New Year, New You

Do you make resolutions at the beginning of a new year? If you do, then you are among close to 45% of American adults who want to be better in 2013.


Resolution making is the easy part. The tough stuff began at the stroke of midnight when we were supposed to make those resolutions our practice. According to an awesome infographic that I found, 75% of American adults who made resolutions will have kept those resolutions by the end of the first week in January (notice that 25% of us can't even last one week). By the end of the year, however, only 1 in 10 people will have stuck to their resolutions.

In a blog post titled Making Resolutions Stick, Michael Hyatt offers the following four ways to help you and me be better at keeping our resolutions:

1. Keep them few in number
2. Make them "smart" (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Time-bound).
3. Write them down.
4. Go public (share them with others who will hold you accountable).

Remember to keep the mindset that your resolution is a commitment. It may be a commitment you've made to yourself, to your spouse, to your family, to your friends, or even to God. Do not discount the importance of keeping those commitments. Keep your word (cf. Mat. 5:37; James 5:12). Do not make excuses (cf. Acts 24:25). Do not become stagnant in your personal growth – especially not in your personal spiritual growth (cf. 2 Pet. 3:18). Finally, do not be content with the status quo (cf. 2 Cor. 10:12). D not let society fool you into thinking that it is a good moral barometer. Do what is right because it is the right thing to do (cf. Eccl. 12:13).

May our main goal for 2013 (as much of it as God allows us to see, James 4:13-16) be to pursue spiritual growth and maturity so that we may become the people that God wants us to be.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them (Eph. 2:10).

You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created (Rev. 4:11).