One final thought...

Goals are so easy to accomplish and to keep striving for. Wrong! It is extremely difficult to follow through on goals for one reason…LIFE! Just ask the people who set the same New Year’s resolution every single year. Each January they start out wanting to complete a noble task of losing weight, watching less television or spending time with God every day. Then something happens. Life gets stressful, and you do not want to go to the gym; you want to get away from life with the lull of the television or hit the snooze button too many times so that you are running too late to spend time with God. So, how can you expect to accomplish your goals when they craziness of life starts to ramp up? Here are three key concepts that I hope will encourage you with your goals.

Make a plan & be intentional
“These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:7-9
As you look at your goals, ask yourself, “how are we going to accomplish this?” If you set a goal, but you do not put down ways you plan to accomplish the goal, then nothing is going to happen. For example, if I set a goal to run in a marathon this December, then I would set out a daily work out plan so that I would be in shape to accomplish that goal. If I just show up and try to run a marathon, then I will fail. If you have set a goal of having your child be a strong believer who is developing disciples when they are out of college, then think through how that is going to happen. It is more than taking them to church on Sundays. It takes time praying, reading the Bible together as a family, doing service projects …basically it is more than Sundays. If you do not come up with a plan, then you will fall back into your old routine of life, and your goals will be long forgotten.As you look at Deuteronomy 6:7-9, it talks about impressing God’s commandments on your children. Then it says to talk about them when you sit & walk at home & along the road, when you lie down & get up; it even says to make it a part of who you are & where you live! As you implement your plan, you must be intentional on everything you do. When you are driving on the road, talk about God’s creation - how God made it and how God created and loves your child. Also, remember to have fun. Plan family nights where you play games or watch a movie. Just doing this act shows your child that family and relationships are fun and important.

Evaluate constantly
As you go through the implementation process of your goals, you are going to make mistakes and want to go back to your old routine. It is important as a couple to constantly be evaluating and holding each other accountable. How do you know if you are following your goals? Here are a couple of suggestions:
Pray together every dayThe Holy Spirit is good at convicting people about things. In fact, the Holy Spirit may even point out that one of your goals needs to be changed or completely done away with. He may even prompt you to add more goals or raise your goals to a higher standard.
Look at where you are spending your timeTake a look back at your week and see how many hours you put towards your goal. If you want your child to make good grades so they can go to college, you would see how many hours he spends doing homework or reading. If you want your child to be walking with God spiritually after high school, see how much time you actually spend investing in that. That includes “faith talks” that come up as you are driving down the road. Research shows that the average Christian family spends less than 1 hour out of the 168 hours in a week talking about spiritual matters. If you want your child to be walking with God after High School, that is not enough time!As you evaluate though, it is VERY IMPORTANT to be very gracious with one another. This could be a complete change in your lifestyle and can be very difficult, but it will become easier over time.

Live it out
As mentioned in the previous post, high school students who have attended church are leaving at an alarming rate once they graduate. Their number one reason is the hypocrisy they see especially at home. If you want your child to strive for the goals you set for them, then you must be living them out yourself. What does that look like? If you want your child to grow up and have a good family life, then you have to live that out in your life. Show your child what a Godly marriage looks like. Love your wife like Christ loves the church. Take her out on dates & show her that she is precious & an incredible gift from God! If you want your child to have a growing relationship with God after high school, then you need to model that for them. Spend time daily in the Word, pray daily, pray with your spouse daily. Your child is going to live out what you model for them, whether you want them to or not.

Press on!
This is not going to be easy. Jesus never said following Him would be, just look at Luke 14:25-35. You and your spouse will have to rely on God, and that is the only way you can accomplish this. Do you think that the evil one wants you to be intentional about raising your child? Especially, if you want your child to pursue Christ when they are out of your home? Remember Philippians 4:13,” I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”