I hope the following object lesson to be of use to youth ministries, family counselors, family home evenings are family devotionals. Today’s object lesson is building up made of brick and its association of goal setting

Every January, most of us will set up some new goals. As one of the virtues of having a new year is it invites us to reflect upon our past year and think about how to improve our upcoming year. If we didn’t have a New Year holiday, I wonder how many of us would do this otherwise.

Collect a number of bricks and start stacking them into some form of square base. This provides a good strong foundation. Build a second line of bricks into a square that might not be as white as the first. Continuing to build row upon row and tell it gradually builds up into a pyramid.

The object lesson associate to this is setting goals. The human can represent our establishing of our character. Each brick can represent a trait that we want to improve. We can either build our pyramid with quality products/bricks or ones that contains materials that are flawed. Flawed material can compromise the foundation and quality of the end product.

Suggestions I’ve heard that setting goals:

1. Set realistic goals. Don’t try to do something bigger or wider than we are currently capable. Do the small things first, and then build up to the larger projects.
2. . We want to set up type of goal that we can measure. One goal I have is to establish an old habit of reading at least a half hour each day. Recently, I read an article that a financial advisor named Dave Ramsey shared that talked about what successful people do. Many successful people will read books. I have to admit I have fallen out the habit and my new year’s resolution is to resume. I’m currently reading a book called Climategate that talks about the scams behind the proposed climate change and how it’s being used to control people. In this book I’m learning about historical weather patterns, how it affect cultures and current politics. It’s very educational and I can see how I can learn and grow in multiple areas of knowledge. If I simply read more books, especially nonfiction.
3. 3. Some people were create will a list of goals to accomplish each day. At the end of the day. They will check off what they’ve accomplished this can show their success. One good point of advice I heard was that sometimes when someone accomplishes an additional task that and it on the original list. Then they will check it off. The virtue of this type, a checklist is that people can see the different things they’ve accomplished.
4. 4. Another idea is instead of writing a big large goal; write smaller goals that when they all accomplish will result in the big goal. These smaller sized tasks may not feel as intimidating.
5. I know many people succeeding goals when they share them with other people with a similar objective. One good example of this is I meet once a month with several groups of people who are aspiring writers. By meeting once a month we have to provide content to share with each other. That means we have to keep writing and producing. The networking of fellow writers encourages us to continue in our craft.
6. 6. I think it’s also good to notice, and acknowledge the success of other people. It’s good to see the other succeed. Let them know that you see what they’ve accomplished. We, in turn can see the possibility of achieving our own endeavors.

The base foundation of the pyramid of bricks might include such things as physical activity, spiritual endeavors, improving our moral character, and improving our education. I know there are a number of areas of these categories. I could improve on. So that might be why these base bricks are on the top of my list. I can see how the foundation bricks need to be strong, so as to hold the weight of other goals and types of character traits. I want to accomplish.

I can also see how we want to have an overall objective in the design about. One of the things I like about George Washington and Ben Franklin. When that these men in their youth, or maybe later in their lives came up with checklist to improve their character. I wonder if it worked?<G>

So, my invitation of today’s blog is to consider what we would like our pyramid to be. Then start building. I wish us all excess in our endeavors.

If you some ideas to share our goal setting of what has worked for you, please feel free to share it in the comment section this blog.