New Year’s Resolutions

Written by Denise George

New Year’s Eve, 11:00 p.m. I tighten the last screw on my brand-new exercise bike, pick up a pen, and write on paper:

My New Year’s “Get-My-Body-in-Shape” Resolutions

1. Exercise two hours a day – in rain, shine, snow, or sleet.
2. Start a strict diet. No more Lars Bars or Little Eddy cakes, no more mounds of mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy on top, no more…
3. Lose 20 pounds before summer swimsuit season, and remember to practice humility (even though I will soon have washboard abs and shins of steel).

I scoot my exercise bike into my kitchen. I place this modern instrument of torture directly in front of my refrigerator. I figure if I have to climb over it to get to the food, maybe I’ll remember to use it!

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Well, you know the rest of the story. No doubt, you, too, will probably discover what I discover every January 2: exercise bikes make great places to thaw roasts and hang bananas!

And the diet? It usually doesn’t even last until January 2. Inspired by my seven new “lose your cellulite forever” miracle weight loss books, I determine to start this diet immediately. Then I sit down at the New Year’s Day dinner table.

I immediately tell my mother, “No death by chocolate cake for me, Mom, but thanks anyway.” That’s when she looks at me with that pitiful, pleading “but-I-made-this-just-for-you-Pumpkin” look on her face. Then, feeling a little guilty, I eye the three layers dripping with dark, delicious, deadly chocolate, and I say: “Well, maybe just a thin slice of death, I mean cake.” Anyway, I think to myself, I’ve got a tighter tummy than either Ethel or Matilda. I’ll just take a tiny taste and start that diet right after dinner! My mother smiles as I eat six slices.

New Year’s Eve, 11:25 p.m. I blow the dust off my fashionable burgundy-leathered Bible and again pick up pen and paper:

My New Year’s “Get-My-Spirit-in-Shape” Resolutions

1. Read my entire Bible – from Genesis to Revelation – at least once each month.
2. Complete every week’s fill-in-the-blank and Scripture-search section in my new Bible study workbook on Day One.
3. Spend two hours early each morning in quiet, prayerful contemplation.
4. Wish all the world’s missionaries a happy birthday (on their actual birthdays).
5. Feed every poor, hungry, homeless person in my neighborhood.

Well, you know the rest of the story. The New Year’s resolutions I make for my soul can die just as quickly as the resolutions I make for my body!

The alarm clock sounds at 5 a.m. on January 2. I sit up, rub my eyes, and stare into space. “Is this what 5 a.m. looks like?” I ask myself. “I thought at least the sun would be up! I shouldn’t have eaten that death by chocolate cake! It messed up my blood-sugar level, and now I’m too sleepy to get up and pray!” and…

“Why, I had no idea Southern Baptists supported that many missionaries!” and…

“I don’t even know my neighbors’ names much less their needs!”

If you’re smiling as you read my personal confessions, you’ve no doubt been there, too. I still haven’t quite figured out the “Get-My-Body-in-Shape” New Year’s resolutions, but I have made some important discoveries about my “Get-My-Spirit-in-Shape” resolutions. Please allow me to share a few simple, common- sense ways to get and keep your spirit in shape in 2002.

Make realistic resolutions. Only an unemployed, single-adult speed reader without children could find time to read the entire Bible once a month. Be realistic. Don’t make a resolution that even the apostle Paul couldn’t keep. Break the Bible into manageable portions. Read two or three books a month instead of setting an unrealistic goal. Your goal is hearing God speak to you through His Word, not speed reading. And that takes time.

Set your priorities and work consistently. No doubt, long ago your mother told you the story about the race between the tortoise and the hare. The traditionally fast hare goofed off the whole week and then late Saturday night tried to hastily finish the entire race by Sunday morning. The traditionally slow tortoise, on the other hand, plodded a few miles each day, consistently, steadily, and carefully pacing his progress. Which one won the race?

All that to say this: Choose a Bible study workbook that fits realistically into your everyday work and family schedule. It’s essential to the soul to search the Scriptures and systematically study the Word, but select a Bible study suited to your personality and lifestyle.

If you choose a five-day-a-week study with daily homework, work at it consistently and steadily each day, carefully pacing your progress. Don’t lay it aside all week and then struggle late Saturday night to complete it all in one sitting.

Choose the right time. Two hours each morning spent in prayer and quiet contemplation would be wonderful. But if you are too sleepy to pray that early in the morning, and you end up sleeping in your meditation chair instead of praying, you might as well sleep in the comfort of your bed. Better to take 10 minutes at intervals throughout the day to really pray than to simply sleep and snore.

Understand your gifts and know your limits. I know of only one highly-organized woman who somehow manages to personally telephone 4,000 missionaries all over the world and wish them each a happy birthday. I admire her! She is a spiritual superwoman! I’m not. (I can’t even figure out the international long-distance dialing codes.) I dearly love another super-saint who cooks for the poor, hungry, and homeless in her entire community. She’s an excellent cook. I’m not. Around my house where there’s smoke, there’s supper!

Instead of resolving to take on the whole world as your ministry, choose several families in your neighborhood to help. Take time to find out their most urgent needs, and then help to meet them.

So, this New Year’s Eve, as you vow to give up Lars Bars and Little Eddy cakes, as you blow the dust off your burgundy Bible, and as you resolve to get your body and soul in shape, remember this: Use common sense. Make realistic resolutions. Set priorities and work consistently. Choose the right time. Understand your gifts and know your limits.

On this New Year’s Eve, make resolutions you can realistically keep. And, by the way, the tortoise won the race!

Denise George is author of 16 books and more than 1,200 magazine articles. Her most recent book is An Unexpected Christmas: The Story of Johnny Cornflakes (New Hope Publishers). This article is courtesy of HomeLife Magazine. 

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