Hubby walked in near the end of a Hallmark movie, just when things began going downhill. And you know how iffy those endings can be (smile).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDon\u2019t be worrying,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019ll all turn out okay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And, of course, it did. That\u2019s how Hallmark movies end. In\nreal life, not so much. Don\u2019t you wish you could write that script?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We sort of do that in our young dreams. In our mind we\npicture the future and set goals, detailing a plan to achieve them. As time\npasses we come up with new goals and devote our energy to accomplishing them. We\nhave goals for our work and goals for our personal life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Webster defines goal: \u201cthe end toward which effort is\ndirected.\u201d Thesaurus gives these synonyms: objective, aim, ambition, purpose,\ntarget, object, aspiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Growing up I had big dreams. The general goal was to be\nsuccessful. Doing what, I wasn\u2019t sure. I\u2019d given my heart to Jesus at age\nseven, and by my mid-teens, the goal crystallized. I wanted to be a writer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve shared my story before\u2014landing my dream job at eighteen\nwriting for the local newspaper during college and writing my first book at\ntwenty-four, Billy Graham in Big Orange Country<\/em>.\nThat commemorative book about the Knoxville crusade, which made national\nheadlines with the visit of President Richard Nixon, sold 40,000 copies,\nqualifying it as a bestseller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That opened other opportunities, and by 1986 I had achieved\nall my dreams with publication of Twice\nPardoned<\/em>. The life story of ex-con Harold Morris was the first book for\nFocus on the Family Publishing and a #1 national Christian bestseller, printed\nin several languages and totaling 1.5 million copies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where would I go from there? I expected to continue writing\nbestsellers. That was the goal. Surprisingly, the Lord interrupted the plan,\ntaking me from a wide public life as bestselling author to a shrunken life,\ncaring for my parents and my parents-in-love as they declined in health. I\nspent the next fifteen years out of the publishing loop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Lord gave me an amazing gift: peace that I was exactly where I was supposed to be, doing what he had designed, and a promise that someday he would enlarge my life again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Lord gave me an amazing gift: peace that I was exactly where I was supposed to be, doing what he had designed, and a promise that someday he would enlarge my life again. <\/a><\/span>Click To Tweet<\/a><\/span>\n\n\n\n That hard place would never have made my list of goals, but\nit was a special place where I grew to know the Lord and depend on him for\nevery breath. His promise and his presence gave me contentment in those difficult\ncircumstances, and I have no regrets about those years off the public stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That time was not wasted. Besides returning to our parents\nsome of the love and care they had given us, I saw God working. Matthew 25:29\ncaptures what he did. \u201cFor to everyone who has more will be given, and he will\nbe furnished richly so that he will have an abundance\u2026\u201d (Amplified). I was being furnished richly for future\nministry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Before his retirement, someone asked my hubby\u2014a task-oriented\nworkaholic\u2014about goals. He had an amazing answer. \u201cBeing in the center of God\u2019s\nwill is what matters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you worry you won\u2019t be successful if you aren\u2019t setting\ngoals and chasing them with all your might? I was never very good at the\ngoal-setting thing, listing where I expected to be in one year\u2026five years\u2026ten\nyears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Setting goals is a good thing. But it can be frustrating when obstacles block our way. I\u2019ve concluded there\u2019s a better way to approach life: following Jesus moment by moment and relying completely on him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Setting goals is a good thing. But it can be frustrating when obstacles block our way. I\u2019ve concluded there\u2019s a better way to approach life: following Jesus moment by moment and relying completely on him. <\/a><\/span>Click To Tweet<\/a><\/span>\n\n\n\n Here I am, decades past my young dreams. Do I still have\ngoals? Only one. \u201cThat I may make the voice of thanksgiving heard and may tell\nof all Your wondrous works\u201d (Psalm 26:7 Amplified). I\u2019m depending on the Lord\nto provide opportunities to do that as I pursue him with all my heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He\u2019s writing the script…and it has a predictable ending. I\u2019m\nnot worrying. It\u2019ll all turn out okay\u2014for my good and his glory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are assured and know that [God being a partner in their\nlabor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and\nfor those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose\u201d\n(Romans 8:28 Amplified).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Please tell me what you\u2019ve learned about goal-setting and\nadjusting to interruptions. And I\u2019d appreciate your sharing this article with\nyour friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a9 Dianne Barker 2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hubby walked in near the end of a Hallmark movie, just when things began going downhill. And you know how iffy those endings can be (smile). \u201cDon\u2019t be worrying,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019ll all turn out okay.\u201d And, of course, it did. That\u2019s how Hallmark movies end. In real life, not so much. Don\u2019t you wish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,104,486,489,384,487,41],"class_list":["post-1249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-dianne-barker","tag-difficult-circumstances","tag-goal-setting","tag-hallmark-movies","tag-romans-828","tag-successful","tag-worry"],"yoast_head":"\n