Resolve

New Years' Resolutions are made to be broken.

Well, maybe not made to be broken....I think most people actually think--year after year--that "This time, I'm going to stick with this!  I'm gonna do it!!"
 
But it seems like those things we were so resolute to do on January first simply fall by the wayside after about six weeks or so.

Take that guy that wants to start working out more.  Because of him (and the 100 other guys who also have the same idea) your gym is going to be so overcrowded on January third that you may just end up walking the track for a couple of weeks--due to lack of finding a piece of nautilus equipment to use.

Never fear, however.  Just hang in there until after Valentine's Day. Then, those 'resolvers' will have run out of steam and you'll be able to find a stairmaster again during the evening hours.

Or, that gal that wants to be more organized.  January second she'll head to the Container Store to get some things to help her organize all her clutter.  Bins for this, tubs for that.  "It's gonna be great!  A place for everything and everything in. it's. place."  She'll be able to find it all--all the time!  She'll get the totes and the bins and the crates home, maybe even start to figure out where to put all....that......junk.........

.....but generally, by the end of January, stuff is back in piles on her desk. She can't locate her keys, she doesn't know where the checkbook is, and for the love--what did she do with the power bill that was due yesterday?

I know this.  Because, in the past, I am that guy.  I am that gal.  Not necessarily with the working out or the organizational issues--but other things.

I've done well on resolutions some years. But many of them I have failed. Miserably.

I think I've finally figured out why, though. It's not at all profound, and you may have figured it out already.  (Good for you, by the way, if you have--I wished you'd shared with me a few years ago. May have saved me some headaches. *grin*)

I'm not resolving to do the things that God would have me to be doing.

Weight issues, food issues, organization, health-consciousness, being a better steward of money or a better parent or a better scripture memorizer--all of these are good things to be focused on.  Good things to want to change. Some of them are on my list this year.

The thing that is missing, of course, is the strength given to me by God to do what He would actually have me to do.

HIS agenda. Not my own.

I know I am not the only woman, the only mom, who feels like there are just not enough hours in the day sometimes.  I could go every single hour of my day doing 'things that have to be done' and they would never all be accomplished. A new morning comes at the same time each day, with a fresh list of responsibilities.

If we are doing our own thing in our own strength, we are going to fail. Days are hard. Life is difficult. And we need God's help and supernatural strength if we are going to be able to get through each day, each week, each year.

I am coming to realize that many of those things that have to get done do not, in fact, have to get done.

So, I am resolving to simply ask God for the strength to accomplish what He wants from me each day.

To begin each day in prayer and quality quiet time.....

....and,  after listening for awhile, make my agenda from there.

Some of 'my' stuff will get done. Some of it won't.  I am resolving to be okay with that.

It doesn't matter how long my list of things-to-do still is at the end of the day; or how many things have gone unfinished or unaccomplished.  As long as I have accomplished what I know God wanted from me, then I am determined to consider that day an overwhelming success. 

I will have lived out my New Year's Resolution.

In full.