Focus on His Commandments...

         These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)

Sometimes when I set goals, I make a list of things I want to accomplish and think of any one of those goals maybe once per week, usually when I am failing. Other times, I reach one or more of the goals because I focus on them obsessively. It doesn’t seem to matter whether I have a goal. What matters is when the goal has me. The problem is with that word “obsessively.” It seems as if only one goal can have me at a time, but when it does, look out.

Last month, I made a list of projects I wanted to accomplish by the end of March. Some were tiny. I wanted to review the use of a word that was used twice in my story. Two minutes was more than enough to complete it. But because my goal was to complete as many of those tasks as possible, I got more than 200 projects done. It wasn’t easy. It involved focus. I crossed off one task and started on the next and there was no time for fun, games, or any other goals. For March, I have fewer tasks, but none of them are as tiny.

There have been other times when a goal has had me that was more personal. It wasn’t about getting tasks done as much as it was about changing the way I lived. It took just as much focus. Just as much discipline. Just as much obsession. Because I built some habits, after a year, I was able to relax a little. I’d built habits that carried me along until circumstances changed, and I relaxed too far. Now I’m finding it impossible to focus on that one thing.

Today’s passage tells us to think about God’s commands, talk about His commands, teach your children about His commands. In other words, we’re to focus on the goal of living according to God’s teachings. And as we build the habit of obedience in one area (and reap the rewards of living according to reality) we may be able to choose another area as our main focus. And even if we broaden the focus a little, by simply studying and applying what we’ve found that day, we’ll still be building up the habits so that when temptation comes along, we’ll be more prepared to say “It is written…” and hold to the words we know.