelings of excitement, sadness, disappointment, and hope. Excitement because I know this awesome group of students that are going to head out into the world and do amazing things. Sadness because many of them are leaving. Disappointment because I wonder if I've done enough, left them with enough strength and knowledge to stay strong in their faith in a world that's tough. And hope because I know all of that is not up to me....God is watching over them...the foundation is there....they know the truth....and God is much bigger than any of us could ever imagine.

Last night we had dinner at Atlanta Bread and just hung out for a little while. The girls signed each others year books and chatted about graduation, colleges, the upcoming seniors, summer, movies and just about anything. I had prepared something to discuss but decided to keep it pretty informal. I spoke about 20 minutes - taking them back to a couple messages that were given at Seacoast over the past month or so. One from Steve Furlick and the other from Geoff Surratt. From Steve's message we discussed the need to have a vision for life and from that to have patience knowing that God's timing is perfect. From Geoff's message we discussed being loved, beautiful, valuable and safe and the need to derive our image of self from the Lord. Our group's foundation was based on Proverbs 31 which made this a perfect ending. We talked again about what makes up a Proverbs 31 woman....I'm very proud of my girls they covered just about all of the description from memory....and we talked about our growth in that direction.

Earlier this year I had planned to discuss life goals with them and share the goals that I had created for this year. I ended up at the last minute not doing that lesson because the Lord laid something else on my heart for the night. But, last night, it fit perfectly. We discussed vision, being Godly women with a Godly view of self, and putting a plan (life goals/vision/mission) in place in order to be successful.

My girls are amazing and I'm so proud of all of them. I know that they will stumble and make mistakes just like all of us as they grow but I also know that they will do great things in this world! They are very loved, beautiful, valuable and safe!!

You're Up to Something Bigger Than Me

Whatever You're Doing by Sanctus Real...it's been speaking to me a lot over the past month or 2.

The other night, at the prompting of a pretty awesome mentor, I sat down and wrote out my goals for 2009. Yesterday I met with her to discuss my goals and hers as well as ways to pray for one another and to hold one another accountable throughout the year. As I was driving back to work just after our lunch, Whatever You're Doing was playing and I thought, what perfect timing. When I got back to my desk, I just played it over and over again and reflected on the lyrics (below). I'm always amazed at the ways that God speaks to me, the channels that He uses to get my attention.

As 2008 came to an end, I thought over and over again, God, what are you doing...where are you leading me/us. As the song describes, we have felt a lot of "chaos". We have fought to remain faithful and have learned much on the journey. I know that He's up to something big. I don't know exactly what but I do know that He's in charge and that He is definitely leading us just exactly where He wants us. So in reflecting on 2008 and creating goals for 2009 I know that it is time to heal, to trust, to move forward, to dream bigger, to grow, to love, to faithfully follow His lead.


Whatever You're Doing

It's time for healing time to move on
It's time to fix what's been broken too long
Time to make right what has been wrong
It's time to find my way to where I belong
There's a wave that's crashing over me
And all I can do is surrender

Whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but somehow there's peace
It's hard to surrender to what I can't see
but I'm giving in to something Heavenly

Time for a milestone, Time to begin again
Reevaluate who I really am
Am I doing everything to follow Your will
Or just climbing aimlessly over these hills
So show me what it is You want from me
I give everything I surrender...

To whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but somehow there's peace
It's hard to surrender to what I can't see
but I'm giving in to something Heavenly

Time to face up Clean this old house
Time to breathe in and let everything out
That I've wanted to say for so many years
Time to release all my held back tears

Whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but I believe
You're up to something bigger than me
Larger than life something Heavenly

Whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but now I can see
This *is* something bigger than me
Larger than life something Heavenly
Something Heavenly
It's time to face up Clean this old house
Time *to* breathe in and let everything out


If you want to listen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06AgY5Xoavw&NR=1


Happy New Year!!