Resolutions to Keep

Making New Year’s resolutions we don’t intend to keep is a great American pastime. The most popular resolutions made year after year are to lose weight, exercise more, eat healthy, make more money, enjoy life more, and quit smoking. And if we have specific areas of interests we can find websites for almost any kind of resolution we’re interested in. There are resolution sites for astrologers, dog owners, cat lovers, Internet junkies, orthodontists, talk show fans, business owners, genealogists, mothers, fathers, portfolio people…you name it, they’ve got it. I’m thinking of starting a site for people who don’t have time to make their own resolutions.

Most of our personal areas of resolve focus on self-improvement. Although there’s nothing wrong with improving one’s self, maybe the fact so many of our goals are totally inward contributes to why they are so hard to keep. Perhaps we’d fare better to build resolutions around biblical principles such as doing unto others as we would have them do unto us. (Matthew 7:12) For example, why not resolve to be nicer or kinder? We could start by smiling at people then move towards doing random acts of kindness. Next we could say words like “please” and “thank you” and move towards not listening to or spreading gossip.

These resolves not only benefit us, but everyone around us. It has a trickle-down effect.

Sure it would be great to stop smoking or become a svelte size six or live to be a hundred by only eating tofu and wheat grass. I say, “Go for it!” And who wouldn’t want to gain riches beyond our wildest dreams? But the truth is that if we are disagreeable, grumpy, self consumed, humorless, back biting, angry, envious, unsupportive, cantankerous people, WHO CARES what we accomplish?

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