Flip the page.
Change the calendar.
Make resolutions.
Get rid of old bad habits.
Start new good ones.
Set your goals.
Become a better person.
Yeah.
The beginning of the year is a great time to reflect on what has happened over the past 12 months and what you would like to have happen over the next 12 months. Take stock of your situation. Change yourself for the better.
But, seriously, how many resolutions have you actually kept for more than four or six months? How many goals turned out to be too high? Or were more work than you thought they would be? How many times did you lose the "better person" the first time someone cut you off in traffic?
I learned a long time ago that New Year's resolutions are so full of expectation and hype that it's better to just start a life change at some random point in the year. Quietly, with no fanfare. Just do it (to borrow a marketing slogan). Don't even tell anyone about it until you've decided whether or not you can stick with it. Better yet, don't tell anyone. Just wait and see if they notice.
I can't tell you how many years have started off for me with "eat better, exercise more." And all the best intentions in the world have fallen apart by at least the end of February, if not sooner. But this past year, all the pieces came together in July - of all times - for me to start (again) on that very journey. I had the time. I had the support network. I had the determination. I had the motivation. And this time it has stuck - finally.
There was no big announcement. There was no fanfare. There were only hours and hours walking the trails around Bloomington. There was a revamped pantry full of better food. There was a lot of fresh fruit and fewer snacks. And there have been results.
But do you know what? There *is* one thing you can do - a one-shot deal - that only takes a few minutes and will change you forever. It can be done on January 1st. Or February 1st. Or August 29th. Or tomorrow.
Give your life to Christ. Claim Him as your Savior. Confess him before others and be baptized into His name. Receive Him into your heart. And you will be a new person, in a much more permanent, eternal way than any diet or workout plan...or organizational plan...or habit changing...can make you.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" (2 Cor. 5:17 NIV)
Happy New You!!