More Effective than New Year Resolution

January is typically a time for casting vision for the new year, a time full of possibilities and renewed vigor for certain goals.  And then…February.  If you’re anything like me, all the excitement and motivation has worn off a short month later, and I’m left feeling discouraged and not-enough.  I’ve had many failed good intentions (exercising more, eating healthy, and being on time are usually my top three) so this year I’ve decided I’m not going to go through the motions of putting pressure on myself in these particular areas only to feel like a failure weeks in.  This year I’ve decided to do something different.

This something different started as a little project I did last spring with my ladies’ group.  My co-leader and I wanted to have the women in our group define their desires in three areas of their life: Personal (or self), Spiritual, and Family.  Being the visual person I am, I immediately went to Pinterest to see how we could make something visually interesting to map and share.  I found this post about vision boards, and I really liked how this particular blogger put the boards together using file folders to make them portable and storable.

Here is a photo of my board, and while I have about twenty things on it that each have a story, I want to share just one in particular with you today.

Almost three years ago God started stirring a compassion in me for the millions of children living in extreme poverty in third-world countries.  Our family started sponsoring a little boy in India shortly after, and while that has been a great experience, I still felt like there was something else I was supposed to do.  So when making my vision board I put a picture of this world map along with a photo of a boy to represent my desire to minister to children in lands I have never been to.  When I shared this with my group, I told them my totally crazy dream: to one day sponsor a child in every country!  (Writing it out reminds me that this is still crazy, but not impossible: Matthew 19:26)

Fast forward six weeks or so, end of May 2015…and I get an email invitation to go on a missions trip with our church to Egypt (of all places!) in the fall.  I didn’t have much information, but I knew I was supposed to go.  Everything fell into place; even with limited information my husband was on board and the funds came in.  Months later at our first team meeting I found out that while in Egypt we would be partnering with a ministry that does sponsorships for extremely poor children in various villages outside the city.  Seriously!  I could not have dreamed this up.  Only God could make something like this happen, open doors of opportunity that are tailor-made for me.  This is not an isolated story, it’s not like I’m special.  The ladies in my group have many stories like this one, stories of God hearing their desires specifically and coming through for them in a way only He could do.

Our group’s vision boards

It’s powerful stuff to define a dream, say it out loud, and give it to God.  THIS is what I want more of this year.  I want my “Christian walk” to be an adventure!  

Do you have a story of God granting a desire of yours?  I’d love to hear about it!  You can tell about it in the comments below or contact me.