Goals

Relationship goals

With God- read His word daily and meditate on it. Wait on Him, listen and enact what He is saying;

With myself- look after my health and wellbeing. Make this a priority. Make sure I am looked after.

With Malcolm- just enjoy and encourage who he is;

With my children/ our family- take care of their health too; learn to cook some new healthy meals; go easy and enjoy this year with Aimee's wedding coming up, and the last year for both Olivia at uni and Rose at school, plan for more family times and times of fellowship/ prayer;

With my extended family- enjoy the times we are together;

With my finances- the wedding, a new kitchen downstairs, mortgage repayments and one overseas holiday;

With my home- garden and outside ready for wedding; finish upstairs kitchen, painting of house next summer;

With my learning- complete Mindlab course, set up online record of learning and reflections;

With my work- establish Year 7/8 education, organisation for a bigger school; boundaries established and enforced.

With my church family- join a life group, keep supporting my girls in their youth work, pray and encourage others in their ministry.

Now if I was to write these as BEAUTIFUL goals....

Waking up to God everyday and just discovering what He has in store for me- then partnering with Him and watching what He does and being blessed to be part of His beautiful plans:)
Seeking His will for where He wants me to be, what He wants me to do and where He is taking me next...and appreciating the beauty of all He does in this process of creating me to become like Him, Beautiful

Feeling good about putting my own needs first so that in the end I can do what He has called me to do. Eating healthily and exercising daily. Having a beautiful feeling in my heart that I am as I should be. Looking more beautiful as I become healthier physically, emotionally and spiritually;

Enjoying my beautiful husband, our beautiful marriage and encouraging Malcolm to be healthy and well too.

Enjoying my beautiful children. Making my family beautiful meals and just having a great time with them. Enjoying planning Aimee's wedding and supporting them all through the year, as Olivia finishes Uni and Rose finishes school.

Cherishing beautiful time with my extended family and friends.

Appreciating the church family I belong to, joining a life group and seeing what beautiful things God is up to in our lives together and encouraging and supporting the beautiful elders and leaders in the house, and all those in their own ministry.

Creating a beautiful wedding, downstairs kitchen and whittling away our mortgage. Enjoying a beautiful break overseas later in the year.

Creating a beautiful garden and home ready for Aimee's wedding. This includes finishing the kitchen and painting the house- windows, etc. Decluttering to leave the beauty and serenity of space and order.

Enjoying learning outside of my work setting and thinking about the future of education. Keeping an online record of my learning and reflections and using this to further my own and others learning. Embracing the future of learning and how this can create beautiful lives;

Continually creating a beautiful learning place and relationships that bring out the beauty in ourselves and others. Creating a beautiful Year 7/8 programme, boundaries that support but don't limit others.

How to live a beautiful life

2016. I haven't formally recorded my goals for this year. They include things like Aimee's wedding, finishing my Mindlab Course, various projects for school, health and wellbeing...but I'm not really going to write about that here at this point in time. The relevance of mentioning these things is that so far this year, God's been showing me about BEAUTY. Something He showed me at the end of last year was...when we look at something of beauty, there's complexity in the creation and existence of that beauty. Beauty is when that complexity seems so easy, simple, and we think that it just is. But there is creation behind that simplicity. Complexity behind that simplicity. And that is what makes it all the more beautiful. It got me thinking about beauty and the thought of 'How to live a beautiful life' came into my mind. All this year, God's been showing me that in the complex web of activity, living, life, experiences, however you put it...beauty is within and beyond that.
I thought to myself...am I living a beautiful life. One thing I know is it sure is complex. Complicated. And sometimes I can't make any sense of it. But I know that God in His infinite wisdom and goodness...He makes things beautiful.
I know He has more to show me about this beautiful life. I'm encouraged that He has made me perfect, and He will continue to perfect me. Or in other words, He has beautifully made me, and will continue to bring out His beauty in me. As the psalmist said "He has fearfully and wonderfully made me, this I know full well".
I will continue to meditate on this word. And of course enjoy the beauty of His blessings, and those to come.
Amen