Remembering our Goals

As we start a new blog and a new year I thought it would be good to review our life goals...

1. Our primary life goal is to love the Lord with all of our heart, soul and mind, glorifying Him in thought, word and deed; enjoying Him forever. In the same spirit we strive to love others as ourselves being sensitive to their physical, emotional and spiritual needs. We view each life experience as a training ground preparing us for future ministry opportunities and are committed to using the talents, abilities and spiritual gifts that God has given us. All of our other goals are subordinate to this primary goal.

2. We want our endeavors to be God honoring, meaningful to ourselves and to others, interesting and challenging spiritually, mentally and physically.

3. We want our relationships with our family members to be mutually respectful. We want to live in a place no more than a one days drive from each of them; close enough to enjoy a good visit, but far enough away to give each one their own space. (This one isn’t working very well right now as we have Niki and her family, Sara and her daughter and Kelly’s 2 children living under our roof right now... we are hoping to get back to everyone in their own dwelling sometime within the next couple of years!!!)

4. We want to live in a friendly community; a place where we know the names of the people with whom we do business, and where we can feel comfortable participating in the local economy, politics and activities.

5. We want to be honorable and honest in our relationship with others. We want to have friends with whom we can fellowship, laugh, cry, play and hang out, and that are mutually supportive.

6. We want to become as independent as possible with a significant amount of our food and energy needs coming from our own work and renewable resources.

7. We want to be God honoring with our possessions and finances. We want to be good stewards, viewing each of our possessions as a gift from the Lord and a tool to meet a need, purpose or function; when something outlives its usefulness, we want to be able to give it away freely to someone else who can use it. We want to function on a “pay as you go” basis and be as debt free as possible.

8. We recognize our role as God’s stewards, so we want to be both compassionate and respectful in our treatment of our plants and animals. We want our interaction with the land to be beneficial to the ecosystems, leaving the land healthier than when we started.

9. We want to live off the beaten track, away from heavy traffic and high crime. We want to live in a place with moderate temperatures, lots of sun and minimal pollution. We want to be able to enjoy God’s creation on warm evenings and quiet mornings observing the wildlife in our backyard.