Master Plan

We just came back from our annual spiritual convention. I am spiritually FULL with a lot on my mind. But first, I want to test how I've been doing on my short term goals and maybe add to them.

Short Term Spiritual Goals

• Bible reading – The best time for me to do my scheduled reading for Wednesdays is on the train Monday morning and afternoon. I've been doing ok here. For two weeks straight I got my Bible reading done by way of my train rides, but I have to admit, the week of the convention, I slacked off. I gotta get back on this ASAP.
• Daily Text – Read this every day before I get out of the bed. This has been going extremely well! This one has been easy because the first thing I do in the morning is pick up my phone. So instead of opening email or social media apps, I open to the daily text. I'm happy about accomplishing this goal so far. 
• Daily Bible reading – Utilize my time in the car – listen to audio recordings of the Bible and other spiritual literature (this will help me cut out the poor music choices too!) I did this for a week and I'm actually looking forward to starting up again this week as I start driving to work again tomorrow. 
• Personal Study – This one is hard… I need to schedule this on a day where it’s never interrupted.  Mondays are pretty low key days. I guess I’ll have to tack it on to the end of our Family Worship evening. I need a desk in the living room… This is my first time following through on this goal, hence me blogging on a Monday night. I've been having this nagging issue on my mind that I was able to work out through some research a little while ago. I actually prayed that Jehovah would help me find the answer to my nagging question and the first thing I looked up and read answered my question! Well how about that?! I guess testing Jehovah out is not such a bad idea after all. That definitely boosted my faith. This personal studying thing might really work!
• Use the fast forward button on the remote. Do not order any Rated R movies on Netflix. Instead of listening to certain music, listen to Bible literature in the car. Guess what? I've gone 4 day straight without tv! Granted, I was away at a spiritual convention, but there was plenty of time to turn on the tv while preparing for bed and preparing to attend the convention in the mornings. But I forced myself not to touch the remote. To be 100% honest though, I turned on the tv today (the 4th day), but it was to watch the new DVD release that we received at the convention. So that doesn't count. It was strictly for spiritual purposes. Nevertheless, I figured that if I get out of the routine of turning on the tv everyday, my goal can be easier to reach.

Now for new lessons learned and new goals…

The last speaker of the convention said something that resonated in my gut. He said this about our every day distractions. I didn't get the first part of what he said but I got this. "...inability to hear God's voice with all the background noise in our life." That half statement immediately stood out to me. It has a lot to do with what I was feeling and thinking in my last blog post. I want to hear God's voice, I want to do what's right, but there's just so much dag on background noise and distractions that I can't hear Him. I can't hear Him over my tv shows, the music on the radio, the gossip blogs, the pleasures of life and even my own laziness. Those are my distractions. So what am I going to do about them? 

Well I have a plan in place for tv and music, but I'm also interested in cutting down my list of recorded shows. That'll help a ton. Maybe I'll stop recording 'Mad Men' or 'La La's Full Court Life' or 'The Haves and Have Nots'. I need to go through the list and see what I can do there. The music part is going to be a challenge because I'm not the only one with speakers in this house. Not sure what to do there other than be picky about my own choices. I just need to try hard not to get sucked back in while hearing the other stuff. 

Gossip blogs - I only look at these when I'm bored so that means I need a substitute 'go-to'. I guess that should be my daily Bible reading. Instead of going to my phone's bookmarks and tapping on theYBF, I should tap on that Bible app I have… I just took a second and rearranged my apps on my phone. Bible app is on the first page at the top. Subtle reminder not to go any further. All my social media apps are on the second page. If that still doesn't help me get it together, I may have to let some accounts go. I'm not choosing social media over daily Bible reading and personal study. If I can't get the important things done in my spiritual routine, then I don't have time for social media. At least that's what we learned this weekend!

Laziness - I think I'm combatting this with some of the things I've laid out so far. 

But more on that later once I've tried out a couple of these ideas, goals and lessons. If laziness ends up being bigger than I think, I'll revisit and devise a master plan.

This planning is making me sleepy. Night world.