A Few Thoughts About New Year's Resolutions
By Cindy Amelung
Do you make New Year’s resolutions? Have you made them in the past but don’t anymore? Are you one of those people who has never succumbed to the pressure of making resolutions? Whatever category you fall into, I thought I would just share some thoughts I have about them.
I think most of us make resolutions of some sort or another and we always have good intentions, but it is the keeping of those resolutions that becomes the problem. I personally could list 20 things that I would consider worthwhile resolutions, but I also know I probably won’t keep a single one of them. So, what’s the point in even bothering, you ask?
Well, here’s what I think is worthwhile about resolutions. We all lead busy lives, work too hard and stop to listen too little. We are always being admonished in scripture to take time to reflect, to pray, to study, to learn and to grow. How many of us truly take the time to do that? Isn’t it much easier to watch television, socialize with friends, work overtime – almost anything except stand still? The psalmist states in Psalm 46:10 – ‘Be still and know that I am God’. Who do you know that truly stands still and seeks to know who God is?
Taking stock of our lives at least once a year won’t kill us. Of course, at this time of year there are plenty of programs on radio and television that invite us to look back at ‘the year that was’. I tend to be a sucker for those and never cease to be amazed at how many things I have already forgotten. I know I lived the year; I know I was there but events tend to blur after awhile. The only events that really tend to stick with me are those that personally happened to me – I think that’s true of all of us. The good and the bad that happen become lines of demarcation in our lives; that happened before my father died; that happened after my grandson was born. These events are the ones that we personally catalog at the end of a year; these are the events that change us and hopefully we allow those things to grow us as well. What happens to us each day, each week, each year is no accident – God knows all that will happen and all of it is within His divine plan for our lives. “Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be,” Psalm 139:16.
2005 was, in particular, a tumultuous year in my life. My daughter, son-in-law and grandson were in a nearly fatal car accident on January 30, 2005 ; the next 6 months were a blur for me. My only comfort in those days was in knowing the accident went through God’s Hands before it touched my kids. That thought got me through a lot of tough days as they recovered.
We have all had personal events that marked our 2005. Good and bad alike, they have shaped our lives and changed us forever. The biggest question I asked myself all year, and am still asking is, “How will God use this experience to glorify Himself and how will He use it to help someone else?” I do believe that all that happens to me isn’t in vain and I pray that God will use those experiences to let me help someone else.
If I had any New Year’s resolutions, they wouldn’t be like the ones I’ve made in the past; I applaud anyone who resolves to lose weight, quit smoking, get out of debt, etc. I have decided, instead, that this year I am making spiritual New Year’s resolutions. To stand still and know that He is God. To truly seek to honor Him. To serve Him and minister to others as He works through me. That would be my challenge to you – make spiritual New Year’s resolutions; follow the command of Jesus in Matthew 22:37-39: ‘Then Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it; ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’.”
May God bless you all and Happy New Year 2006!
Copyright © December 27, 2005 – Cindy Amelung. All rights reserved.
Back to Articles Main Page : : : : Back to Articles Sorted By Writer : : : : Back to Articles Sorted by Title
|
