New Year's Resolution...A Change in Strategy

In making my New Year's Reolutions this year, I decided to change tactics a bit. It seems to me that a lot of the reason most people fail at keeping New Year's resolutions is because they bite off more than they can chew, taking on huge projects, often more than one at a time, and trying to radically alter their lives at the snap of a finger. Let's take, for instance, my 2007 New Year's Resolutions, and see how I did:

2007 Resolution # 1.) Stretching- I actually didn't do too badly here. According to my records, I stretched almost daily for approximately 10 out of the 12 months of the year. Also in this same vein, on average, throughout the year, I worked out approximately 4-5 days a week for the entire year, with the exception of December, when I took the month off to rest my body a bit. If I can repeat or improve upon that kind of record every year, my fitness level should be fine.

2007 Resolution # 2.) Learning to Better Forgive Myself, Grieve Losses, Let Go, and Move Forward- I have done substantially better in this regard than I could have hoped when I posted about this subject last year. Unfortunately, I have lost four dear friends from my life (they didn't die, we just moved on, mutually) in the past year. I think those losses tested my ability to keep this resolution more than anything, and I'm pleased to say I performed really well. I took to heart the truism that almost everyone is in our lives for a reason and a season, and most of the time, these folks just move on. Life is funny that way sometimes. I thank God for the people they were to me in my life and the blessings they brought, I pray that I was a blessing to them during my time in their lives, and I pray nothing but the very best of things into their lives going forward. They (JH, AP, TR, and LM) enriched my life while they were a part of it, and now it's time that they become blessings to others and likewise for me.

2007 Resolution # 3.) Getting off the Bench and Learning About my Spiritual Gifts- This is the one where I have made some progress, but not as much as I would like. For one thing, this is a lifelong journey, not something that can be done in a month or a year. I am happy to report, however, that I have finally found a church of which I am happy to be a member. That church is Bethel World Outreach Center in Nashville, TN. I think finding a home church is a substantial step in my spiritual growth, and I pray that this place helps me to learn more about my spiritual gifts and allows me to be a blessing to others locally and around the world.

SO, my change of strategy this year is this: I am going to have 12 New Year's Resolutions, one per month for each month. I hope to be able to incorporate these changes into my daily life, transforming it into the vision of what I want my life to be...serving God, healthy, and happy. For January, my resolution is to stop drinking soda pop, especially diet drinks. Regular sodas can make you fat, and diet sodas have chemicals that can kill you. I plan to be around a while as a servant of God and as a family man, so the soda's got to go.