Are you like me? Do you face the new year with some trepidation? Maybe it's just me, but I hesitate to make goals and resolutions because, well, I am afraid I will disappoint myself. I know. I need therapy. But seriously, I want this year to be GOOD and when I put artificial carrots out there, and I fail to achieve them, well, it can be disappointing.
That's when I recognize that I probably need to go to God about it. Let's dive right in.
2 Corinthians 12: 7-
"...Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger[a] of Satan to torment me so I would not exalt myself. 8 Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times to take it away from me. 9 But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power[b] is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me. 10 So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, catastrophes, persecutions, and in pressures, because of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
God wants me to be my best. But, does he look down on you and I with a disapproving eye when we fail? No. Of course not. God knows we will fail! It's us that think we won't! (LOL!) He looks down on us, and quietly reminds us: "Child, I still love you. Don't quit."
I need that desperately. As a Type A personality, I am hard on myself and I am hard on others as a result. If you are like me, you know who you are. Raise the bar, achieve, fail, feel bad...your confidence and self esteem is too closely entwined with productivity/achievement/success.
But, gratefully, we have a God who isn't like that. If he was, he would have given up on us a long time ago.
The same reminder applies to homeschooling.
There was a three week stint where I had to work a long week, I got sick, then the kids got sick, then Christmas break came. Ask me how much 'actual' school we had during that week and I couldn't tell you. It wasn't much. And I didn't like it. I felt it. It gnawed at me.
But I kept reminding myself: Grace.
Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
Grace through faith. Not grace achieved. Not grace earned. It's a GIFT.
What do you say when you get a gift? "Thank you," not, "I don't deserve this" or "I can't take this."
So, I am going to go ahead and set some new goals...I like to give myself direction. But, if in 2 months, I haven't done it all, be sure to remind me, as I remind you, be gracious to yourself. God is.