5 Simple Ways to Align your Goals With the Lord
The start of a new year is a beautiful opportunity to pause, reflect, and reset. As followers of Christ, our ultimate goal is to live and work in alignment with His will, bringing Him glory through our lives and businesses.
In my professional experience, it's easy to create a plan of action that consists of many "to-do's." It's easy to focus so much on goal-setting strategies and the pursuit of professional success that we can lose sight of some important things along the way. At one point my effort to help provide additional income for our family became the loudest thing in the room. I was filled with the best of intentions, I operated as a part of a very noisy world. I operated from a place of depleted energy levels, no rest, no balance and constantly raced at warp speed toward "success."
The world bombards us with the things it says we need to do, need to focus on, need to achieve. It comes from all sides; it's loud, and when you don't do things "that" way, it can often make you feel completely inadequate, lonely, or even like a failure.
What suffered when I lived my life this way? My relationship with the Lord. Personal relationships. Personal development. Professional responsibilities. And even my health.
In a world full of noise with advice that's pretty contrary to the Lord's, how do we figure out how to align our life and business goals in a way that stays true to Him?
Here are five simple, faith-centered ways to align your life and business as we embrace a fresh season.
1. Seek God’s Guidance Through Prayer
The very first step in our strategic planning is prayer. Before we even begin diving into personal goals or professional goals, we need to pray. Proverbs 3:5–6 reminds us to trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding.
Asking God for clarity on His plans for my life and business was not something that occurred to me until someone pointed it out. Once they did this for me, I couldn't unsee it.
After all, everything we do for our family is for His glory. Everything we do for our business is for His purpose. Why wouldn't we ask Him for clarity? Why wouldn't we ask for His plans?
Use this time to surrender and align your heart with His purpose. Praying on this then sit in the quiet and listen for what He is telling you. This step can actually be the most valuable asset you have in helping you create clear boundaries for your family life and career path.
Action Step: Dedicate a few days for some intentional prayer, journaling what you sense God is placing on your heart. Ask Him to help guide you to find the right balance for your family time and daily routine. Ask him to help lead you in setting goals to foster healthy work-life balance for this new season.
2. Evaluate and Simplify
Over time, we can accumulate commitments that don’t align with God’s calling. Maybe we outgrew them because we are in a different season of life. Maybe they no longer hold our personal interests. Maybe they pull us away from valuable time with our family members.
Maybe we are so busy running from one thing to the next that we don't realize that this particular thing is increasing our stress levels and keeping us from a more balanced lifestyle.
Good intentions we may have, but sometimes we end up saying yes to too many things. (A few years ago, I operated my entire life like this.) It doesn't matter how great the cause is, or how much you may want to be involved with that particular thing. Sometimes, even wonderful things can be a distraction from the path God wants us on.
Learning how to evaluate your lifestyle is a powerful tool.
Where is your time and energy being spent? Are there activities or obligations that need to be released to make space for God’s best?
Hebrews 12:1 encourages us to "throw off everything that hinders." Simplifying your schedule for a better work-life balance not only brings peace but also creates room for the Holy Spirit to move.
Action Step: List your personal and business commitments, and prayerfully consider which ones to let go of.
3. Create a God-Centered Vision for the Year
Vision-setting isn’t just for businesses—it’s biblical! Habakkuk 2:2 says, “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets.”
Do you have a vision for your personal and business life that is rooted in God's promises and priorities? Yes, we may be small business owners, but most of us are children of God first. Many of us are mothers/ fathers/ sons/daughters first.
It's always occurred to me that I should set a vision and goals for my business. It didn't always occur to me that I should be doing that for my family life first.
My parents never did. I didn't know I had to. The thing is, the world is incredibly different now than it was when I was growing up. And it will be even more changed when my own children become parents in the future. One thing I am pretty confident will not change is the noise level.
When the rooms we operate in are loud, it's easy to get confused about what we should be doing.
Creating a vision plan (I’ll be posting more on vision boards next week) for your family and your business can serve as a roadmap for the decisions you make throughout the year.
The key to this, I think, is to really understand your core values and the core values of your family. Once that is clear, what is the focus of your family for the year? What is the personal and professional growth that you are focused on? Our family usually chooses a word. This year, for us, it's the word discipline.
We prayed together on this, asking for God to reveal where he wanted our focus for the year. Taking that word, we then create a vision. We found verses that would help us stay focused on him: Proverbs 12:1; Proverbs 25:28; 2 Timothy 1:7; 1 Peter 4:7.
Once we decided on a word, we broke things down further. We set clear goals for our family and for ourselves. We usually break things down for ourselves in categories: Self-care (this includes our personal bible study time so we can continue growing with the Lord as individuals/ Family (this includes how we grow with the Lord together as a unit, and how we continue to build the team unit with the gift of our time/presence/education/fun)/ Relationships (this includes how we incorporate friendships/community endeavors)/ Business (this includes how we are growing/prioritizing the things we need for our family business. *Important to note* that we also have a Business Vision that we create for our family business that breaks things down a little differently than our Family Vision.)
An example of our Family Vision breakdown- we all wanted to continue to prioritize regular exercise this year; how we accomplish this looks different for us all, though. I love walks and yoga. My son loves the gym and pickleball. We ask ourselves, how will I stay disciplined in accomplishing this? We write the answer down in our vision plan action steps.
Action Step: Write a short vision statement for 2025 that reflects your desire to honor God in every area. Go deeper by writing down some realistic goals to help you achieve this vision throughout the year.
4. Embrace Rest as a Strategic Priority
Think about how differently the creation story would have been if it had said God created light, waters, sky, vegetation, day vs. night, animals for the water/land/sea, fruit, and man. Then he "rested for the weekend" where he food shopped, meal-prepped, cleaned the house for eight hours, went to soccer games, got the kid's hair cut, worked in friend time, took a bath, and cut the grass.
Sort of funny when we lay it out like that, yet this is exactly how most of us operate. I know I did this for years.
Reality is that God modeled the rhythm of work and rest in creation (Genesis 2:2–3). God chose something specific each day, and worked on it. He took his time. He was thoughtful about it. Then evening came each day, during which, I think we can all assume, he took some downtime. Whether that was just resting, sleeping, hanging with his angel friends or sitting alone staring down at his creation of the day. He did not continue working through the night nonstop. We know this because there is that lovely repeated phrase throughout Genesis 1:1, "and there was evening, and there was morning..." It does not say that he finished his task and began the next immediately.
He rested. Jesus, also, often withdrew to pray and rest.
As you plan for the new year, prioritize rest. When you work from a place of rest, you reflect God’s design and avoid burnout.
The most productive and successful people I know have a habit of rest working into their daily schedule, weekly schedule, monthly schedule, and quarterly schedule.
Their daily rest includes small breaks throughout the day; and a firm "end work" time. Their weekly schedule includes avoiding social media for a designated chunk of time, time with friends, and time to build their creative side through play/exploration.
Their monthly schedule includes an "unplugged" day or weekend.
Their quarterly schedule includes a weekend or even a week trip away (staycations count if rest is the plan).
Rest is an essential component of their professional life. It's an essential component of their personal lives. It is non-negotiable.
Action Step: Block off daily rest, weekly Sabbath rest, and quarterly personal retreats on your calendar before adding other commitments. Want to dig into rest more, check out one of my favorite books written by Saundra Dalton-Smith, M.D., Sacred Rest.
5. Protect
Jesus taught us that true greatness is found in serving others (Matthew 23:11). I operated for a very long time, believing that serving others well meant only that I did more for them. I joined more things. I volunteered more. I gave and gave and gave to all manner of causes in our community. No surprise that this left me exhausted. Not only did I feel exhausted, but I felt like I was failing everything. I couldn't understand why.
I realized that to serve others well, I first had to serve the Lord well. I didn't serve the Lord well when I didn't pray daily. I didn't serve the Lord well when I didn't prioritize the things He had gifted me to steward first (myself, my marriage, my family, then my business). I was doing so much without asking for God's clarity or protecting what He wanted me to protect.
I believe this requires regular reflection to ensure you are traveling the path God has for you. You cannot serve others well if you aren't sure what to protect in the first place.
What are the places in your life that you have to draw protection around? What boundaries need to be maintained and set as non-negotiable? Protecting the vision for your family and business is important. That vision is not yours; it's the Lord's. Living that vision is a balance of action and shutting out the noise in order to make sure you are maintaining the healthy balance God wants for your lifestyle.
Action Step: Sit in prayer and ask for God's discernment and direction on the areas of your life you need to protect and be more present for. Then, brainstorm ways to do this. Write down how exactly you will protect those things. More prayer time? More time for rest each day? More family time without distractions?
Moving forward
As you step into the new year, remember that resetting your life and business isn’t about achieving perfection. It’s about growing in faith, stewarding your resources well, and honoring God in all you do. There is a way to balance personal fulfillment, family unity, and a successful business. It's a continuous process filled with practical strategies that come from the Lord. When you put Him first, He promises to direct your paths (Proverbs 3:6).
Business growth should never be accomplished at the expense of family well-being. God gives us the tools for personal well-being and a healthier work-life balance than what many of us have operated within before. Kicking the new year off with a vision that has clear priorities that are rooted in His word ensures that His long-term objectives for us are lived out.
This releases us from the pressure to figure it all out on our own. This places us firmly within the most nourishing support system, His hands.
May your new year be filled with His grace, peace, and abundant blessings!
