It Is Never To Late to Start Growing

 I have always loved this time of year - between Thanksgiving and New Years. For me this is a time for reflecting over the past 11 months, and preparing for the coming year. I'm still one of those people who makes New Year's resolutions. I still set goals and make plans to achieve them; the dreaming and planning just energizes me. Honestly, I probably only hit about 10-25% of them, but I still like dreaming and making plans to grow. In fact, this is the time of year I create a Growth Plan for the coming 12 months.  Though I haven't done this the last couple of years, I've learned that if I don't have some targets to shoot for, and some kind of plan to hit them, I don't make much progress in life. 

My planning always starts with seeking a word from the Lord from His word. I ask the Lord to highlight a verse or passage that will guide me in making the plan and guide me through the coming year. This year my verse is Luke 2:52, "And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man." This simple verse contains a wealth of wisdom and inspiration; Luke describes the growth and maturity of the young Jesus. The word grew means to advance, increase or progress. Wisdom refers to mental and intellectual growth. Stature is a word that refers to both physical stature as well as emotional health or maturity. “Favor with God” refers to the spiritual component of life, relationship with God. Favor "with man” refers to relationships with people. So Jesus advanced mentally, physically, spiritually, and relationally. 

That covers pretty much every area of life, and gives me a good model to follow in planning for growth in the coming year. My plan will including growing ... 

... mentally and intellectually through intentional reading, listening to audiobooks and podcasts, and watching edifying media. 

... physically and emotionally through regular exercise, proper nutrition, and getting appropriate rest.  

... spiritually through practicing the spiritual disciplines such as Bible study, prayer, meditation, service, witnessing, etc. 

... relationally through scheduling of quality time, memory making events, and intentional contacts with family and friends.

Over the next month I will be nailing down specific goals in each of these areas (and a couple more), and fleshing out specific plans to reach my goals. I'm energized as I pray and think about what can be accomplished, but I also remember that setting goals and making plans is the easy part. I will still need commitment, determination and motivation to work the plan and accomplish the goals, but the starting point is to know where and how I am going to grow. If you are interested in growing with me and would like some help developing a Growth Plan, shoot me a message, I would love to help.