Making and Keeping New Year's Resolutions

by Anne Elliott, January 1, 2001

One of my closest friends likes to laugh at me because every year, during the last week of December, I make new goals for the coming year. It's a ritual with me. This year I set my alarm a little early on a Thursday morning, grabbed a mug of hot chocolate, and sat on the living room floor with paper and my Bible. I spread out my "goals sheets" from the last 10 years or so (yes, I'm also a pack rat) and had fun re-reading goals from long ago. Then I began to brainstorm about everything I wanted to accomplish in the new year.

I guess I tend to dream big. My mother-in-law says I'm a "visionary." My own mother just laughs. But this year was no exception. My goals list got longer and longer. Reality hit me when I started trying to figure out how I would actually accomplish all those grandiose plans. So then I had to make another list -- one just for prioritizing the items on the first list. Whew! To much to do! So then I took a third sheet of paper and attempted to make a daily schedule, plotting down to the half hour, analyzing what could be accomplished before breakfast, during little ones' naps, prayer time in the shower, and so on.

As I planned, my children began to wake up...

"Mommy, can we get up?"

"Mommy, I'm hungry...When's breakfast?"

"Mommy, are we going to make a road out of blocks today, like you promised?"

Suddenly, my schedule looked silly. Not that I still don't think my day should have some order to it. Not that I don't think priorities are necessary. Not that I still don't have big plans for my life. But little voices and little eyes have a way of melting grown-up hearts and bringing me down to earth again.

And so it is with God. He doesn't want my activity...He wants me. He doesn't want my ambitions...He wants my devotion. He doesn't want my busy-ness...He wants my fellowship.

"The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul..." (Psalm 23:1-3)

"Be still, and know that I am God..." (Psalm 46:10)

So, I picked up my empty mug, put away my pencil, put my goals sheets into my little notebook, and trudged into the kitchen. I might not have time to plan like that again -- at least until the end of next December -- but my Heavenly Father is a God of relationships, and I know He'll lead me through whatever this year holds. And if nothing gets done, hey, I'll know it was still in His plan.