It’s that time of year where you decide to do better in several areas of your life…you know those things called resolutions?  Well,  I know they should be called goals, but whatever I called them in the past I never completely followed through on them.  But this year I believe I can and I will….with the help of the Holy Spirit.

 I am basing my goal setting on the areas mentioned in Luke 2:52:
“And Jesus grew in wisdom (mentally) and in stature (physically) and in favor with God (spiritually) and man (socially) .”   These areas are also mentioned in  Proverbs 31,  so I will use that as a basis for my goal setting too.  More to come…

This excerpt has encouraged me many times.  I hope it will do the same for you….

Though early morning is not my best time of day, after a couple of cups of coffee, I managed to fix breakfast, wash the dishes, and usher six children out the door to school before heading for the laundry room.

I stopped abruptly at the door and stood gazing in disbelief at the mountain of dirty clothes. Hadn’t I just washed three loads yesterday? Sudden tears of frustration stung my eyes. I quickly brushed them away, a bit ashamed of myself, and put the first load in the washer.

Then I continued to tidy up, picking up the morning newspaper and various cups and glasses left from snacks the night before. Soon I found myself in my son’s bathroom, scrubbing the tub. Once again the tears insisted on imposing themselves against my will. This time they found little resistance. I was frustrated and discouraged, and my self-esteem was about as low as it could get.

It was still morning, but I was tired —- tired of the same mess day after day —- of washing clothes that only yesterday I had folded and returned to their proper places; of doing the dishes, only to get them out a short time later to reset the table. I was sick of spending hours cooking a meal that was consumed in minutes.

Sitting in the middle of the bathroom floor, sponge and cleanser in hand and tears streaming down my cheeks, I found myself fussing, crying and praying all at the same time.

God in his loving -kindness came to meet me: “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for Me.” (Matthew 25:40).

“Lord, even this?” I asked. “Especially this,” He replied. “Who else is going to do it for Me? In all these small ways, you are serving Me.”

Lovingly reassured and encouraged, I dried my tears and continued to scrub the tub.

Taken from SINCERELY by Gigi Graham Tchividjian. Copyright 1984 by the Zondervan Corporation