New year, new you. 

Raise your hand if you have heard that phrase this year. It’s the first week of 2025 and I cannot count how many times I heard that phrase or a variation of it. New Year’s is a refreshing time though.   

Refreshing for those who are tentatively stepping into the new year. Refreshing for those who are leaping into the new year. Refreshing for all those in between. 

It is a time to reflect on who you were in the past year, everything you have done, and what you hope God will do in your life in the coming year. I recently was told something about reflection. When we reflect, it is not a time to tell ourselves what we have done. For we already know what we have done, it is a time to remember. I have a friend. We have been friends for ten and a half years. We live in two separate states and are in two different seasons. She has a husband and kids and I have a cat and 400 kids [edit: students]. We don’t talk as much as we used to, we are both busy in our lives but when we do talk. It feels like no time has passed by us. There is no need to fill each other in about our lives for we already know the big things and through the big things, we organically learn of the smaller details. I feel like that’s an accurate portrayal of reflection. It is a time to lay out all of our pieces and walk around it, surveying the pieces from a new perspective now that you have the whole story. It is akin to catching up with an old friend and saying, “Oh, I never updated you on x. Let me tell you what happened and what I learned.”  

Back to the New Year’s. How many are making New Year’s Resolutions? Word of the year? Goals? If you are making any resolutions or goals, how are you doing on them? Are you stuck on them? No judgment if you are, forming goals is not an easy feat.  

At a Bible study, we were discussing reflections and goals. The leader came up with categorizing goals into three separate entities: personal, relational, and spiritual. There may be some overlap in each category, but I found it to be a good starting point. Here are the three categories and my own definitions (with maybe some of my own goals): 

Personal – Healthy habits, lifestyle, finances, health, education, learning a new hobby or skills, etc. 

Relational – How can I serve my family? How can I deepen my relationships, familial, platonic, and romantic? Disciple or not? Boundaries? 

Jumping in here! While working on my relational goals during the Bible study, I thought of this blog, Bold, Strong, & Free. It reminded me of my why. In case, this is your very first post you’re reading. Allow me an introduction. Bold, Strong, & Free exists to encourage and empower women to be bold, strong, and free for Christ. It was started when three women, in three different states, in different time zones, came together and found that they had a shared passion for encouraging women and furthering His Kingdom. In addition, because continuing BSF is a goal of mine, so is my friendship with Abbi and Katelyn. Not only are we business partners, but first and foremost, we are friends. It is a reminder to me why relational should have its own category. Very rarely do the people in our lives fit into one box, more than likely they have multiple roles and titles. Maybe you are very close to your pastor’s family and when you go and seek discipleship or guidance, you might need to develop boundaries and say, “I am coming to you as a congregational member, not as a friend.” We are sociable people (yes, even us, introverts). 

Spiritual – Reading the Bible, prayer, discipleship, spiritual disciplines, rest, etc.

Those are my definitions. But something is missing. 

Back to my students, I make goals with them at the start of the school year. These goals can range from academics to social skills to managing their emotions, but those goals all include something else – actionable steps. 

It is one thing to make a goal like “I want to read the whole Bible in a year” or “I want to learn Spanish.” Those are great goals, but those goals are meaningless if you do not have any actionable steps in place. How are you going to read the Bible in a year? How are you going to learn Spanish? Are you an auditory learner? Are you going to have a specific time and place? 

I think coming up with those actionable steps is the hardest part of goal-making. With my students [edit, kids], I would have them write 3 things that they can do and then 3 things that I can assist them to achieve their goal. For your year’s goals, think of it as: 3 things I can do and 3 things an accountability partner/mentor can help me with. Let’s use the Bible in a year goal as that seems to be a popular one and is one of my own. 

Goal: I will read the whole Bible in the year 2025. 

3 things I can do: 1) I will find a reading plan (there are plenty, please reach out if you need any recommendations). 2) I will be intentional and ready when I sit down. 3) I will not have my phone with me.  

 3 things others can do: 1) Be in community with other Christians. 2) Have an accountability partner. 3) Join a Bible study/discipleship/mentorship. 

That is an example. Feel free to take, ignore, or use an abridged version. The purpose is to give you an example of a goal with actionable steps so that you may be set up for success in the year 2025. 

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2 

 Happy New Year’s and blessings to all, 

Elizabeth