“If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones.”  LUKE 16:10 NLT 

To set the stage for our devotion, here’s a story that highlights key aspects of goal setting: I decided,” Macaiah announced to her husband, Jonathan, one morning as she rolled out of bed. “I’m going to be fit! That’s my goal.” Jonathan wanted to be supportive, but he felt confused. “What does that even mean?” he asked. “I mean, is it like taking vitamins? Completing a marathon? Is it eating leafy green veggies every day?”  Jonathan knew something about goals that Macaiah didn’t yet know: for goals to be achievable, they need to be specific. 

There’s no confusion about goals that are specific: I will practice the guitar for thirty minutes, six times a week. I will learn to make my mom’s lasagna and serve it to my family in the next fourteen days. I will finish the book I’m reading by Sunday night. 

I hope this feels like good news to you! If you’ve struggled in the past with making goals and keeping them, it might have been that you weren’t specific. After a raucous night of sweets and alcohol, you may have announced on January 1 that you were going to lose weight in the new year. If that didn’t happen, it may have been because your goal wasn’t specific. Maybe you want to stop eating each night after seven. Maybe you want to find the perfect painting for the living room. Write it down; make it happen. 

To whet your appetite for goal making, I invite you to write down five goals that are very specific and then choose one to execute. (Hint: to have goals that serve the whole person, you might consider these broad categories: physical, mental, social, emotional, spiritual.) 

God, I believe that You care about the little things in my life.  As I seek to be the person You made me to be, I’m committing to You the small goals I’d like to accomplish. Amen.