2023 Goals

Happy New Year friends! I’m so glad to say that this year it has not been a long time since I’ve written on the blog. I’m thankful I had the opportunity to post pretty often in 2022. I’m praying 2023 is full of even more blog posts. Today I thought I would tell you about our goals for 2023. We had our Family Summit again this year following the same guide from Abraham’s Wallet that we went through last year. This plan leads us through four stages of reviewing, dreaming, planning and consecrating. We had a “stay-cation” again this year, the people we follow online who do this travel for their family summit but in our stage of life it works for us to just do this at home. On Friday and part of Saturday morning we reviewed 2022, we talked about what was good and bad spiritually, relationally, physically, intellectually, and financially.

In our review we determined that God moved our family to the perfect spot to fulfill the mission He has for us. He used Brooklyn to reach one of our family members with the Gospel and open doors to share with more family. He’s laid the foundation for a lot of great things: our small group, family outreach, and getting to know our neighbors. We pray that 2023 would bring increased influence that we can use to share about Christ.

On Saturday afternoon while Brooklyn napped we got to dream! The rule is that we aren’t allowed to tear each other down in any dreams but instead to simply listen. We went through the same five capitals: spiritual, relational, physical, intellectual, and financial. We dreamed through each, considering what we should stop, start and keep doing. At the end we summarized a vision for 2023: To find a place to serve at our church, to start training Brooklyn in the important things of life: going potty in the toilet :), doing chores, cooking and following Jesus, and finally to bring more meaning to our home and deepen our relationships with one another through more quality time (aka, less screen time).

We’ve learned that God usually has a lot of curve balls to throw us that will grow our faith. And honestly our 2023 has started off with some heavy curves. A cousin I loved dearly as a little girl passed away over the New Year holiday so literally day 2 started with a phone call of bad news. Then I spent the second weekend in bed sick with a fever and I’m still dealing with congestion from that little illness. Life is sometimes so good you can’t contain the joy so laughter abounds but in other seasons of life it’s sorrow that overflows and the tears don’t seem to stop. I know there are people suffering in ways I can’t comprehend and I’ve thought of that often over the last month. This life can be so hard and we don’t know what tomorrow brings.

I think the Lord has humbled me this January. Several verses stick out to me, I won’t give much commentary, I think the Word will speak clearly. Consider these as you make your plans, friends. We should desire the Lord’s purposes to prevail in our lives but sometimes that will happen in ways we don’t expect. 

“​​Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.” – Proverbs 19:21

“Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’” – James 4:13-16

On Sunday we spent some time planning for 2023. Through our review we identified things that didn’t go well, and in the dreaming phase we envisioned ways to make those things better. I’ve listed some of our family goals and most of my personal goals for the year. The guide led us to create a weekly and yearly calendar to make space for these goals to be attainable. I hope this list may give you some ideas for your family or just for yourself. Leave me a comment below, what are your goals for 2023?

Spiritual 

  • Memorize the Romans Road verses
  • Read Brooklyn’s Bible at dinner every night
  • Sing songs together as a family
  • Serve in Kids Ministry on Sundays

Relational 

  • Text or call an extended family member once a month
  • Do four puzzles with Josh
  • Go on 12 pre-planned dates
  • Go to the park once a week
  • Plan a trip to Glacier National Park
  • Go to the Library once a month
  • Go camping 
  • Host lunch or dinner once a month
  • Have a weekly family meeting
  • Hangout with friends once a quarter

Physical 

  • Get in shape
  • Charge phones outside the bedroom
  • Finish our 2022 house projects
  • Renovate our Laundry Room

Intellectual 

  • Vlog on Saturdays
  • Read 10 books
  • Blog once a month
  • Potty train Brooklyn
  • Teach Brooklyn about chores

Financial 

  • Weekly meal planning
  • Weekly budget review
  • Max out our Roth IRA
  • Meet our Mortgage goals (we’re trying to pay our new house off ASAP)