The new year resolution list is probably the most widely featured topic for this first Sunday in January. Newspapers, magazines, TV shows and, yes, church bulletins are all weighing in with suggestions for your list. It’s an inescapable necessity at this time of year—so who am I to fight the trend?
Items for the list depend on who’s writing it. You will undoubtedly write your own after checking out ideas you find in the media. If you look at bulletins from cancer research institutes they’ll advise controlling your diet, doing more exercise, and losing weight among other things. There are resolution lists for politicians telling them how to do a better job of campaigning; for exercisers there are lists of motivations to help keep your treadmill running and to listen better to your aerobics instructor.
Among the main causes of failure to keep your resolutions through the year are a lack of pre-planning about what you’ll put on your list and a lack of post-planning of how you will put your list into practice. So you should be realistic about how much you think you can cope with, yet plan to stretch yourself a bit. You should plan the ways in which you’ll put your list into practice, perhaps by making calendar appointments for certain projects and reworking your weekly schedule to allow for the things which you now realize are truly important in your life.
Though many lists include things to give up, I have an idea for a list which is easy for Christians to remember because it is contained in that well-known hymn by Philip Bliss: “More Holiness Give Me.”
More Holiness give me, More strivings within,
More patience in suffering, More sorrow for sin,
More faith in my Savior, More sense of His care,
More joy in His service, More purpose in prayer.
More gratitude give me, More trust in the Lord,
More pride in His glory, More hope in His word,
More tears for His sorrows, More pain at His grief,
More meekness in trial, More praise for relief.
More purity give me, More strength to o’ercome,
More freedom from earth-stains, More longings for home,
More fit for the kingdom, More useful I’d be,
More blessed and holy, More, Savior, like Thee.
If we can sing these words to ourselves often this year, and put them to work in our lives, I believe we’ll be different and will make a difference to the lives of our families, our friends, our work-mates, and all with whom we come in contact throughout 2005. Let’s do more for Him this year.
Mel