Three Goal Setting Tips for Christian Women

Are your goals a reflection of your Christian life? 

As Christian women,  our understanding of life is generally different from those who don’t know God. Our perceptions, expectations and responsibilities are also different. This means our way of setting goals should also be different.

The central tenet of living a glorious Christian life is working in God’s will.

For us, this is our place of purpose, fulfilment, completion, and of great accomplishments. We usually read motivational and inspirational articles, and books about doing the things we love and are passionate about. This is good advice but for us, we always have to take it one step further.

So, back to my question…what do your goals reflect?

When you set goals, do you ever consider how this affects you as the daughter of the Most-High God or are you caught up with the world’s expectations and interpretation of success and accomplishment?

I know I was and many times, I still am.

Here are three helpful tips to help you reconsider your goal-setting process.

 

Here are three goal-setting tips for Christian women :

1. Find out God’s will for your life

Have you ever considered God’s plan for your life?

This is perhaps one of the hardest questions and usually has us trumped with no idea of what God wants us to do. Sometimes, we may have an idea but are not certain.

I want to start by reminding you that God, our heavenly father, wants the best for YOU and you should NEVER EVER doubt this. Matthew 7:11

His love is all-encompassing and HE is always looking for opportunities to give to his children.

But we also have to remember that God’s definition of what’s best for us will likely conflict with what we think it should be and certainly with what the world thinks it should be.

 

How to know God’s will as a Christian woman?

• Start with seeking him. The Bible says when we seek God we will find him if we seek him with all our heart. Jeremiah 29:13. Seeking him simply means making time for him. Through prayer, meditation and spending time in his word.

 

• Ask. Ask God to reveal his will for your life. Our saviour, Jesus Christ, told us to ask and we shall receive. Matthew 7:7. I am certainly confident of this; that God will give you guidance if you only ask. But we also need to be patient and willing to wait on him.

 

• Be open to hearing from him. I have learnt that God reveals himself in different ways. It could be through his word, dreams, visions, prophesies or even speaking to us in the spirit. You have to ask the holy spirit to come into your heart and take over, to remove any part of you that is at odds with God’s will for your life

 

2. Learn to connect your goals with God’s plan for your life

You may think that the work ends when you know God’s will. Well, it is only just beginning. The foundation is to know his will, the next step is to understand how this will can be turned into achievable goals. You need to connect the dots.

I remember wondering how I was going to help young women like me on their life’s journey. I knew I was passionate about issues affecting women, and showed a high level of empathy when I saw another woman hurting but it never really went beyond a few words of comfort and companionship.

While I knew I needed to do more I just wasn’t sure how to go about it. I volunteered with a few charities, and considered writing articles on women’s rights but there always seemed to be a barrier. It wasn’t until a few months ago that I felt the Lord give me permission to use this blog as a medium to do his will.

To achieve his will, we have to go back to the drawing board:

• • Write out what you believe to be the will for your life.
  • Ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom and guidance.
  • Consider your gifts and talents – this will help point you in the direction of your goals. I’m a lawyer and I write so I use these skills to achieve my goals.
  • Break the plan for your life into goals (short-term, long term and medium-term goals). We can go back to the SMART Goals. This means the goals can be specific, measurable, attainable, reasonable and time-bound.

 

3. Know the tools and resources you need to set and achieve these goals

The final tip is about execution. As a Christian woman, you also have to figure out what you need to accomplish your plans.

Depending on how it was revealed to you, you may have a general idea of all you are to do or a few glimpses (I call them the short-term purpose). Whatever your goals may be (running your business or going on a vacation) there are additional ingredients we need to add.

Your goals will need to be:

• • Value-driven (value for you and where possible, for others)
  • With a kingdom vision (all things are permissible but not all things are beneficial 1 Corinthians 6:12)
  • Quality over quantity – whether your goal is to write a book, buy a car, sell products, travel or start a business, where you can, go for quality and excellence.
  • Great dose of honesty – be honest about your expectations and your accomplishments
  • Not fuelled by greed – greed is not allowed 🙂
  • Money and time – money is usually the oil needed to get your goal tracks running smoothly.

 

In Closing

There you have it! A breakdown of some goal-setting tips for Christian women looking to set and achieve amazing goals.

May continually enjoy God’s grace. Amen

Please share your experiences and comments below.