NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS – THINGS THAT MAKE ME GO “UGH”!

Ah…the New Year brings multiple things to mind…

1. Midnight kisses
2. Fun with friends and family
3. Food, food and more food
4. Fresh starts
5. New Year’s resolutions

There it is is…what comes to my mind when I think of a new year.  That and how long will it take me to start writing 2018 instead of 2017 on everything.  Just for the record, today is January 2 and I am 0 for 2 just today. NOTE: I didn’t write it yesterday because I did absolutely nothing all day.  Yes, NOTHING!

Back to the list of things the New Year brings to mind.  Midnight kisses are fun.  Friends and family are fun. Food is always fun. Fresh starts, who doesn’t love a fresh start?  But New Year’s Resolutions??  Why do we hate them so much?  Probably because it is always stuff like:  Lose weight, pay down debt, organize my pantry/kitchen/closet/office/life, etc.  Sure, sometimes we include things like:  Read more books, spend time with family, take a vacation, etc.  Those are the fun ones, but they are almost always just peppered in with those first several that are not any fun at all.  No wonder we often don’t make it to February with our resolutions.

So let’s break down what a resolution is.  We are resolving to ourselves (and at times, others) that we will do a particular thing.  The word “resolve” means to “decide firmly on a course of action”.  That is a pretty heavy word…”firmly”.  I don’t just decide, but I firmly decide to take a course of action.  I am not sure adding the word “firmly” changes the meaning all that much.  Hopefully when I decide I am going to do something, that should be enough.  So basically we can understand that the word “resolve” means to decide to do something.  I decide to do something every single day before getting out of bed.  In fact, just the act of getting out of bed is a decision.  I am making resolutions every day and sticking to them!  Man, I am better at this resolution thing than I realized.  I resolve to brush my teeth, to shower, to put on clothes (except for yesterday when I stayed in my pajamas all day, but then again, that was a decision too, so SWEET! I am on a role!), etc. These resolutions don’t have to be so hard and when they aren’t that hard, then I feel much better about myself!  WooHoo!  I think I am on to something here.

BUT, as good as all this sounds, I still don’t get much more accomplished this year than I did the last if I don’t make some resolutions for the long term and not just in the moment.  That being said, let’s talk about real resolutions. The kind we firmly decide on a course of action.

Let’s go back to the list of resolutions I started with…lose weight, pay down debt, organize my life, etc.  What is interesting is that each of these things and all others we can possibly think of are made much easier with a helper.  Isn’t it easier to lose weight when you have someone helping you?  Paying down debt is much easier when someone can help you straighten out your finances and see ways to save.  Organizing anything is easier with help.  Even tools can help us, tools like calorie counting apps, or pedometers, or debt calculators, or budgets, or storage bins, or baskets, and the like.  These are all tools and resources to help us with these things.

Let’s look at another source, other tools that can help us.  The Lord!  Do you know that one of His names means the Helper?  The Hebrew word for God is YHWH (Yahweh) and it has several meanings and one of those is “YHWH – my help or helper”. Who better to have has a helper?  The One that says He will never leave us or forsake us.  The One that dwells within us at all times through the Holy Spirit.  Friends/trainers/bankers and the like that are helping us are not available 24/7/365, but God is.  He is always there to help us.  Don’t think you need God to help you organize your life including the pantry?  Trust me, I’ve seen my pantry and I do need God to help me!  He is the Organizer.  He is our Trainor.  He is our debt Counselor.  Our problem is that we don’t let Him be that for us.  We always seek natural ways to do things, without consulting Him first.  Sure, we can organize our lives without Him, but He is far better at it than we are.  We can even lose weight without Him, but our will power is only so strong.  God gives us strength when ours isn’t enough.  He can help us when we just want to give up.  His Word is the tool you can use when you need direction.  He is there in the Living Word.  He is there in the Holy Spirit within you.  He always there.  There is nothing He can’t help you with.  He longs to help us.  He wants us to ask Him for help.

In James 1:5 He says

“If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” 

He says here that He will give us wisdom when we ask him for it without condemnation.  He isn’t like a friend or a family member who might find fault in us for having our lives so messed up in the first place.  Have you ever gone to a friend for help and they help, but you can tell that they are thinking, “How did you get yourself into this mess?”  God doesn’t do that. He just helps.  That is how He loves us.  I just LOVE that about Him!  No judging, no condemnation, no weird looks, none of that.  Just love and help!

Instead of making multiple resolutions in 2018, make just one.

“I resolve to rely on God as my helper in whatever I decide to do in 2018.”

That is one resolution I like and can get excited about.

 

~Jennifer