Follow my progress this year toward meeting 10 goals!

Better Homes & Gardens says tracking your goals makes them 10 times more likely to become habits. It also suggests treating yourself when you succeed. Great idea!

Week 3 of 52

10)   Practice 12 spiritual disciplines.

I am practicing the Spiritual Discipline of Bible intake this month. I have been daily reading 2 1/2 chapters of the Bible in 2 Kings, Proverbs and Hebrews. But, Bible intake is more than just reading the Bible. We also absorb Scripture by hearing it. Don Whitney says this on taking in the Bible at church:

…the ongoing worship of God cannot be separated from the Word of God, which you don’t expect to be read aloud or preached on the golf course or at the lake. We are to discipline ourselves to go and hear the Word of God. (Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. p 25)

I go to church weekly to hear God’s Word. It is often a true discipline for me not done out of enjoyment or profit, but raw willpower. Follow my pictures each week on instagram #Igotochurch. Add your own!

I also enjoy listening to two of my favorite preachers on-line.

• Wade Burleson is a Southern Baptist pastor who preaches in a traditional style, and has a theology that matches mine. I enjoy his blog here: http://www.wadeburleson.org/. His church’s sermons in itunes here.
• Nadia Bolz-Weber delivers short Lutheran homilies and is anything but traditional.

9)   Complete 12 credits toward MDiv.

The first class was cancelled due to weather, but work begins. Translation, pronunciation, and diagramming were completed this week. The first round wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Isn’t that the way it always goes?

8)   Connect with one person a week.

Check! I had a couple of opportunities this week. I also spent the weekend in the snow with middle-schoolers taking selfies and learning about God’s purposes.

7)   Complete writing a 12-week Bible study.

Nothing.

6)    Submit 6 articles for publication.

Nothing.

5)    Learn how to needle felt and create 25 sculptures. 

I have been working on a trio of human figures. I cannot decide how to do their clothes so I’ve just been staring at them all week. Here’s the start of the head of one.

4)    Complete 12 house/yard projects. 

The linen closet is the project of the moment. We have always had a curtain hanging over it, and so we forget it is still unfinished. Stephen took measurements for 3 drawers and 2 glass doors. I found a router at a yard sale for $5 this summer. It was all we were lacking to construct doors. I say “we” in the “Stephen alone” sense.;)

3)    Move at least 15 minutes a day.

It was a yoga week until winter camp. Then, I walked and played in the snow.I did skip Thursday since it was filled with errands and meetings.

2)   Fix my teeth. 

The invisalign trays should arrive in two weeks.

1)  Hike to 12 new places.

Nothing this week.