Best Resolutions I Can Think Of
A second thought for the New Year
Character formation is more than simply creating a lifestyle. It is the development and accumulation of habits that enable someone to operate smoothly in current situations without needing to rethink problems and conflicts previously settled. It is the ability to operate in a principled way.
Resolutions linked to calendar dates like New Years or one’s birthday generally fizzle out by comparison.
But still there are good resolutions to make and perhaps they should be made every morning when we discover we are miraculously still alive.
Here are some possible suggestions.
I resolve today
To read something uplifting at the start of my day.
To share my life with others and avoid the mental emotional harm that isolation brings.
To focus on what I am thankful for first, before dealing with any problems that are within my power to address.
To see others as worthy of my respect, not for what they can do for me and others but because they too have been created in God’s image.
To not attempt to usurp the ability of others to make decisions, even if I don’t like the decisions they make.
To do what I can to make the world a better place by striving to improve the lives of those around me, starting with myself.
To use my voice in defense of the weak and disenfranchised.
To be honest and authentic today. To say what I mean and mean what I say without raising my voice or demanding others necessarily agree.
I wish I could tell you I think we are heading into a smooth, trouble-free future, but I can’t. I do however know that good triumphs in the end. May we all trust in the enduring principles we have all been taught and not give into catastrophic thinking that comes from fear.
Take care of yourself and when problems arise, always seek the most loving path forward.
What then shall we say to these things?
If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?
It is God who justifies.
Who is to condemn?
Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.