Titus 2:7-8 - Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.
This is the week that millions of people around the world look at the calendar and decide that this is the year that I am finally going to [FILL IN THE BLANK]. This is also the month when millions of people realize that doing that is hard and give up. When we set goals, or make resolutions, we need to be sure that they are actually helpful, and just things that will make us feel bad about ourselves down the road.
And it can come down to something as small as the phrasing. Think of the difference between these phrases: “I want to lose ten pounds,” and “I want to be healthier;” “I want to read one book a month,” and “I want to read more;” “I want to quit smoking,” and “I want to smoke less.” The first side has a pass/fail conclusion, you either did it or you didn’t, while the second side has degrees of success!
When we make resolutions, we set ourselves up to fail by making our goals too specific. Too often, the opponent mentioned in Titus lives in our own heads and has plenty of evil to say about us.
We beat ourselves up over mistakes that we might be the only ones who still remember. And this is why we strive to have our lives known for the good we do. It won’t erase the mistakes, but hopefully we are able to move past them and endeavor to not make the same ones in the future.
As we move into a new year, take away some of the stones your own self-doubt has to throw by working on an overarching theme to your year rather than a black and white objective. How will you set your goals broadly so success can be a path rather than a destination?