Have you ever watched one of those hoarder shows on television? Where the crew comes in and cleans out a person’s house from top to bottom?
Just think if you tried to tackle one of those houses all by yourself. Wouldn’t it be easy to give up before you ever did enough work to see a huge difference?
That’s what it’s like with some New Year’s goals. If you’ve been practicing that behavior all your life, you may not see a lot of improvement in a couple of weeks.
Try not to get discouraged if that’s how you’re feeling. Trust in God that His truth will set you free and then keep going to Him for help. Here’s a schedule you can use for the week if you’d like.
Week 2 Plan
Monday: Read 10 Lies That Make Us Give Up On Our New Year’s Resolutions. Have you been telling yourself any of those things? If so, use the Scriptures in the post to write a couple of Scripture prayers in your journal or spend some time meditating on them. What does the verse mean in relation to your goal?
Tuesday: Prayers of thanksgiving are great ways to renew your mind. Read Philippians 4:6 and pray a prayer of thanksgiving with your goal in mind. Click here for ideas on what you can thank God for.
Wednesday: Do the Bible study, Spiritual Warfare and Your Goal, with your goal in mind.
Thursday: Read the following two posts: Preparation Truth: When Just Say No Isn’t Enough and Preparation Truth and do one of the assignments in the posts.
Friday, Saturday, Sunday: The best way to change is to renew your mind every time the situation comes up. This weekend I’d like you to try an experiment. Renew your mind every time you feel the stress associated with your goal – even if it’s just a little stress.
For example: if your goal is to be thankful, renew your mind every time you’re not thankful. If your goal is to depend on God, renew your mind every time you start to worry. If your goal is to control what you eat, then every time you feel like eating outside your boundaries.
Experiment with different renewing of the mind techniques to see what works best for you. Do that for three days and see what happens.
Week 3 Plan: Click here for week 3 plan.
If you’re getting discouraged this week, click here (It’s a post on failure with eating but can apply to any goal.) You might also look at this post: Spiritual Warfare and Your Project.
Your post has really encouraged me Barb. I was praying and renewing my mind over a situation and after opened your post. i esp like the prayer of thanksgiving and meditating on Scripture, what I was doing. Thanks for sharing and have a blessed weekend.
You too, Ngina!
I really needed this! And i finally have a resolution! Phew! LOL! Only 19 days into the new year! ;o)
Also I lost your e-mail address Barb, I wanted to share something a friend sent me. could you sent me your e-mail address at tarcher30 at charter dot net
Thanks!
Ha – better late than never, right? Mine are evolving. I started with just one and then had to add a couple of others because they were all interwoven. I was pretty discouraged for awhile last week but doing better in the last couple of days! My e-mail is under the about tab – I need to make a separate heading for it one of these days. I’ll e-mail you though. I was actually thinking of looking up your e-mail address the other day but didn’t get around to it.