Do you write New Year’s resolutions?
My favorite way of looking forward to the year is simply to note what’s already going to happen, if the Lord wills. This gives me hope and cheer, without me really needing to do anything about it. Here’s my list for 2013.
- Aarick will turn 8, advance a grade.
- Regan will turn 6, start preschool two mornings a week, then 1st grade in the fall.
- Kelly will turn 3.
- Ryan and I will celebrate 10 years of marriage, hopefully with this cool little idea we have…
- I will write a lot.
- I will graduate from braces.
- I will welcome the arrival of at least three babies I am wildly excited about… er, other people’s babies. This is not my way of making an announcement.
- We will begin the process of becoming approved as foster parents for local kids.
Then I add two or three intentions for the year. I try to make them measurable
1. Grow in love.
realistic
1. Become the world’s most popular female.
and non-redundant.
1. Eat a lot so I can grow big and strong.
Here are my two modest ambitions:
1. Lose ten pounds.
- Because I need to. And I can.
2. Read through the Bible.
- Because I can’t wait. When I did this for the first time as an adult, age 25, it revolutionized my view of Jesus and Scripture. It’s time again. I like the One Year Bible, neatly laid out, and I love the rich, classic KJV wording. Call me old-fashioned.
I thought about adding a wake-up goal for revolutionizing my mornings, but this is what happened:
1. I will reform.
Hmm. Measurable?
1. I will get up at the same set time every morning.
Something strikes me as being unrealistic about this one.
1. I will get up in the morning at some point.
See? There’s no good way to write it. X.
What does 2013 hold for you?
For the first time in a long time, I am excited about the start of a new year…
This new year feels different for me.
Yesterday, on the last day of the year, a motorcycle police officer was responding to a call and T-boned a minivan the middle of the intersection right in front of my office.
We watched as bystanders, then EMTs, performed relentless CPR on the officer, as the minivan and motorcycle burned ferociously close by.
The officer died. He had three kids and a wife. No one in the minivan was hurt, as far as I know.
Even after the fire was out and the fire trucks gone, they left intersection closed and the wreckage in place, for an in-depth accident investigation. I sat at my desk and gazed out at the charred vehicles under a gray sky, knowing that a soul had gone on to eternity, yards from where I sat.
After the excitement died down, a spirit of heaviness lay on the office. Many, myself included, left work early.
It still weighs on me.
I’m looking forward to gaining weight and sleeping more. How’s that for a dose of realism and honesty??
One of my more difficult ambitions is to not begin any new projects until I finish the ones that have been looming over my head for the last 2 years. (I’m better at starting than finishing. It has taken me 31 years to realize this)
Gaining weight and sleeping more. You make it look good. And we thought the glow was from drinking water…!
I didnt do New Years Resolutions, due to several reasons: My husband thinks they’re beyond foolish. (His theory is: Why wouldnt you start on July 1st or any old time of the year? And I cant say I dont agree!) I also think people look rather senseless when they join a gym and 2 months later are back on the couch. But most of all, I look at my own record of keeping my resolutions and am not impressed. I am ashamed to say I have gained and lost the same 10 lbs last year, TWICE! So rather than set fresh ones, my only resolution is to deal with my personal restraints, the undiscipline that keeps me from accomplishing anything I set my mind to. THIS is my real goal!