Faithful Linkup #1

This month I’m co-hosting the first ever Faithful Linkup with Jayden Olivia at Life as Jayden. The Faithful Linkup is a monthly linkup for those of us striving to grow in our faith, by setting tangible goals for the upcoming month. When we all put our goals on display, it’s easier for accountability.

5 Goals towards God:

• Catch up on my Bible in 2015 reading. 
  I’m behind. So far behind. Anyone want to sign up to text me on the hour, every hour, every day until I’m caught up? I seriously might need that kind of accountability.

• Finish reading Heart Wide Open: Trading Mundane Faith for an Exuberant Life with Jesus
  One  of the ways I really connect with God is by diving into other people’s thoughts and experience with him. I have a book I’ve been reading and I want to be more diligent about reading it.

• Write down my list of adjectives.
  In case you haven’t caught on, I recently began the wonderful adventure of a new relationship. and he is great and I like him a lot, but I’ve noticed that in the past few months, the quickest prayers out of my mouth are for him. And there’s probably not anything really wrong with that, except that sometimes I think I’ve turned God into an invisible girlfriend who I tell all about my boyfriend, instead of responding to him as my Creator and the true love of my life. As I’ve felt myself drawn to that, I’ve started to alphabetically list words that describe God. I haven’t yet left A, but I think it would be awesome to write them all down. So that’s what I’m going to do.

• Be more disciplined with my time.
  There are roughly eighteen gazillion quotes about having the time but not prioritizing it well. When I aimlessly watch Lifetime Original Movies and then am too tired to read my Bible, my priorities are hard to deny. I always struggle with time, and even though I was recently given this huge revelation about time, I still struggle with using it well. I want to find at least an hour of my day that I use productively to clear my mind to hear God speak.

• Be more mindful of my money.
  Let’s be honest – there are SO MANY WAYS we allow our minds and our lives to be full of overwhelming clutter that blocks the sound of the Holy Spirit’s quiet stirring in our hearts. Time is one, but money is another. When I want to buy something just for the sake of buying something (looking at you, Target!) I am not only wasting my time but being a poor steward of the money God has entrusted me with. I’ve asked my friend Stacy to help keep me accountable with my money. Starting this Friday I’m returning to the cash-only envelope system.

Scripture of the month.

“..choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve… but as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” -Joshua 24:15

Reflection
There wasn’t a previous month to reflect on, so I guess I’ll just say that sometimes “goals” we have in our faith can turn into “steps,” like a list of things we must do in order to be loved by God. This list isn’t that, it’s just a collection of areas in my life that are causing me heartache, exhaustion and an unnecessarily weary spirit.

This linkup is live for 4 more days, so pray about some goals for yourself and head over to Life of Jayden to link up with us.