Something Better Than Goals

Some people are surprised when I mention that I didn’t make any resolutions.

A resolution is marked by decidedness, firmness, a hard-fast determination to do something. Life has enough hard edges for me. I’m going for soft.

This New Year I am not looking at what I need to change. I will set a few flexible, fluid goals that I’ll work on and flesh out and revise. I am looking at the beauty God sees in me, the beauty He sees in you, right now.

God sees beauty in me:

At this weight.

With this mess.

Knowing my temper rages.

Even when gossip glides off my tongue.

Perfectly impatient.

This is beauty.

Why does He see beauty in me in these awful, flawed places? Because He made me.

He sees beauty in your flawed places, too. Why? He made you.

God's love for us in our imperfect places gives us all something we are longing for in this chaotic, busy world: HOPE. Click To Tweet

Goals are good, but they are not our hope.

“Our hope doesn’t rest on our finally getting it together. Our hope rests in Jesus.” Becoming Myself by Stasi Eldredge

Take just a moment and let go of all the harshness that we filter our world through, filter our reflection through. Exhale and breathe soft.

Now look at your legs. Seriously. Look at them. STOP! Before anything negative enters your mind say, “My legs are beautiful.” Yes. Out loud.

Again.

“My legs are beautiful.”

Don’t stop there. Now think about why.

My legs are beautiful because they move. They work. They get me where I need to be and they work hard for no praise. They are beautiful because they were crafted for me.

30 seconds. Maybe 60. That’s all it took for you to see beauty today.

Now breathe soft.

This may feel foreign to you (it sure does to me). But I’m fighting a battle here, and I am not willing to lose. There is too much at stake. We can go through this life always trying, striving to be more, be better, be someone. But the truth is, we already are.