And the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision and engrave it so plainly upon tablets that everyone who passes may [be able to] read [it easily and quickly] as he hastens by.
Habakkuk 2:2
In reading this verse one thousand times in my life, I have come to understand that my ideas for my future are not just suppose to remain ideas. They are suppose to be given substance, to be placed in front of me and written so plainly that someone running by can understand exactly what my future hopes are.
My desires for my life are vast. There are many things I want to be and even more I wish to do; it can become frustrating at times to pick only a few life goals when I take time to think about it. But from this chapter in Habakkuk I have learned that a vision is not an authentic goal for my life until it has order.
Our God is a God of order. He loves for us to enjoy life and be light hearted, but He always proves to be a Father of organization. When we give ourselves a visual plan of sorts that we can look at often, hold, and believe for, it is almost as if what we wish for can be attained. Everything you hope to do is right there in your hand, written so simply, so concisely that people rushing by can read and comprehend it without even pausing.
Ask yourself a question. If you could do one thing and one thing only with the rest of your life, what would you do?
Difficult isn’t it? It’s usually hard for us as people to find just one thing we want to be or to do with our entire lives. Why? Because God has put so much in us!
We all have unique personalities and dreams, so when someone tells you to write down EVERYTHING you wish to be-no doubt- you may run out of paper…
So what can you do? How can you consolidate all that you hope to be?
I say, start BIG and end small.
Go ahead. Get a pen. Write that ten page journal entry with the top 99 desires of your heart, get specific with it…Make sure you mention how you want your future spouse to be, what country you want to do missions work in, and even the hair color of your future children. Write it ALL!
After this, break it down a little. Pick your top Twelve hopes and dreams, but make them clear and concise. If your goal is a few sentences, maybe narrow it down a bit. One sentence would be ideal.
Next-group your top choices, by what is most important. You could put them in groups of three.
Finally, try to pick one thing from each group and create you four most important hopes for your life.
Now you should have four sentences that state clearly what it is you want to do with your future…
Four is just a hypothetical number, in actuality you can choose as many goals as you please, however, my advice is to keep it simple. Simplicity makes objectives more feasible.
This is just my suggestion, but alter your “plan” to what works best for you.
What is most important is that you write down what you believe God has put in your heart to do with your life, make it clear, and run after it!
-Victoria
I wish I had this advice when I was young, I believe it would have made a world of difference Great article V 🙂
I love this and agree with it. I wrote down my vision when I was 17. Now I am 33 and I have learned that God gives the vision but the way of accomplishing it was often my assumption of how he would accomplish the vision. IF we are heading towards a God given vision HE can make changes without it upsetting us. I learned this the hard way, getting upset when God changed the plan. It is in fact His plan and subject to his changes. Write it down, be flexible and hang on for the ride!