| |
Resolutions, No! Commitments, Yes!
Jump right in and make a commitment - a New Year has arrived!
by Marilyn Wilkerson
Have you planned 2002 with care and prudence? Or have you, like millions of others, not given a thought to the months lying ahead of you?
The year that lies ahead, if devoid of careful planning, will just speed by like all the others. Soon it will be the end of 2002, and you'll be scratching your head wondering what happened to yet another year. Year after year can pass by, until you begin to wonder if you'll ever accomplish anything, unless you take the time to set goals for yourself and map a way to achieve them.
As one who God gifts with ideas in the middle of the night, I keep a pad and pencil by my bedside. Recently, I awoke at 3 a.m. with the thought that we should focus on commitments for the New Year and not resolutions.
The next morning, I searched books and the Internet in my quest to see what others had written about resolutions. I was amazed at the amount of research material available. I could write about why and how we celebrate New Year's Eve or how the tradition of making resolutions first began. I soon discovered two things. First, there was so much material that trying to read it all just confused me. Secondly, many of the authors were just as confused as I was about how to be one of few who follow through and try to make the resolutions happen. Alas, what was I to do?
I should have gone to the source of all solutions – God. But I often think I can begin my journey and then call on my Friend to bless it. Then I had an "ah-ha" moment. Having God as one's life planner and New Year planner was just what I was supposed to write about. Bingo! Or as some say, "Duh!"
I opened my Bible to the back to look at the topic index and discovered that the word resolve or resolution was not listed. I did, however, find the word commitment. I shouldn't have been surprised, since the night before I had awakened and had written on the paper beside my bed, "commitment, not resolution." The word resolve means to decide to do something. The word commit means to devote oneself unreservedly to doing something. What a difference! Perhaps this is why our New Year's resolutions don't work. They are merely decisions to do something, often made at ten minutes before midnight because we feel we must make some resolutions. If they were, instead, commitments, something we could devote ourselves to unreservedly, we might just take them more seriously. We might actually plan them with care and prudence well in advance of the stroke of midnight. We might break them down into manageable chunks that we could definitely achieve. And, we might be inclined to ask God to help us keep them. Not many people are surprised if we tell them that we've broken our resolutions. Everyone does that. But, breaking one's commitment is different. We wouldn't want anyone to know that we've broken our commitment.
There are books and articles everywhere that can tell you how to make resolutions. Some believe that relationship resolutions are best. Others think that we only make resolutions because we feel there is a need to "fix" something in our lives. If you insist on carrying through with your usual tradition of making and breaking resolutions, you need only look to one of those authors for advice.
However, my suggestion to all of us is that we make a commitment, that we devote ourselves unreservedly, to setting aside a special time each day to study the word of God, and that we also devote ourselves to talking with God, praying, throughout the day. I know that making this kind of commitment will help us all in the other areas of our lives that need "fixed". By leaning on Him, we can lose weight, stop smoking, find more time to spend with our families, or any of the other normal "resolutions" we often make. And by committing ourselves to spending time with our Lord, we have a much better chance to achieve all of the other things we need to achieve in our lives.
I hope you'll join me in making this commitment. Have a wonderful, Jesus-filled New Year!
Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
|
Help Us Stop Plagiarism -
Nearly all works at PnP are original. However a few people choose to plagiarize.
To check, choose a phrase from the work, then either drag and drop to the search box or copy and paste.
click on search and works at Google will be shown which match. Just to be sure, please do this before
you recommend or rate the work highly...
|
 |
|
|
|
Select a Random Work
from Stories
|
|
Welcome !
