Happy New Year!

2009 is all about discipline for me personally. I am not much on the traditional new year's resolutions but I am big on setting goals. If you break a resolution you essentially let yourself (and those to whom you made your resolution) down. A goal however recognizes that its going to take some effort to achieve. I am a flawed man. The best I can do as an individual, a husband, a father and a minister is to set goals that will ultimately help me be the man God wants me to be.

Here are my goals for 2009

1. Spend more time with my Family and Friends.
This seems pretty generic but the truth is, I am a workaholic. It is not unusual for me to spend 60-70 hours per week working on worship services, rehearsals, learning music, editing video, creating graphics, designing sets, managing ministries and meeting with all of the people involved in the aforementioned list. One of my major personal goals is to cut back on the amount of hours I spend doing "church work" and increase the number of hours I spend with my family and friends. This one goal is going to require the most discipline.

2. Read through the Bible.
I haven't read through the whole Bible in a while. I am actually participating in a daily reading that will take me through the entire Bible in one year and the New Testament twice. Another needed discipline.

3. Take a big risk.
I am not sure what this means right now but I have a few ideas. God is working on me in several areas that will require huge steps of faith. When I look back at 2008 I don't see many places where I took any kind of risk. The hard part for me is that I am a risk taker. So much of my past has been about taking risks (it drives my boss and my wife crazy) and yet somewhere I stopped and began playing it safe. This year there will be some risks and they will be big.

4. Take two family vacations.
This is going to be the toughest. First of all, vacations cost money and not that we are poor but we don't make the kind of money that will allow us to take a vacation for five very often. This will require financial discipline. Secondly, we are pushing it every year to get in one family vacation. In 2008 we didn't even take one. This year I am committing to take two vacations. They may be to a hotel in OKC to visit the Zoo for three days but we will figure out a way to make it happen. See goal #1... needed discipline.

5. Complete Twelve Hours towards my degree.
I am still working towards that ever elusive college degree. I often joke that my goal is to graduate before my twelve year old son does. Little by little I am chipping away at my goal of graduating someday. This year I need twelve hours to feel good about my progress. You guessed it... discipline.

There they are. Now that it is out there, you are all invited to hold me accountable to these five goals. Of course there are other things I want to do this year but these are the priorities.

Have a great New Year!!