With the ringing in of a new year, I hear people talk about goals and new year resolutions. Well, my goal for the new year is to stop setting goals for the sake of setting a goal. After seeking God’s heart for the new year I’ve come to this conclusion: Setting goals is like putting activities on steroids. It can create a sense of purpose in a person who is disconnected from God’s purpose. It’s like putting a band-aid on a deeper issue and that issue is, you haven’t settled who you are and what your life is about.

God teaches me to get settled on who I am first before I chase what I’m doing. So my new year encouragement to you is to begin with the foundation of being before you jump into the activity of doing. As the daughter of a King, do your current relationships honor God, do the profits from your business honor God, do the activities in your ministry honor God. Take a personal audit and align your activities with your identity as the King’s daughter.

Recently I’ve had some changes in my life. My son’s house flooded and he and his wife moved in with me. Then my first grandson was born shortly after Hurricane Harvey. Within a few weeks, I was in the depths of my new role as mother to grown children and new grandmother. When events change your roles you need to take the time to recalibrate or else after a while, the changes start to redefine you and you forget who you are.

To recalibrate, God led me back to the verse that has been foundational in my life. This verse has served as my center. You must find your center and begin from there. From your core center, your energies will radiate out to touch the world. Without a core center, you will start feeling random and nothing in your life will be cohesive. My core center has been this verse: Seek first the kingdom.

I am first a disciple. How does a disciple of Jesus respond in the role as mom or grandmother? The disciple role sets my boundaries so I don’t get pulled into someone else’s world and forget all my values and priorities. If you don’t remember what your life stands for, those around you will start seeing you as a blank whiteboard and they will start writing activities on your board. Choose to be urgent about what your life stands for because if you don’t, everyone else around you will make their own needs more urgent than your own. Don’t expect someone else to protect God’s call on your life.

Young children (especially toddlers) are great at elevating any need to an urgent level. It takes a very mature child to rank their needs or to ask a parent, “How was your day and how can I make your day better?” In business, it takes a very mature employee to wonder what challenges the boss is facing. They tend to respond out of their own needs and how changes in company policy will impact them personally.

So don’t let the urgency of those around you muddle up your identity. Begin with a sure place of being a disciple of Jesus and then respond. For example, you may find yourself saying:

“Yes I can help you with that need but not to the extent you are asking. I can help but I must also stay committed to what God has called me to build for an eternal kingdom.”

“No I can’t sign up for that class because it conflicts with activities already on my calendar that forwards God’s kingdom.”

And if you don’t know what activities you engage in that forward God’s kingdom, perhaps you have a bigger question to settle. Are you really a disciple of Jesus? Why don’t you settle that question first in the new year before rushing into goals and activities for the rest of the year?

Click here to see Anita Carman’s Facebook Live Post  – New Year, New Spark