Sunday, January 2, 2011

Goals

Goals

This is what a basketball goal has always looked like to me. As an adult. As a teenager.


I remember watching friends compete to see who could reach the highest on the net, or even touch the rim. I was glad to be able to get my feet a few inches off the ground.

A few lucky guys could actually leap with a ball and dunk it. That goal always seemed so out of reach.


It would have been nice, when I was younger, to be able to jump and reach the rim. But really, it didn't matter then and it doesn't matter now. To be able to touch the goal was never a goal for me.

I think a goal must reach at least three criteria to be worthy of our efforts.

One, it must stretch us to be better people. A goal to clean up our speech, relate better to people, and read the Bible through in a year are such goals.

Two, it must require some serious effort. The work to achieve the goal is often as important and transforming as the goal itself.

Three, it must meet with God's approval. The things God approves are eternal in nature, so they really matter!

There is nothing wrong with being able to leap and touch a basketball rim. But, at 5' 10", I knew it wasn't a likely goal for me. It certainly isn't now.

But learning God's word, relating better to my wife and kids, and mentoring a fatherless ten-year old, now those goals stretch me, take serious effort, and pay eternal benefits. Those are three goals I'm working on this year.

How about you? What goals have you set that meet these three important criteria?

Warren Baldwin

Note: Thanks to Karli Photography for these great pictures.

4 comments:

Beth Herring said...

I love this Warren - i love the 3 criteria that are easy to remember for us to weigh our goals against.

Good food for thought and I pray that #3 is always my first priority!

Terry Laudett said...

Those are great criteria and great goals. Thanks for always inspiring us to be better people, Warren.

Warren Baldwin said...

Thanks Beth. I'm trying to following these 3 this year.

Terry - I write much of this for my own life! I hope it "spills over" with some encouragement for others. Thanks!

Sonya Lee Thompson said...

I love these three criteria for goal setting! You are right, if the goals don't stretch us they aren't worth setting.