Purposeful Steps

By Sherri Holbert –

Do you have changes you’d like to make in your life? Perhaps you would like to exercise more during the week. Maybe you would like to have more time to simply relax and read a book. Perhaps you love to read so you’d like to read 10 new books to learn about a new area of interest. Maybe you’d like to start planning for a family vacation you’ve not been able to take. Maybe you have that one thing you keep saying, “I wish I could do this. I wish I could do this.”

We all have changes we’d like to make in our life. This means we all have goals we want to accomplish. Yet many people say, “I’m not goal-oriented.” The word “goal” can be scary to some people.

If you were an athlete in high school or college, what was your team goal? To win, of course. Everything you did in practice was designed to help you achieve that goal. What is your goal as a Christian? It’s to be more Christ-like. This means we work to take purposeful steps, creating the change we want in life. Train our minds to focus on the positives and train our mouths to say kind and loving things to others. It takes work—especially patience and faith. There is only one way to do this and do it well. Have a plan—a plan to keep yourself on target.

You may not see the need for putting goals into a written plan on paper but Paul taught us goal-setting is scriptural. Here are some key points we can learn from Paul to apply to our lives:

• God has a plan for my life. He will guide me with the plan.
• I will practice strict control.
• I will make each step purposeful.
• I will run straight toward my goal without wavering.
• I discipline my mind and body to do what it should.
• I strive for eternal riches.

Paul said it best when he said that the important thing is to take small steps to accomplish the goals God wants you to achieve so you don’t get overwhelmed and quit.

PRAYER:  Heavenly Father, help me to run the race with strength and courage so that I am accomplishing the goals that are part of Your big plan for my life. Keep me focused on things that make an eternal difference. Keep reminding me that I accomplish Your work through daily small steps.”

“Remember that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize. You also must run in such a way that you will win. All athletes practice strict self-control. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So, I run straight to the goal with purpose in every step… I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27 NLT).

This devotion is by Sherri Holbert, a life coach, author and co-founder of Walk of Purpose Ministries. Her study, DIVAS of the Divine:  How to Live as a Designer Original in a Knock-Off World guides you through setting a step-by-step plan in place to help you accomplish the changes you want to make in your life. Learn more at www.walkofpurpose.com

Unidentified Flying Dog

By Sherri Holbert –

Imagine a soft ball of white, hyper fur who answers to the name Roxy. She was one of my favorite pets. She was a fluffy, spirited, extremely loving Eskimo Spitz. She was predictable. She had specific routines that she stuck to day after day. She loved to eat—a girl after my own heart.

Her morning routine at breakfast time was a sight to see. She looked liked a cotton ball on steroids running the 100 yard dash. The minute the garage door opened she would bounce off the front porch, fly at rocket speed around the corner of the house, bolt to the edge of the eight-foot-tall retaining wall, skid through the turn and cross the finish line with a catapulting jump off the low end of wall that landed her onto our driveway—very close to the food bowl.

One particular cold winter day, Roxy bolted out the door on her 100 yard food dash. Only this morning was different. A new twist to her dash soon caught poor Roxy’s undivided attention. A thin layer of black ice had carpeted the wall. As the song goes, “You can only imagine” the flying cotton ball on steroids in an instant had a new identity. She was now a spastic four-legged UFD (Unidentified Flying Dog). As she flew off the high side of the retaining wall her eyes were as wide as saucers! She was experiencing sheer panic as she tried to understand how to make four paws flap like wings of eagles.

Unsuccessful as a UFD, Roxy recovered from her brief identity crisis and by the next morning she was back to her typical self.

Roxy had her routines, things she did every day. I think we are the same way. We get comfortable in the fast paced secure routine of life. Sometimes, God has to send some “black ice” our way to get our attention. He changes our direction, gives us an unexpected circumstance and, yes, even sends us catapulting through the air in sheer panic. Why? So He can remind us of His identity and who we are in Him. He wants to shake us from our routines; our comfortable life, so we can experience His strength, His comfort, His presence.

So, whatever “black ice” you are experiencing today, just remember it is there for a purpose.

PRAYER: Father, thank you for the unexpected things that You bring into my life. Help me to seek You during my trials so I may become the person You desire me to be.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2-4 NLT).

Today’s devotion is by Donna McCrary and Sherri Holbert. As Life Coaches, they equip women to discover their life purpose. Learn more about their study DIVAS of the Divine: How to live as a Designer Original in a Knock Off World at: www.walkofpurpose.com.

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