Fireworks
Yep, I believe. I’ve been making New Year’s resolutions for years and keeping them for months. When my children were growing up, we’d all sit down at the kitchen table on New Year’s Eve and make up a list of ten resolutions. (Was that my idea?) Then we’d throw in two or three for each other. It’s a wonder that we still speak.
I’ve gone back and looked at those lists, just to find out what we were resoluting so hard about. They are fairly unremarkable: improve physical fitness (“…lose weight, exercise more…”); improve intellect (“…make good grades, read more…”); improve interpersonal relations (“…don’t fight with___, don’t yell at___…”); improve spirituality (…go to church more, pray more…”). We were whirling dervishes of self-improvement.
That’s why I believe in making them. To make a resolution implies that one is capable of change in a positive direction. As long as we operate on that principle, we can move forward in this world. The most stifling six words to the human soul are: “That’s just the way I am.” Focusing on improving our characters seems to be one of the highest callings of our earthbound lives. When we give up on that, we’re ready for dust. Or, as my boy Bob Dylan said, “He not busy being born is busy dying.”
The number one reason people tell me they don’t make resolutions is because they fear (or know) that they will fail. Rubbish! I’m not even sure if that matters. Would you destroy your vegetable garden because you think the price of tomatoes at H.E.B. is going to drop? And what happens if (when) you fail? You are humbled. Humility is a positive character trait—what did you lose?
Obviously, we don’t want to wallow around in failure. Here are a few helpful suggestions for a positive resolution experience: Don’t make too many – go for the haircut, not the makeover. Don’t make “island” resolutions – if you succeed in losing fifteen pounds but lose your wife because you’ve become such a prig about your diet, what have you gained? Shared goals enhance a relationship. Don’t talk about your resolutions – you’ll be boring, I promise. Avoid ultimatums or precise forms of measurement – no “…five cigarettes a day the first week…” or “…10,000 steps per day until February 1…” Really, there’s no reason your resolution has to involve New Year’s at all.
Think big picture. The real goal is change in a positive direction or improvement of one’s character. That is a big job, and one that needs to be kept in perspective. Here is a biblical perspective: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, lest anyone should boast.”
I hope to lose some weight – I don’t even want to address the myriad of other character flaws that come to mind – but in the Year of Our Lord 2012, I do hereby resolve…to believe more faithfully in Him.
I’ll “amen” that!