Making resolutions that last! Make 2009 your best year yet!

So, Christmas is Over, huh? A new year has begun!

I found a lovely little poem a few weeks ago, it's called "The Week After Christmas."

'Twas the week after Christmas, and all through the house, nothing would fit me, not even a blouse. The cookies I?d nibbled, the fudge I did taste, all the holiday parties had gone to my waist. When I got on the scales there arose such a number! When I walked to the store (less a walk than a lumber). I remembered the marvellous meals I'd prepared, the gravies and sauces and beef nicely rare. The pies and the cakes, the bread and the cheese, and the way I never said, "No thank you please." As I dressed myself in my husband's old shirt, and prepared once again to do battle with dirt--- I said to myself, as I only can "You can't spend the summer disguised as a man!" So away with the last of the sour cream dip, get rid of the fruit cake, every cracker
and chip. Every last bit of food that I like must be banished, 'till all the additional ounces have vanished. I won?t have a cookie, not even a lick, I'll want only to chew on a long celery stick. I won?t have hot biscuits, or corn bread, or pie, I'll munch on a carrot and quietly cry. I?m hungry, I?m lonesome, and life is a bore --- But isn't that what January is for? Unable to giggle, no longer a riot ... Happy New Year to all and to all a good diet!

Well, the good news is you did it, you survived the Christmas and New year festivities! You made it through another year. But, here we are back to reality again, a new year before us. It is a year full of possibility and opportunity. 12 months. 52 weeks. 365 days. 8760 hours. 525, 600 minutes and 31,536,000 seconds. What will you do with all this time?

This is typically the time of year where the resolutions that we made are beginning to fall by the way side. I often say at lent 'For lent this year I am going to give up my new year?s resolutions'. Sadly, they have often already been long forgotten by then! In the dictionary a resolution is defined as 'a course of action decided upon; a fixed purpose.'

We resolve to do things differently. To lose weight, to exercise more. To be a better person. To dispense with old bad habits and begin some new good ones.

Illus.: A newspaper in Boston has been allowing people to post new year's resolutions on their website. Here are a few interesting ones:

- I resolve to stop feeding the office plant leftover coffee. I will use water instead.
- My new year's resolution is to really start collecting Muppet and Peanuts stuff in the coming year!
- As much as I hate government intervention, I resolve to try and get a law passed that requires every person on the face of this earth to have to use their common sense at least once a day!!!!
- As a Theatre Major, I seldom have much time to eat real food...never mind eating with my family. This year, I resolve to try REAL hard to stop eating McDonalds and Wendy?s for 2 out of 3 meals a day. If that isn't possible, I promise to at least clean the remains from my car.
- I wish to become the old crone that my body already says that I am and stop trying to look like Barbie due to our culture.
- I hereby resolve to accept the changes occurring at work. I will try to remember that the decision-makers have a brain and will use it if necessary. Finally, I will cheer for them if it works and I will not laugh if it doesn?t!
- To refuse to take responsibility for my decisions, to never take the blame, not stand by my promises, and to ignore the needs of the poor. In short, my resolution is to become a politician!
- To become as wonderful a person as my dog thinks I am.

If we are interested in keeping any of our resolutions this year, we should adhere to the methods employed by Paul in Philippians 3:13. Let's have a look at these methods.

The good news is that God gives us this year as a gift, filled with opportunity and possibility! What will you do with it? How will you use your talents, your time, your influence, and your WHOLE life for ministry and change?

Here are a few ideas that I shared with the listeners of my radio show 'The Ministry and Me' from Radio Pulpit.

Here's the MP3 if you're interested in listening 'Making resolutions that last' (6MB MP3).

Rich blessing to all!