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RESOLUTIONS

According to Greg Helmstetter, CEO of myGoals.com. “This year, a marked drop in job-related goals shows that people are starting to focus more on other areas of their lives such as family, getting organized, and fixing up the house. That's good news for everybody.”

Among the most popular resolutions for the New Year are:

Weight Loss 44%

Debt Retirement 48%

Cleaning & Reducing Clutter 30%

Getting Organized 21%

— http://www.mygoals.com/about/pressRelease011.html Illustration by Jim L. Wilson

Any of these resolutions would benefit the person that keeps them, but would do very little for the person that merely makes them. Most of us know the pain of not being able to keep our resolutions in the past. If you have a track record of making resolutions but not keeping them, perhaps you would be wise to determine what went wrong. Certainly, two key components are necessary for the Christian making a resolution. One is to make sure our plans are Godly ones; the second is to rely upon Him for the strength to carry them out.

Proverbs 16:9 NLT “We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.”

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RESOLUTIONS

After compiling almost 8000 responses from kids who were asked for their New Year’s resolutions in January 2003, timeforkids.com released the top five New Year's resolutions kids made.

Get better grades: 2,121

Be nicer to my brother/sister: 877 votes

Eat less junk food: 869 votes

Get more sleep: 828 votes

Get more exercise: 811 votes.

—http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1072480208007&call_pageid=991479973472&col=991929131147 Illustration by Jim L. Wilson

Though it came in second, “Being nicer to my brother/sister” is a noble resolution for any child to make. Because how we treat those closest to us may be the truest barometer of how our relationship to God is.

Matthew 22:36-39 (NASB) “‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ [37] And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. [38] "This is the great and foremost commandment. [39] The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

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RESOLUTIONS

Have you made your New Year’s Resolutions yet? Or are you like Freda Lewkowicz, who in an editorial for the Montreal Gazette on December 29, 2003 wrote, “I surrender. I've looked behind me and seen the ghost of past New Year's resolutions boogying in my recycling bin. This year, I admit defeat before even beginning the process of writing lists. I vow never to write resolutions for myself and to forfeit permanently my Resolution Breaker crown. I've entered the Bah Humbug Zone when it comes to resolutions.”

—http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/editorials/story.asp?id=8C90CC6B-E662-4149-94C2-7AD301EF440A Illustration by Jim L. Wilson

Past failures don’t have to translate into a defeatist attitude, instead we can learn from our past mistakes and develop a plan for future successes. After all, in Christ, all things are possible, if are goals are in the center of God’s will for our lives.

Philip. 4:13 KJV “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

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RESOLUTIONS

Setting a goal or making a resolution is one thing, sticking to it is another. MyGoals.com list four key ingredients for accomplishing your goals:

1. Choose the Right New Year Resolution(s)

2. Create a Plan

3. Stay on Track

4. Remain Flexible and Keep on Going

— http://www.newyears-resolutions.com/steps-for-making-new-year-resolutions-work.html Illustration by Jim L. Wilson

All of these ingredients make immediate sense to me. But the first one strikes me as incredibly important. Instead of picking a “one size fits all goal” we would do well to make a resolution that is tailor made for us—or to put it another way, one that is God’s will for our lives. And after we discover God’s will, then we can create the plan, stay on track and keep going, but we will never be able to do that until we discover God’s will for our lives.

James 4:13-15 NASB “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow, we shall go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ [14] Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. [15] Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and also do this or that.’”

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RESOLUTIONS

Though he is only four years old, Cole Robbins is getting in the spirit of New Year’s Resolutions. He said that putting away toys “is a good idea because you don't want to step on something sharp.” Further, he thinks it is important to wash your hands “because you don't want to spread germs,” but when the reporter from The Southern Illinoisan asked him “if he'd commit to the resolutions himself,” he changed the subject.

http://www.southernillinoisan.com/rednews/2003/12/28/build/top/TOP003.html Illustration by Jim L. Wilson

It is much easier to envision good resolutions than to make them. But what is even more difficult is to keep them.

James 4:17 NASB “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin.”